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Now you can use your home phone for Skype calls

Om Malik — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 17:14:15 +0000

For those of us who have been writing about VoIP, Analog Telephone Adapters (ATAs) are not such a big deal. ATA is doohickey that connects to your broadband connection on one end and an old-fashioned phone handset on the other. In its heyday, Vonage was using low-cost ATAs to lure customers. Now Skype finally has joined the party. In a blog post, the company outlined the pricing:

Just connect your home phone, broadband and landline to the phone adapter and enjoy the freedom of making Skype calls anywhere around the house from your home phone. You can also receive Skype to Skype calls from other Skype users on your landline phone using the Connect•Me Home Phone Adapter.

• FREETALK Connect•Me + more than 60 minutes** of complimentary calls to landlines and mobiles via Skype ($39.99)
• FREETALK Connect•Me + 12 months of calls to landlines and mobile phones in the U.S. and Canada and 200 minutes**of calls to international landlines and mobiles ($59.99)
• FREETALK Connect•Me + a 3-month Unlimited*World subscription to the US and Canada plus landlines in 40 other countries ($59.99)

These new ATAs, similar to the popular MagicJack adapters, are made by ~~Spanish~~Hong Kong-based Freetalk and are embedded with SkypeKit; the services and APIs that consumer electronic devices use to plug-in to Skype.

I think the ability to receive Skype-to-Skype calls on the landline helps Skype toward its ambition of becoming the new phone network. That’s why I feel Skype should be giving these ATAs away, just as it gives away its mobile apps. The easier it is for people to use the Skype network, the more likely they are to spend money buying minutes for calling people on non-Skype phones. And that can’t be a bad thing for Skype.

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NewNet Q2: Google closes the quarter with a bang

eVoice: An Affordable Virtual Phone System

Charles Hamilton — Tue, 24 May 2011 17:05:55 +0000

Increasingly, telecommunication providers are realizing that a “one size fits all” policy isn’t very effective in an era when businesses with distributed workforces have a variety of needs. So j2 Global, the company behind online fax service eFax, and email services FuseMail and Campaigner, is extending its telecommunication offerings.

j2 has been offering Onebox, which it calls a “unified communications” system, for some time. And while Onebox offers a comprehensive feature set, its price point, which begins at $49 per month per user, is higher than some organizations will want to pay.

For users who do not need Onebox’s fax, email and web conferencing tools, j2 offers eVoice, which competes with the likes of 8×8 Virtual Office Solo and Google Voice. I asked eVoice’s Greg Smith how he differentiates eVoice from Onebox and from competitors’ offerings. According to Smith, eVoice stands out because it offers a free trial for up to six months, 1,000 minutes or 60 voicemail transcriptions. Smith says that eVoice recognizes how central telecommunications is to businesses, and it wants to ensure that customers are comfortable with its service. eVoice also offers a large discount (23 percent) to those who sign up before the trial period ends.

Some plans also include:

24/7 support, and a free service to set up eVoice for customers.
The choice to port existing numbers, or to provide sophisticated call management with existing phone services.
Call recording. This new service allows users to record one-on-one calls and conferences from any phone. The other party is notified that recording is happening, and the recording is available in MP3 or WAV file formats. The recording service is priced at an additional $5.95 per month for unlimited recordings.

The eVoice service includes features that are familiar to those who have tried similar products, including: auto attendant; conference calling; iPhone, Android, BlackBerry apps; sequential or simultaneous ringing; dial by name directory; call forwarding; multiple extensions; call screening; speed dial; call transfers; caller announce; hold music; and caller ID and blocking.

Pricing for the basic eVoice service begins at $12.95 per month, and includes 2 extensions and 300 minutes of calling. Other plans are available with more minutes, extensions and options.

