My Mobile Blog

Google Voice+Poketalk+Freedom calls = Free calls worldwide.

2009-07-02T12:56:00.000-07:00

Yes, finally I have done it. Tried and tested. I always loved Google Voice because of its awesome uses which nobody else has found out so far. Today I found a magic trick again.

Google Voice+Poketalk+Freedom calls= Unlimited free calls to the world but since Poketalk is used to connect the call the length will be limited to 10 minutes but then still just look at the destinations and you will be amazed.

Here is how it works. Google talk gives you a U.S number which allows you to receive calls on a U.S cell number/landline number or Gizmo5 (and on possible anything through Gizmo5 forward option). Poketalk allows you to call Australia landlines for free including other 41 countries also for free. But we just need to dial Australia landline number for free and now need to dial the access numbers provided by Freedom calls which are in 6 cities namely:-
1. Melbourne - 0390957222
2. Sydney - 0290869222
3. Brisbane - 0731668111
4. Perth - 0863635111
5. Adelaide - 0872212444
6. Canberra - 0262232622

So go to Poketalk and register yourself. registration gives you many benefits including call history, 10 minutes call length and many more. While registering yourself, put in your GV number and then when you make calls through poketalk, it will 1st call you on your GV number (which is listed as My phone number) and then connect you to other number that you wish to call (Number to call). So you dial any of the above mentioned landline numbers from Poketalk and it connects you and then all you do is press "1" and then dial the international number as 0011 +International dialing code of the country+ the number and press #. I dialed my Indian cell number as 0011919879575183 and boom it was connected.

So there you are. Free calls to 70 countries from Poketalk's 42 including Indian landlines and mobiles.

Have fun,
H@rdeep.

Inum's failure to take off and its future prospects.

2009-04-08T07:24:00.001-07:00

When Inum was announced by Voxbone, it really got me excited but I was skeptical about it too. I always thought that maybe its too late because things like Enum, Gizmo5, and many other numbers and specially U.S numbers are freely available so people have an international number for free which is globally reachable.

Since any1 can get a U.S DID for free from Ipkall, Groovytel, Voxox, Google Voice (Formerly Grandcentral) or various other websites and since any and every website allows free calls to U.S, having a virtual U.S number means you already have a Inum indirectly. So maybe these guys behind Inum did not get it right because the concept is great, but they are a bit too late.. But slow and steady progress is seen on the blog of Inum. They 1st had access numbers from 45 countries which has not increased, but now calls can be made through Google Talk too besides the interoperability of all Inum VOIP providers. This was news to my ears, but hardly a surprise as Google talk has been exploited and used in creative manners by every other company out there like Gtalk2Voip, Tringme, truphone and what not except Google and the reason is its adoption of Open Standards.

The fact that they do not receive the attention of people is the major hindrance though and that is the "ONLY PROBLEM" that they are not so popular. I find the concept wonderful and as always I have taken the plunge & loved it so far. lets see where it goes, but this sure is 1 thing I will keep an eye on.

H@rdeep.

10 minutes free calls to India daily.

2009-03-02T10:04:00.000-08:00

YAY! great news. India still is a destination which remains in the much sought after list for free calls. Yup, because India is not yet open for VOIP calls just like every other country is. It sure is the fault of government's idiotic and myopic rules & regulations and the telcos are involved because they will sure lose a huge revenue stream if VOIP becomes more mainstream here.

And so we hardly have good call quality VOIP calls to India being offered for free but not until Tuitalk came in. I had signed up for Tuitalk way back but I logged in recently and was quite surprised to find India is included in the list of 40 countries where they offer free calls and both landlines and mobiles are allowed. I tested the voice quality and I am surprised that its crystal clear. 10 mins are offered free daily so this 1 is a steal. I would say just go for it before India is removed.

Damn this news sure made me happy and I thought to share the love.

Very exited about this development,
H@rdeep.

The economy takes toll of Ringbranch.

