Technobiography

Mobile phones, services and applications. PCs, PDAs, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Internet, gadgets, electronics, photography. A technology-life journal ... Relaxed prose, sometimes witty, sometimes funny, reflective and insightful. Short and sweet. Filipino.

Thursday, December 02, 2004

Our weekend eSkype

I just tried out Skype for the first time and just for the heck of it.

Maya and I were at an internet cafe the other day to check mails. The cafe had a 512Kbps DSL connection, so I thought I'd download and install Skype.

Six minutes and a few minor tricks later (the PCs had software that tried to prevent users from installing new software), I was on Skype.

But who to call, who to call? I was sooo close to the answer - Maya! That's right, I'll make an IDD VOIP call to Maya through Skype! Brilliant!

Of course Maya was right beside me, but that's beside the point. :-p

Skype's interface was sleek and intuitive. The audio quality was good. No crackling, no perceptible lag, no breaks, no echoing. The conversation was clear both ways. I'm not sure though if the good quality audio was because of our proximity - 1.5 feet away.
Skype VOIP technology relies on peer-to-peer connections with PC's of other Skype members. Thus, it is conceivable that a Skype call to, say, Sydney might not be as clear as my call to my seatmate. That call to Sydney might need to pass through more than 5 other PC's to connect the calling parties.

I tried to find Warren Mira and kaibigang Nocs via Skype. Wasn't able to track them down. Another time, perhaps.

- edwin
Baguio

Read: Skype - Sky's the Limit on IDD calls
Visit: Skype

2 Comments:

  • At 2:05 am, Blogger Tra said…

    Edwin,

    my skype id is warren.mira, if u want to test give me a call :). Skype really is God send to me. I remember the last time I was so homesick (so much I wanted to buy a plane ticket and go home the next day) at the office, I have texted my wife and told her to login via skype and I just wanted to listen to them at home while Im working. Imagine doing that via a long distance call. :P

    Voice quality is quite good, better than cell to cell call and comparable to land line calls IMO. We are using it to call France from Singapore also at the office. I have heard people say that quality is also good via dialup, that is you have a constant 3~4 kbps bandwith. But I haven't tried though.

    Warren

     
  • At 1:36 pm, Blogger Edwin "ka edong" said…

    Hi warren,

    sige, I'll try making a skype call to you when i get the chance.

    I know the feeling of homesickness. Isn't it a blessing that we have these technologies we could rely on? And I know how prohibitive the prices of cell to cell calls are. My overseas calls to my wife run up to P10k in just a couple of days! doh!

    stay kewl, warren skype walker. Kitakits

    edwin skype walker

     

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