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9 Great Alternatives to Skype for VoIP and Video Chat

Simon Mackie — Tue, 10 May 2011 20:10:22 +0000

While Darrell thinks that Microsoft buying Skype in a $8.5 billion deal is probably good news for video chat users, there will probably be some Skype customers who are worried about the implications of the acquisition and may be looking for alternatives. While there’s probably no one service that provides a feature-for-feature replacement for Skype, there are plenty that offer great VoIP and video calling services, some of which are even better than Skype’s. Here is a list of some of our favorites:

VoIP/Phone service

Google Voice. Voice is Google’s phone service, which launched to much fanfare in March 2009. It provides free PC-to-PC voice and video calls, free PC-to-phone calls within the U.S. and cheap calls elsewhere (for users in the U.S. only). One of Google Voice’s most useful features (again, only available to U.S. residents) is that it enables users to have one number that they can use anywhere — any calls placed to that number will ring all of the users’ configured phones. The service also provides a range of useful additional features, such as voicemail, SMS, conference calling, call screening and transcription of voicemail messages.
Vbuzzer. A VoIP and IM service that, unlike Skype, is based on open protocols like XMPP and SIP. It offers free PC-to-PC calls, as well as paid-for PC-to-phone calls, with typically cheaper rates than Skype. It also features voicemail, call forwarding, caller ID, web conferencing and fax service.
VoxOx. VoxOx is trying to be an “all-in-one” messaging app for both the desktop and mobile devices. It combines phone calls, IM, SMS, video chat, conference calling and even fax. It also provides similar “one number anywhere” functionality to Google Voice, and outgoing calls can be placed at competitive rates. While Charlie didn’t particularly like the Mac client when he reviewed it back in January, finding some shortcomings, it’s worth a look. The iPhone app is interesting because rather than relying on VoIP, it uses callbacks — the service can ring you on any convenient nearby phone line.
Viber. iPhone users looking for a way to make free VoIP calls should take a look at Viber, a VoIP app that allows iPhone-to-iPhone calling over 3G and Wi-Fi connections. The app is free, runs in the background, doesn’t have any ads and won’t charge you anything to make calls. Android and BlackBerry apps are apparently in the works, which would extend the app’s reach significantly.
Grasshopper. Looking for a step up from Skype to a more business-oriented virtual phone system? Grasshopper provides many of the features found in expensive office PBX systems for a fraction of the cost, including support for multiple users, each with their own extension, individual greetings, voicemail, web access and notifications by email or text message, as well as the ability to have local or toll-free numbers for people to call you on. Charlie was impressed by the product and its slick web interface when he reviewed it back in 2009. The type of advanced functionality you get comes at a higher cost than consumer-focused offering like Google Voice and Skype, however, with a range of plans available.
8×8 Virtual Office Pro/Solo. 8×8 provides another useful VoIP-based virtual business phone system. It’s available in two editions, Virtual Office Pro for businesses requiring multiple extensions, and Solo for individuals (see Charlie’s recent review). The system includes business numbers, voicemail, call waiting, music on hold, caller ID, three-way calling and the ability to record calls for storage as digital audio files. It costs $49.99 per extension per month for the Pro Edition or $7.99 per month for the Solo edition.

Video Chat

While some of the options listed above, like Google Voice, provide video calling as part of the services they offer, there are also some dedicated video chat apps:

Tinychat. For multiuser video chats, Tinychat is great. It’s dead simple to use, requires no login, and has a clean interface. It’s Flash-based, so it should work in most browsers and up to 12 people can join a video chat simultaneously. The basic service is free.
ooVoo. ooVoo also provides free multiuser (up to six people simultaneously) video chat, and has clients available for Mac, PC and a wide range of mobile devices. It even allows for high-quality video calling over 3G wireless networks.
FaceTime. Apple’s video chat application is no longer just for iPhone users. With the launch of FaceTime for Mac in February, it works on Macs and any iOS device with a forward-facing camera, it makes it possible to place Mac-to-Mac, Mac-to-iPhone/iPod touch/iPad, and iPhone/iPod touch/iPad -to-iPhone/iPod touch/iPad calls. Video quality is high, supporting up to 720p resolution on more recent Macs.

What are your favorite alternatives to Skype?

Photo courtesy Flickr user DanBrady

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8×8 Virtual Office Solo: A Business Phone Service for Individuals

Charles Hamilton — Fri, 06 May 2011 12:05:09 +0000

If you have a one-person office and are looking for an affordable telecommunications package, 8×8′s new Virtual Office Solo may be worth a look. It’s similar to the Virtual Office Pro product that I liked when I wrote about it a few months ago, but at $50 per month, the Pro version includes more features than most individuals would need.

As with its Pro cousin, Virtual Office Solo includes a dedicated business phone number (or you can port your existing number). Calls may be sent and received through any Windows or Mac web browser with Java 10.0 or higher; no additional software downloads or added plug-ins are required. Existing contacts can be imported from Microsoft Outlook, Gmail, Facebook and Twitter.

