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Incoming! for Skype on the Apple iPhone
A new Skype for the Apple iPhone app was just approved and is available in the iTunes app store called Incoming! for Skype. Basically, it makes every call an incoming call so you can save your minutes on your wireless dialplan, since they often feature unlimited inbound minutes and only charge for outbound minute usage.
Here’s how it works:
1. Open the Incoming! App on your iPhone
2. Dial the phone number, choose from Favorites, choose from address book or conference call
3. Press call and it will re-route the call through the Skype helper app on your home computer.
4. Your phone then rings, you pick it up and then the other person is called.
Using this app you can connect to any landline or mobile phone over Edge, 3G, and WiFi - unlike the ‘official’ Skype for iPhone app, which is WiFi restricted - unless you jailbreak your iPhone for 3G support of course! 
Basically the calls are routed through your home PC’s Skype software. You will use SkypeOut credits for PSTN calls. But if you’ve already signed up for one of Skype’s unlimited call plans (U.S./Canada $2.95/month), the call is essentially free. Another benefit is that you get some of the Skype features in this application. For instance, you can do 9-way conference calling on your iPhone, making business meetings while on the go a snap! 
Essentially, the app is harnessing the power of your PC for the audio mixing. (Note: I don’t believe the free ‘official’ Skype for iPhone app can do 9-way conferencing)
Features include a visual favorites list, address book and support for both Windows and the Mac. An iPod touch will work as well, but you can’t route calls to it, but you can route it to a nearby phone.
The app will cost you $4.99 on the iTunes store, which is pricier than most iPhone apps.
You can check it out here
Tags: apple, gadget, Incoming! for Skype, iphone, skypeout
Related tags: official skype, apple iphone, skype apple, skype iphone, incoming skype, skype
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IPEVO Wi-Fi Phone for Skype Review
The IPEVO Wi-Fi Phone for Skype launched just last month and IPEVO sent me a review unit to check out, which I’ve been testing for a few weeks.
Installation
Installing the IPEVO Wi-Fi Phone was a snap. Although it only has a numeric keypad for entering in alphanumeric characters for entering in the WEP/WPA/WPA2 key. As you hit a key, it shows you the current key where your cursor is located, but it also shows you a horizontal list of all the characters that key can produce and highlights the current key. This is useful not only to confirm what keys it can produce, but if overshoot the key you want, you can easily see how far away you are to scrolling back around and reproducing that key. Definitely made entering the Wi-Fi key much easier and faster.
After entering in TMC’s Wi-Fi key I proceeded to add my Skype name and password. Similarly, it showed the key as it was being pressed, as well as the horizontal list of keys, making it very easy to enter in my Skype credentials. I should mention that you can add multiple WiFi networks, so you can have a Home profile, Work profile, etc. So when you walk into a WiFi area you have configured it will automatically connect.
The phone then signed into Skype and I saw my list of contacts. From the Contacts screen you can click the center green button or the Options button to access a submenu. From this submenu you can then Call the contact, Send Voicemail (if you paid for this service), View Profile, or go into Advanced where you can rename, remove, block/unblock, or add a contact. If you have a ton of contacts, no worries - holding the up or down key will cause it to autoscroll and it will wrap around to the top/bottom depending on which direction you were scrolling. Of course, it’s worth noting you don’t have to go into the submenu to initiate a call. You can simply highlight the contact and press the green phone icon to initiate a one-click dial.
The IPEVO Skype phone supports both Ad hoc and access point mode for connecting to a wireless network. For security it supports WEP, WPA Personal, and WPA2 Personal. It also supports static IP as well as DHCP (default).
Let’s now do a video demo of the IPEVO Skype WiFi phone which shows the phone in action making a SkypeOut call to a direct dial number which terminates to my Aastra VoIP desk phone.
I like that the phone can display Skype credit, access SkypeIn settings, and Skype voicemail. It also lists the history by all calls, missed calls, incoming calls, outgoing calls. Access to voicemails and contact requests is also available.
It took 71 seconds from off till fully authenticated on the WiFi network and can dial a Skype contact. While other Skype WiFi phones also take over a minute to fully boot-up, I’d like to see all Skype WiFi phones speed up the boot process. I should add that there doesn’t appear to be a speakerphone available, even though the back of the phone sports a speaker, which apparently is only used for the phone’s ringtones.