2009-03-02T08:14:00.000-08:00

Ringbranch is no longer available. It was a wonderful concept and I was one of the early adopters (as usual). I read they cant go on because of the economic conditions quite some time back on their blog, but I am surprised no one I know of has blogged about it and I am quite late too.

I am sure people loved the fact that they were offered a free U.S number and the ability to call anyone in US and Canada for free by Ringbranch, but these people did not make much money and had to shut down. Its been wonderful using it and to be honest since I already have a few (yes 3 of them) Grandcentral accounts, I didn't use it much after initial use. But still needless to say it was 1 of the companies I loved because of what they came up with.

I hope no more companies who are doing awesome work like them die down soon. It was a sad day for me leaning about their sudden exit and I am sure there are people who were affected. If you are reading this and are affected, please leave comments.

Sad at this development,
H@rdeep.

VOIP over the years through my eyes.

2009-02-05T09:17:00.000-08:00

I still remember when I 1st came to know about the ability of calling cellphones and landlines through internet, it was probably called Net2phone . I just checked and was amazed that they are still there. Ever since that, I have seen & used innumerable other VOIP services (Yes I didn't even knew what is VOIP when I had heard of net2phone) & I have been amazed by many of them.

I will quickly go through some of the ones that I remember using.... Raketu, Jangl, Jajah, Jaxtr, Gtalk2Voip, Mediaringtalk, Phonegnome, FWD, Poketalk, Tuitalk, Jaduka, Nimbuzz, Globe7, Oovoo, Voxox & many more which I cant remember now of head. If you think I missed out the messengers, yeah I have used all of them. AIM, MSN messenger, Yahoo IM, Google Talk and even Skype. Today the ones I cant imagine my life without are Grandcentral and Gizmo5 and the ones I love and use on and off are Mediaringtalk and Skype. Truphone & Fring are 2 things I am dying to try out and have not been able to because I don't have compatible phones. Oovoo is 1 thing I loved because of amazing voice clarity.

I have seen many great innovations in VOIP and also seen death of some great products. Jangl and more recently Ringbranch died and were amazing things. But nothing impressed me more than Gizmo5 and it keeps impressing me as I discover new ways of using it and how people around the world use it. Skype has been great too and has sustained itself over the years and now that its version 4 boasts of amazing audio and video quality, I guess I will be a regular user of it again. I also discovered recently that Skype allows something which no other VOIP software allows. Calling toll free numbers of various countries including Australia. The VOIP players have to do something thats unique and gives the users value as compared to the competitors in order to survive and sustain growth and most of them who today are popular do exactly that. All I can say is I am happy that I was introduced to VOIP by people & I use some of the most amazing products ever made available. I know I will certainly do something in this space, but I don't know what & when. Till then all I can say is "Wait & Watch" and keep making these amazing services and products people. I love them and I am sure there is a whole lot more interesting stuff brewing in there.

Always excited when it comes to VOIP,

H@rdeep.

N97 is here.

2008-12-02T01:50:00.000-08:00

Nokia N97 is out and I saw the launch event Live on the Nokia website. I must say the presentation was good and I expect it to be a winner with specs and details like these.

Also look at the video here which is made amazingly well. Ok. I could not get it to embed here (Don't know what can be the possible reason but the video could not be embedded)

So here is the link.

Hungry for more? Google it. Twitter, Friendfeed, blogosphere all up with the details.

H@rdeep.

INUM- Confusion or Simplicity?

2008-11-15T08:09:00.000-08:00

Normally, we all have 2 kind of numbers for sure. A mobile and landline. VOIP fanatics like me can have several. :P

But other frequent VOIP users may have 4 kind of numbers. Apart from landline and mobile, a SIP number and a virtual or DID or DDI as they are known. I have all 4 kind of numbers. Now a 5th kind has come up. INUM is the latest entrant. It states that its a World number accessible from anywhere by anyone by making a local call and starts with +883. here is what it says on their website.

What is INUM ?

Now, will this make life easier and make VOIP globally acceptable and recognizable or will it fall flat?
Only time will tell. I am dying to get in to this and check it out and I suppose as mentioned on the website, Gizmo5 people would soon issue it for free. (There are other companies also listed like Jajah, Truphone, etc.)