When you’re away from your desk, or at certain times of day, calls can be forwarded to a mobile or home phone. The system includes voicemail, call waiting, music on hold, caller ID, three-way calling and the ability to record calls for storage as digital audio files.

Virtual Office Solo also includes some features that go beyond services like Google Voice, including unlimited calling in the U.S. and Canada, web conferencing with video for up to 15 simultaneous participants, and Internet faxing. The system also includes free mobile apps that enable users to place and receive calls through iOS and Android devices while displaying their Virtual Office Solo phone number as the Caller ID.

What Solo doesn’t have is extensions and the “phone tree” or auto-attendant features of a full PBX, so it isn’t suited for multi-person enterprises. It also doesn’t have voice-to-text message transcriptions, and is not compatible with VoIP desk phones; you’ll need the more expensive Pro version to get all of these features.

Virtual Office Solo is similar in many ways to other phone services, like Google Voice, VoxOx and Grasshopper. Its feature set is perhaps closest to Grasshopper’s, but at $7.99 per month, 8×8′s service has more options and is less expensive. The product can be ordered online from the 8×8 website and activated immediately.

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Knoodle Makes Cloud-Based Training a Cinch

Aliza Sherman — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 12:03:41 +0000

How do you get all your remote team members on the same page? When it comes to online training and learning, finding the right tool — or set of tools — to easily put together a robust presentation can present a challenge.

Sure, there are web conferencing services, such as GoToMeeting, where you can share your desktop, present audio over phone or VoIP, and even push out polls, but what if you want to produce a more media-rich presentation that you can share with your virtual team for training purposes? And archive it? And repurpose it?

Knoodle offers a training solution that provides a presentation with a split screen; you can have text or PowerPoint slides on one side of the screen and video on the other, then sync the video and audio with the slides so they automatically advance at the right time. The Knoodle presentations are more engaging than screencasts or audio slideshows.

You can combine multiple assets — PowerPoint slideshows, video, images and text — and also add also add test quizzes or surveys into your presentations to allow viewers to become active participants in the information exchange. You can capture video as you produce your presentation with your web cam, or opt not to use the video component and just sync up audio.

Once your rich-media presentation is complete, you can share a link to it, export it as an MP4 file and email it, or embed it on your site, your blog, or within your intranet. You can also reuse and repurpose assets you’ve uploaded to create new presentations quickly and easily. As an admin, you can create and manage groups, invite group members,and manage and track who has viewed the presentation you’ve created. You can share the presentations internally (for training your team, for example) or externally (for providing publicly accessible training, demos and educational tools).

Knoodle offers a 30-day free trial. Pricing ranges from $14.99/month to $149.99/month, based on usage and the number of people watching the presentations. You can upgrade or downgrade at any time.

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netTALK Duo: Cheap VoIP Calls, No PC Required

Charles Hamilton — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 12:35:42 +0000

We’ve written about several VoIP solutions, many of which are well-suited for distributed teams. My web-development company, for example, uses OnSIP to connect four employees in three different cities, and we’re very happy with its sound quality and sophisticated features. But most full-featured, business-oriented VoIP solutions require expensive IP phones, awkward computer-based softphones, or difficult-to-configure ATA adapters, which may explain the popularity of simple, low-cost services like Google Voice and MagicJack.

netTALK has introduced the Duo, which is a hardware-plus-service option that’s somewhere in the middle. The hardware is a little box that’s about as simple to set up as anything I’ve seen. Plug it into an Ethernet connection, power and a phone, then go to the netTALK website to activate it, and you’ve got unlimited calling to the U.S. and Canada, and cheap rates to the rest of the world.

During the activation process, you can choose your area code and exchange, although you can’t select an exact number. You’ll also need to provide your street address so that the service can give you accurate 911 service. netTALK doesn’t yet offer a way to port existing numbers, although that’s apparently in the works.

If you want to, you can connect the Duo to your network and use the company’s software to make calls. There’s even beta videophone software, although I haven’t tried it, as the software and drivers are Windows-only. And there are smartphone apps for iOS, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Mobile, although it’s not currently possible to link your Duo account to the mobile apps.