I was pretty impressed with how lightweight the phone was and the call quality was excellent. I called some people and they said the call quality was just as good as a landline if not better. y only complaint about the phone is the lack of instant message (IM) support, but I haven’t seen other Skype phones support IM either. While typing an IM using just numeric keys (0-9, *, #) is difficult, the phone should at least be able to receive IM messages. But even that isn’t possible. Maybe there is a technical reason while IM wasn’t included or maybe was just a design decision. Still, I’d like to see IM on Skype WiFi phones.
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The standalone Skype phone features a backlit keyboard, 1.8″ LCD screen, and rechargeable battery. The 1.8″ screen supports 128×160 resolution with 65k colors. The phone supports G711 and G729AB codes with a voice sampling rate of 8KHz.
It supports 802.11b/g WiFi standards along with WEP, and WPA/WPA2-PSK
encryption protocols. Talking time is approximately 4hr & standby time is 30hr via its Li-ion 900mAh battery. I tested the standby time, and it was indeed about 30hr.
The IPEVO Wi-Fi Phone for Skype is now available at the MSRP of $129.99 at http://store.ipevo.com/
Tags: IPEVO Wi-Fi Phone for Skype, review, skype, SkypeIn, SkypeOut, voip, wifi
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New Nimbuzz VoIP app for the iPhone and iPod touch
Nimbuzz just released their new iPhone version of Nimbuzz which also supports 3G VoIP “dial up” calling and can turn the iPod touch into an iPhone. The old version was just released into the Apple iTunes store in November, so Nimbuzz is cranking out new version pretty quickly!
The new version features a full dial-pad, and the ability to make VoIP calls to PSTN numbers using SkypeOut, as well as via their 10 VoIP partners including Gizmo5, Vyke, sipgate and A1 by leveraging SIP. You can now add individual buddies from AIM, Google Talk, Windows Live Messenger (MSN), MySpace, Yahoo!, and Nimbuzz.
If Wi-Fi is unavailable you can make VoIP calls to Nimbuzz buddies using what Nimbuzz calls “Dial-Up VoIP”, which is available in over 50 countries.
Dial-Up VoIP simply means that Nimbuzz dials a local access number that your iPhone dials and then Nimbuzz’s VoIP servers terminate the call. Jajah and others have this feature as well.
According to the Nimbuzz blog post, “We are experimenting with Twitter, and you can post to Twitter via the Personal Message feature! Try it. Your comments are always welcome, so please feel free to give feedback.” Wow! Twitter integration with a VoIP app. Gotta love it!
Fixes:
• Facebook names are displayed
• Mobile Me usernames with a dot are now supported
• Improved stability
Tags: 3G, apple, iphone, nimbuzz, skype, skypeout, voip, wifi
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Dual Stack SIP and Skype IP Phone Coming
Image is of the IPEVO Solo Desktop Skype phone not the forthcoming product. But picture something like this device that supports SIP, Skype, and has a color LCD A source has told me about an interesting new VoIP/Skype product that is coming to market in Q3 2009. It’s your typical desktop IP phone supporting the standard SIP stack, however it has an interesting twist - it also supports the Skype protocol. The product is a dual-stack desktop phone supporting both the SIP and Skype protocols. Picture a Cisco, Polycom, or Aastra SIP-based phone that also supports Skype! Essentially, each desktop IP phone becomes a Skype endpoint with the ability to receive Skype calls to the Skype username (i.e. tomkeating) or the SkypeIn number (i.e. 212-555-1000). My first thought when I heard about this product is why would you want Skype installed on the desktop phone endpoints? Why not just use one of the several Skype appliance or software gateways out there (Actiontec/VoSKY, Callfree, SimplyExchange, SkyStone, Skype for Asterisk), which gives you centralized administration of the Skype accounts and can interface with any SIP-based IP-PBX for Skype-based trunking (outbound & inbound dialing). The manufacturer of this device says their phone is more cost-effective than a Skype appliance since it’s simply a software load on an existing IP telephone. Further, you can slowly add additional SIP/Skype-enabled phones as your business grows or as needed. They’ll also sell a SIP-only IP phone that can later be upgraded to also support Skype via a license key. Additionally, he pointed out that many employees telecommute with a remote IP phone, but also use Skype with a PC headset to stay in touch with business associates and friends. Using their IP phone you don’t need to purchase a headset since you can use the IP phone handset instead to answer or make Skype calls. Also, no need to worry about running Skype or missing a call if you reboot your PC. One major consideration is that Skype is very CPU intensive requiring a hefty