Check out complete list of launch partners on the site. Will keep you posted on the developments as and when they happen.

H@rdeep.

Voxox - Worth a TRY?

2008-11-04T02:45:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I saw a post about Voxox on Mashable and they said if you sign up from this link (they had a link of sign-up for Voxox) you will get 1200 minutes free instead of 120 (the standard offered to every new sign-up by Voxox). I did sign up for this new VOIP provide like I always do to give a test run and it has got immense media coverage on web since yesterday.

So today if you google Voxox, you will find 100s of articles describing their services & I am late but this would be a good post because I will quickly list down the Pros and cons of Voxox.

Pros:-
1. A good interface of their VOIP client. (Iphone like).
2. Easy to register. 2 hours of free minutes to test them for every new sign up.
3. Digsby + a rich VOIP client.
4. A single FREE U.S number offered for both calls received and mad, voicemails and even faxes received. Voicemails and faxes are sent to your registered email address.

Cons:-
1. A memory hogger application. Yes just like Digsby. I can understand they are in Beta and they have packed in so much, but still it freezes and hangs the PC. A bad start there.
2. They had issues with the confirmation of email. When you register you do not get a link to confirm your email id. (Hope that is fixed by now)
3. 1200 minutes not given to people registered through Mashable. I also got 2 hours. So thats again a bad start.
4. I tested the calls. I made a call and the phone number alloted to me did appear as the caller id, but I could not make call to the number alloted to me. It was not active to receive calls. Again a bad start, because it was not mentioned that it will not be available immediately to receive calls.

Also, yesterday it was made popular as "Skype on steroids". I did not like the fact that a new start up is comparing itself with the Mammoth Skype right on the 1st day of its launch. I mean Skype has been there for 5 years and it has a huge loyal registered users around the world. Nobody has been able to beat Skype even though I feel Gizmo5 was and is the closest because I love Gizmo5 more than Skype. Even though I would say that Skype still has the 1st mover advantage and it has been rock steady over th years and garnered a market share which is not easy for any company to take over. Skype's voice and video quality is also unmatched and even though we have competitors like Oovoo and all coming in every now & then, Skype has been the leader with a HUGE margin.

Voxox does have a potential to do a lot better and the "Reach me" and "callback service" and 1 FREE U.S number for all is a distinguishing feature and even though Skype charges for voicemails, inbound numbers. SMS and all, it still is a leader. Lets see how far Voxox goes and if they are really serious to make Skype even take notice of them, they need some improvements real quick

The action in the VOIP space is a win-win situation for end users at least.

H@rdeep.

Grandcentral is dead.

2008-08-11T05:21:00.000-07:00

I thought for a second that the title should be "Is Grandcentral dead?", but I was quick to finally say "Grandcentral is dead" because it is sort of. I mean I can say without doubt that Grandcentral is 1 of the most neglected projects of Google.

I absolutely love Grandcentral and the features it offers for free. It has no competitors and its an amazing service, but there has been no innovation ever since it has been acquired by Google. I sometimes think Google is responsible for it being stagnant. No new features added and being in the news for all the wrong reasons is what has happened with Grandcentral after being taken over by Google.

1st - "one number for life" changes for some registered users, then comes the downtime which I reported that before any one else on the entire web. And they keep asking you your feedback to improve the service, but no reply from their side. Nothing on their blog, no news about Grandcentral anywhere. People don't even know what these guys are upto. Its time they bounce back with something really exciting or else if they are out of sight for long, they might be out of minds of people and 1 day out of business which I don't want.

Lets hope people from Grandcentral read this and wake up. I don't want the title of this post on any other Technology blog some day or on Grandcentral's official blog. Wake up guys, you have an incredible service, but you must keep re-inventing it to be a darling of people. I hope they act fast before its too late.

Worried about GC,
H@rdeep.

Jott, Twitterfone, Dial2do, Phweet, Next is What?

2008-08-10T06:01:00.000-07:00

Twitter, twitter everywhere.

