Thanks Sharon I sent it to my other list. so you might see it again if you are on any of the others. -- Can you imagine what a scarcity of news there would be If everybody obeyed > the Ten Commandments? I would rather live my life as if there is a God, and die to find out there isn't, than live my life as if there isn't, and die to find out there is IN GOD WE TRUST Karen Carter '74 -KC- Ministries -------------- Original message ---------------------- From: Sharon Hooley <[log in to unmask]> > I got this from the Blind-Ad list. > > sharon > > This is from today's New York Times online. > Chris > > April 6, 2006 > David Pogue > > Internet Calls Untethered From Your PC > > WHY does Skype get so much hype? Sure, this software lets you make > free "phone calls," computer to computer, anywhere in the world. > But it wasn't the first > such program, it's not the most feature-laden, and it's still a > mystery to most people over 25. > > Yet somehow, Skype is changing everything. Twenty-five million > people are using it to make free calls, much to the annoyance of > the phone companies. College > students call home and friends with it. Business travelers keep in > touch with the family. Visitors to the United States chit-chat with > their buddies in > Europe, Japan or wherever. The software ? free from > skype.com > and available for Mac, Windows, Linux and PocketPC ? is pitifully > easy to use, and the sound quality is more like FM radio than a > phone call. > > Skype's popularity has caused some impressive ripples in the fabric > of business and society. The word is now a verb, ? la > Google > ("Have your people Skype my people"). Last fall, > eBay > bought Skype for $1.3 billion and 32.4 million shares of eBay > stock. And most intriguing of all, an entire industry of Skype > accessories has sprung up. > > But one niggling footnote continues to dog Skype: to make free > calls, you and your conversation partner must both sit there in > front of your computers, > nerdlike, wearing headsets. You can call regular telephones, but > that's not free. (Rates are complicated, but 2.1 cents a minute is > typical.) And you still > have to sit handcuffed to your computer. > > Wouldn't it be nice if you could make and receive Skype calls from > your home phone or any ordinary cellphone? > > Enter the VoSky Call Center ($60 at > actiontec.com), > nicknamed the Liberator. (All right, I gave it that nickname, but > still.) It's a tiny black box, about the size of a sandwich, that > connects to a Windows > PC (with a U.S.B. cable), to your phone line and to your telephone. > An exceptionally clear instruction sheet walks you through the > installation. > > As a final preparatory step, you're supposed to install Skype, if > you haven't already, fill up its buddy list with the Skype > addresses of your pals, and > assign a speed-dial number to each one. Then you're ready for the > VoSky magic show. > > FOR its first trick, the Call Center will let you call Skype > buddies using the telephone on your desk. You pick up the handset, > dial ## (which means, "This > one's for Skype") and listen to a recorded female voice say: > "Welcome to the VoSky Call Center. Please enter your contact's > speed-dial number." (She pronounces > it VOSS-key.) > > Fortunately, you don't have to sit through her complete recording; > you can interrupt by dialing at any time. She's just a digital > audio file, not easily > insulted. > > There's a quick click, and then the call is placed. Your comrade, > perhaps thousands of miles away, hears the familiar Skype ring > tone, sits down at the > PC, puts on the headset and answers. You, meanwhile, chat cheerily > on your cordless phone as you move about, do the laundry or set the > table. > > The sound quality is excellent. It's not as good as a > Skype-to-Skype call, of course, because you're listening on a phone > ? but it's much better than a > regular phone call. > > If you've signed up for SkypeOut, that 2.1-cents-a-minute plan that > lets you call phone numbers rather than computers, you make calls > in exactly the same > way. Pick up your phone and touch ##2 (or whatever the speed-dial > number is), or even ## plus a standard phone number in > international format. > > The second magic trick is even more impressive. This time, you can > make a Skype call from your cellphone, wherever you happen to be. > > To make this work, you tell the Call Center's PC software ahead of > time how long it should wait ? say, until the fifth ring ? before > answering incoming > calls. > > Then, when you're out and about with your cellphone, you dial home. > After the designated number of rings, the Call Center's recorded > young lady answers. > After you plug in your password, she prompts you to touch the > desired speed-dial number, and off you go. You're talking free to > your aunt in Antigua, from > your cellphone, courtesy of your home phone and your PC. > > "Free" is a relative term, of course. Just calling your home number > may still be using up your cellphone's monthly minutes, depending > on the time of day > and what kind of cellular plan you have. Even so, you'll save a lot > of money if you call internationally. > > Trick No. 3 is Skype forwarding. If you're away from home when > somebody tries to reach you using Skype, the Call Center rings your > cellphone (or any number > you specify) so you can take the call. > > The Call Center's last trick is call return, and it's pretty neat. > Suppose you try to reach Dad in Dallas, but he's not at his desk. > In that case, the Call > Center's recorded voice offers to call you back when he is online. > Sooner or later, when you least expect it, your cellphone rings; > it's your Call Center, > whose voice lets you know that Dad is online again. She tells you > that if you'd like to call him right now (using Skype), press 1. > > Incidentally, none of this affects your home phone's ability to > make regular phone calls. You place them just as you always do > (without dialing ## first), > and the phone rings normally when someone calls you. Handy > indicator lights on the Call Center box let you know whether you're > answering a regular call > or an Internet call. > > This all sounds pretty complicated on paper, no doubt. But for the > most part, each individual function is beautifully done, crisply > and simply executed > and easily learned. > > There are, alas, exceptions. > > They begin with the necessity to leave your PC turned on, with > Skype running, at all times. That requirement alone may be a > show-stopper for anyone concerned > about the environment or electric bills. > > Another issue is that to make a Skype call from your phone, you > have to use the handset to which it's connected. You can't use > another extension in the > house (unless it's part of a multihandset cordless system). > > Then there's the dialing-in problem. You see, the Call Center can, > at your option, turn the computer into a digital answering machine; > if you've turned > it on, calling your home number produces the young woman's voice > saying, "Please leave a message" (although if you're calling in so > you can make a Skype > call, you can just tap out your password instead). > > So what's the problem? Incredibly, you can't replace the young > woman's answering-machine greeting with a recording of your own voice. > > Yet if you don't turn on the answering function, then calling your > home number greets you with a recording that says, "Please enter > your password." That's > great if it's you calling, but it's bound to befuddle anyone else > who happens to call. The only way to avoid that problem is to set > the Call Center to > wait, say, eight rings, long after your traditional answering > machine picks up. But then, of course, you sacrifice the entire > "call home to call Skype" > feature. > > And speaking of the recordings: Good heavens, was this the best > voice-over talent ActionTec could find? The young lady speaks > slowly and self-consciously, > like the world's worst actor in a junior high musical. You can just > imagine her saying, "Do not look now, Dorothy, but are those flying > monkeys I see? > Oh dear me." > > If those gotchas don't getcha, though, you'd be hard-pressed to > find another $60 gadget that works so crisply, reliably and > efficiently. If you're among > the 25 million existing Skypaholics, the Call Center could magnify > the pleasure of making those free calls. And if you're not, the > VoSky Call Center is > one more reason to see what Skype is all about. > > E-mail: > [log in to unmask] > > Copyright 2006 > The New York Times Company > > ------------------------------