processor, which obviously adds to the cost. My source tells me that they have done some extensive benchmarks to ensure the voice quality is good and are in the final stages of deciding between two well-known processor chips. He explained the phones can be programmed via its web interface such that a certain prefix goes through SkypeOut, (i.e. ‘8′) while other calls by default are routed to the SIP-based IP-PBX. I mentioned the difficulty of dialing Skype usernames using just a numeric keypad and he stated they are considering adding a full alphanumeric keypad to the phone, but it would increase manufacturing costs. They are strongly considering a “lite” (standard numeric pad) and a “pro” version (full alphanumeric keyboard). Both phone models will have a color LCD but they haven’t finalized the dimensions yet. He said the phone’s web interface will have some rudimentary call history and a contacts database of your Skype buddies and imported contacts. You will be able to click on a contact hyperlink and initiate a Skype or SIP-based call. He claims the IP phone will be price comparable to Polycom and Aastra IP phones. My only thought now is why hasn’t someone thought of a dual-stack SIP Skype desktop IP phone before? Come to think of it, I’ve thought of this idea many times over the years, but figured only tech-savvy VoIP geeks would want such a desktop phone. But with the cost-saving potential such a phone would bring, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a few dual-stack SIP Skype IP phones come to market in the next year.
Tags: aastra, desktop phone, phone, polycom, sip, skype, SkypeIn, SkypeOut, voip
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Windows Live Messenger Back in the VoIP game!
Ok, now my head is getting dizzy from the number of times Microsoft Windows Live Messenger/MSN Messenger has had outbound VoIP-to-PSTN calling (2006), then pulling outbound VoIP calling (early 2008), and then putting it back in. Also, I believe it was 2004 when the Messenger client used Net2Phone before they pulled the plug. Well, apparently outbound PSTN dialing using VoIP is back in!
Windows Live Messenger has now teamed up with Telefónica to offer VoIP services. Previously Net2Phone and Verizon have had exclusive deals with Microsoft’s Messenger client.
When you click on Make a Phone Call you see the dialpad window and it explains you can sign up with Telefonica’s Voype service to call directly from within Windows Live Messenger.
Telefónica’s rates seem decent as compared to SkypeOut. For instance,Telefónica charges $0.014 per minute for the U.S. comparaed to $0.021 SkypeOut calls. Unfortunately, there is no dial-in (DID) capability equivalent to SkypeIn with Telefónica’s service.
The service uses prepaid amount in dollars. Increments of $5, $10, and $20 are available and you can set it up to automatically recharge the account when it reaches a certain threshold. To use it you just need Windows Live Messenger 8.0 and above.
If Microsoft really wants to compete with Skype what they should do is partner with all the major SIP trunking service providers (Bandwidth.com, DIDX, Junction Networks, Packet8, etc.) and offer them all as a drop-down list within Windows Live Messenger for quick and easy configuration. After all, unlike Skype which is proprietary, Windows Live Messenger is based on the SIP protocol. Further, Microsoft could allow Windows Live Messenger users to manually enter their existing SIP trunking service provider account info, essentially making Windows Live Messenger a SIP softphone client able to make and receive calls. Microsoft could even do revenue sharing with the SIP trunking service providers.
Even better, Microsoft could offer the ability for users to enter in custom SIP credentials to use with the user’s SIP-based IP-PBX! Since in this scenario the connection is direct to the IP-PBX no revenue sharing is required. Of course, since SIP is SIP, a user could simply go into manual mode, and enter in, for example, their Bandwidth.com SIP trunking info thus bypassing the drop-down list, connecting directly to Bandwidth.com and eliminating any revenue share Microsoft might receive.
However, Microsoft could restrict the manual SIP credentials entered simply by having a database of their SIP trunking providers’ URLs or Microsoft could simply stick something into the SIP header which the SIP trunking service providers can parse and detect and then give credit/revenue to Microsoft for sending the call from Live Messenger onto their network. So many ideas, I should write a book.
Tags: Bandwidth.com, DIDX, Junction Networks, Packet8, SIP, sip credentials, sip trunking, Skype, SkypeIn, SkypeOut, Telefonica, voip, Windows Live Messenger
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May 27, 2008 - Microsoft Response Point Announces SIP Trunking Service Providers -
Apr 18, 2008
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