I remember I signed up for twitter a year ago because this was one thing everywhere on internet. Blogs, news, tech sites, virtually everywhere. So I was curious to see what the heck it is?

I must say its addictive and amazing and the world has accepted & embraced it and used it in several productive (Not to mention unproductive ways too)ways. You can tweet from anywhere & everywhere: mobile phones, desktop software, IMs (Gtalk, AIM, Yahoo IM, MSN), any website, loads of applications, from your browser and of course on twitter.com and its mobile site. I use a handful of things to update my twitter like flock browser, facebook, Gtalk, twittytunes, hellotxt, twitterfone and more. Its fun and easy that we have so many options available, but right now I would love to talk about things which make twitter even more exciting.

Jott, Twitterfone, Dial2do & Phweet. All of them are wonderful. Jott and Dial2do allow you to update your twitter by calling in a number from a landline or mobile while twitterfone does a whole lot more. See details here. Phweet is another gem of an idea which allows you to talk to your twitter friends using a variety of channels including your browser, SIP/VOIP providers, Gizmo5 and even by dialling a U.S number and all the other IMs would be supported too. I am lucky that I had a Phweet yesterday night with Stuart Henshall, 1 of the brains behind phweet and I had a ball talking to him.

In spite of twitter having downtime issues, it still remains a darling with developers who use its APIs to do amazing stuff. I just hope we see more of creativity on this thing. As I ask here NEXT IS WHAT?

Believe me, I can't wait for things to get even better from here now onwards.

A very Excited,
H@rdeep.

GC+Gizmo5 & more marvellous uses.

2008-07-29T07:22:00.000-07:00

Well, if you have been reading this blog you know I am HUGE fan of these 2 amazing services and the way they work together. Grandcentral & Gizmo5.

The possibilities are endless once you have both of them configured perfectly well. (Which is not that great a thing to do). Now I use U.S only websites with them and its fun. I use twitterfone, Dial2do and Jott. They all do various awesome things and the common thing is updating twitter status. Believe me, its an amazing feeling to be able to use these services being in India from your PC.

And mark my words, this is the future of web and telephone convergence. These websites will be a huge success some day soon & I would be so happy & proud that I was always on them right from the beginning. Now some 1 please get me an Iphone 3G and a Nokia N95 8 GB to test the amazing apps for these phones.

:)

In love with these sites,
H@rdeep.

Grandcentral promised this. You can make it happen on Gizmo5

2008-04-19T13:07:00.000-07:00

Grandcentral people have been promising for long that they will try and make it possible to share a forwarding number for 2 accounts. The Grandcentral blog has a post on 10th February regarding it. See here.

Now, this is already possible if you use Gizmo5 for receiving your GC calls. Gizmo5 has a feature "Call Forwarding" which can be found under the "Edit" tab of Gizmo5. So if you have more than 1 GC numbers and have corresponding Gizmo5 accounts also, then you can use the Call forwarding option of 1 of your Gizmo5 Accounts and put in the SIP number provided to you by Gizmo5 in the call forwarding option to receive the calls on the other Gizmo5 account. If this sounds complex, let me make it easier for you.

Suppose you have 2 GC numbers (1585111111 and 1360222222)
& you have linked the number 1585111111 to a Gizmo5 account whose number is 747111111 and the other number 1360222222 is linked to another Gizmo5 account 747222222. Now suppose you use the GC number 585111111(which rings on 747111111) as your primary number and so you need to set up the call forwarding option in your other Gizmo5 account(747222222) and put the number 747111111 in the call forwarding option and save that. That's it. DONE.

You are ready. Now both your GC numbers will ring on your Gizmo5 account 747111111.
So if you use Gizmo5 majority of the times for GC calls, you can share a forwarding number for 2 or more accounts.

P.S. I have done this set up for 3 of my GC numbers and it works perfect.

Let me know if you have any questions.

H@rdeep.

Receive your Grandcentral calls on Any IM

2008-04-19T12:45:00.000-07:00

Yes, this is possible. But before you get excited as to how, I must say you need to wait. This is possible but we need dialpads on IMs, which are not present right now.