The netTALK service includes all the basic services we’ve come to expect from VoIP, such as call forwarding, caller ID, three-way calling, and call waiting. But you won’t find extensions, conditional forwarding, or any of the other advanced features that more business-oriented services offer. Voicemails are sent to your email box as a WAV file; netTALK doesn’t offer transcriptions like Google Talk and some other services do.

The netTALK Duo is priced at $69.95, which includes one year of service. Subsequent years are apparently $29.95. If you need cheap incoming and outgoing calls, can do without sophisticated call management features, and don’t want to be connected to a computer all the time, netTALK’s Duo may be a reasonable option.

Have you used the netTALK Duo? What VoIP solutions do you prefer?

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Manage Office Phone Systems On the Go With AT&T Office@Hand

Charles Hamilton — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 18:00:15 +0000

We’re getting used to having remote workers tied into a centralized office phone system, thanks to some of the many VoIP options available. But while these systems can sometimes be reconfigured on the fly, most of the control panels require a full Internet browser to navigate.

Now, AT&T has worked with ~~VoIP~~ cloud-based phone system provider RingCentral to develop a mobile app that allows users to manage their company phone system directly from their iPhone. The free app is part of AT&T’s Office@Hand system, which includes a comprehensive set of business-oriented features, such as:

Toll-free or local voice and fax numbers (faxes can be forwarded by email)
Cloud-based PBX, with extensions for individuals and up to eight departments
Auto-receptionist
Ability to transfer calls between mobile numbers and landlines
Flexible answering rules
Advanced call forwarding
Call queues
Voicemail with email delivery

The iPhone app can be used by managers to reconfigure the flow of an organization’s voice calls, change recorded greetings, and even purchase more capacity if needed — the additional services will be available immediately, and the charges will appear on the manager’s AT&T Wireless bill. The same iPhone app (and a more-limited BlackBerry app) can be used by non-managers to check their messages, configure call screening and voicemail, and make outgoing calls that will show the company’s phone number as the caller ID rather than their own.

While the manager needs to have an AT&T iPhone to use the iPhone app, other workers in the organization can be connected via other types of phones. I haven’t been able to try out the app myself, since I don’t have an AT&T iPhone, but the Office@Hand functions can also be managed using a standard web browser.

AT&T’s Office@Hand service is priced on a per-user basis, with costs starting at $16/user/month on top of whatever you are already paying for phone service. There are no setup fees, but you’ll need a mobile phone with a voice and data plan to use the service, and your carrier may charge voice minutes for forwarded calls. There’s a minimum of two users, and it works with up to 100 users. You may try the service for 30 days, and there are no long-term contracts.

How do you manage your company’s phone system while you’re on the road?

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High-Quality Calls with Polycom Conference and Desk Phones

Charles Hamilton — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 18:00:12 +0000

I’ve recently reviewed several VoIP solutions suitable for web workers and small businesses. One thing has become clear: no matter how good the software, sound quality is of paramount importance. Of course, the quality of VoIP calls is affected by the quality and speed of the Internet connection, but VoIP providers have developed codecs that can squeeze decent sound from even small-bandwidth connections. So I’ve decided that, in a business environment, it’s worth not skimping on the hardware.

Just about every business-oriented VoIP phone, and even many cellphones, come with a speakerphone these days. But such speakers are often poor, and using a poor-sounding speakerphone doesn’t reflect well on our business. Since I spend most of my time typing on a computer, I prefer to use a speakerphone or a headset. Many VoIP services can be used with a softphone and a computer’s speakers and mic, or with an ATA (an adapter that allows one to connect standard phones to the Internet). But I wanted to see how much difference a really good phone could make.

The folks at 8×8, whose Virtual Office Pro system I reviewed recently, kindly lent me a Polycom SoundStation IP 6000 conference phone, and a Polycom SoundPoint IP 550 desk phone.

The IP 550 is a slightly larger version of the IP 450 that I’ve been using with OnSIP. The 550′s sound quality, both in handset and speaker mode, is very good, but its multiplicity of features means that it has too many buttons to suit me. I’m sure that I’d get used to its layout eventually, but it’s a bit overwhelming at first.

Polycom’s triangular speakerphones are a feature of many conference rooms. The IP 6000 is intended for conferencing, and doesn’t even have a handset, although I was surprised to discover that it doesn’t take much more room on a desk than the 550 does. The manufacturer claims that it can pick up conversations from up to 12 feet away; I wasn’t able to test this, but it certainly has a large range. It can get operating power from Ethernet (meaning there’s one less wire on one’s desk), or it can use an optional AC adapter.

The IP 6000 automatically adjusts microphone sensitivity as needed, and its speaker quality is outstanding. All in all, it’s a phone that I could cheerfully leave on my desk for daily use, then take it with me for conferences.

8×8 sells both phones pre-configured for their service; it’s just a matter of plug and play. The phones interact well with 8×8′s web-based software, or can be used on their own. Both have excellent sound quality, better than the Konnect phone I looked at recently, or the Cisco/Linksys SPA942 that I tried with the RingCentral service.

8×8 sells the IP 6000 for $729.99, and the IP 550 goes for $259.99. If you and your colleagues regularly participate in conference calls, or just spend a lot of time on the phone, the expense is well worth it.

What systems do you use for conference calls?

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Konnect: A Basic, Flexible VoIP Phone System

Charles Hamilton — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 15:00:40 +0000

As a web worker, it’s useful having access to such communication tools as instant messaging, video conferencing and social media. But I still spend a lot of time on the phone, both with my colleagues in other locations and with clients. I’ve spent the last few weeks trying out the Konnect office phone system, which the manufacturer kindly lent to me.

The phones come in a couple of versions: one type is intended for use with a PBX or Asterisk server, while the version I tried doesn’t require a server.

Physically, the phone is similar in size to the Polycom SoundPoint IP 450 that I’ve been using. You can program the buttons on the right of the phone to meet your needs, and Konnect provides a template so that you can print your own labels for the buttons.

The phone has a speakerphone, which generally sounded pretty good to me, but sometimes callers complained that I didn’t sound as good as I do when speaking on the Polycom. If you prefer to use a headset, the phone includes an RJ-10 headset jack.

One feature that I really like, which I haven’t seen elsewhere, is that the phone includes an RJ-11 jack that can be used to connect a standard landline, in addition to the VoIP connections.

Konnect provides a couple of videos to get you started, one for basic setup, and one for programming the phone. If (like me) you don’t like video instructions, there’s also well-written documentation available.

The Konnect web portal lets you manage your account and set up some simple forwarding rules, but doesn’t provide for the sorts of fancy forwarding, grouping and answering rules offered by some of the VoIP services we’ve looked at in the past, including OnSIP and RingCentral.

You can buy outgoing call minutes directly from Konnect (rates vary; its service is currently priced at 3.9 cents/minute to the U.S. and Canada). But the phone can also be set up to use many different VoIP providers.

We found the phone to work very well as an intercom between colleagues. The quality of outside calls, however, varied significantly: sometimes calls were very clear, but at other times there was a lot of breakup in the connection. We tried two different VoIP providers, and had similar issues, but I couldn’t really figure out whether the problems were due to the phone, my Internet connection, or to the VoIP services we were using.

Konnect phones are sold through distributors, or you can request to get connected with a local reseller at Konnect’s website.

Have you used Konnect phones? What equipment do you use for VoIP calling?

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Virtual Office Pro: Complete Cloud Communications

Charles Hamilton — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 22:00:35 +0000

Virtual Office Pro 2.0, from the telecommunications company 8×8, is a web-based suite of communications and collaboration services. The suite, known as VO Pro, includes phone, fax, web conferencing, call recording and chat.

VO Pro’s Flash-based web interface allows direct sending and receiving of calls through a softphone, as well as access to functions that are standard with many VoIP systems, such as call forwarding and three-way calling. Users can also record and archive calls, and can see live video of callers and co-workers. 8×8 has jumped on the social media bandwagon, too: and users can post status messages to Twitter and Facebook directly from the VO Pro dashboard. In addition, the service includes unlimited sending and receiving of faxes.

The core functions of the suite are available on the road through VO Pro’s mobile application for iOS.

VO Pro’s interface and feature set is similar to Ribbit Mobile‘s, although VO Pro feels more like a finished product than Ribbit’s did when I tried it a few months back.

8×8 Virtual Office Pro 2.0 is available as part of several plans, including an “unlimited” plan for a price of $49.99 per extension per month, plus a $40 setup fee. It is possible to port existing telephone numbers to the service.

If you’ve tried Virtual Office Pro, share your comments below.

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