So how does it work. I can say it will work for sure in the future because I have tested that myself. For all of those who use Grandcentral outside the U.S and receive calls on their Gizmo Project on their PC or on their compatible cell phones (Nokia E series & N series, Palm Treo or Nokia Tablet phones), and for all those who use Grandcentral in US too and do not use Gizmo 5 other than just for Grandcentral, this would be great news.

Gizmo5 allows you a facility known as "Call forwarding" which can be found under Edit tab of Gizmo 5. Now, the best part is that it can be forwarded free to a SIP URI or another Gizmo Account and the options are "forward unanswered calls" or "forward all calls". So, if you are 1 of those people who use AIM, Yahoo Messenger, MSN messenger or Google Talk the most and are always signed in to any 1 of them rather than Gizmo5, you can forward your calls to any of this IMs for free. Simply put your userid@domain.com in the forward call option and VOILA! its done.(please check if Gtalk2VOIP has something to do with this. IF you do not receive the calls on your IMs, then add Gtalk2VOIP as your buddy in the IMs)

You receive your calls on any 1 of them instead of Gizmo5 when somebody calls your Grandcentral number. Now, the problem is the absence of dialpads on these IMs. Since Grandcentral calls require you to press 1, 2 or 3 or other keys to answer your call or divert it to Voicemail or listen in while Voicemail, you cannot answer the calls because none of these IMs have a dialpad and so as soon as any of them has a dilapad(we hear that Google Talk will have 1 soon & then Grandcentral Integration with GTalk is also rumoured), it will be possible.

As for now all we can do is hope that the dialpads arrive soon.

P.S. I think it will be possible to divert calls to Skype too if we know the SIP details of Skype for our account.

H@rdeep.

Gizmo 5 + Grandcentral = Endless possibilities

2008-04-19T11:39:00.000-07:00

First things first. I sometimes think this blog should be named something related to Gizmo project(now known as Gizmo5), because I write a lot about them. Can't help it. The software is the Best VOIP software ever made.

And for those of you who think, I am paid for doing this, lemme clarify I AM NOT(though I wish I was. Gizmo 5 people, Are you guys listening?) Its just that something that is so brilliant and is continuously improving needs to be written about. But yes, I am a great fan of Grandcentral too. That's another thing which is a brilliant piece of work. Both Gizmo 5 & Grandcentral have no other competitors. And together they make an awesome killer combination.

Now, Gizmo 5 has amazing features. And 2 of the features not listed there are the most amazing features according to me.

1. Of course Grandcentral Integration(there are various people who use Gizmo 5 just because of this reason)

2. Call Forwarding Option

Now Grandcentral Integration is not listed because if they do it nobody would buy an Area 775 number or the Call In number from Gizmo because they can receive calls on Gizmo project for free from their Grandcentral number and

Call Forwarding also does wonders. (See my next post for amazing things that this can do)

Here I wanna discuss about Gizmo5+Grandcentral+Ringbranch.
Now, using Ringbranch with both of these services can be beneficial because it would make sure that you can make free calls to Canada too. Ringbranch allows you to make that possible by assigning you a free number. Now, its simple.

1. You must have all the 3 accounts, Gizmo5, Grandcentral & Ringbranch.
2. You should add YOUR Ringbranch number that is provided to you upon registration on Ringbranch(My Ringbranch number-7703574709. You don't need to add my Ringbranch number. I gave it here just to explain you) to your Grandcentral addressbook.
3. You then need to add all the Canada numbers you need to call in your Ringbranch addressbook.
4. You use the same method of call out from Grandcentral and call your Ringbranch number and answer your call on Gizmo5 [The latest version of Gizmo 5(version 4.0.2 361) has solved the Grandcentral integration issue]
5. When your Gizmo5 rings, you hear the instructions from Ringbranch which says "Either use the speed dial by pressing the speed dial number and # or use dial by name by pressing the * key"
6. That's it, you can call Canada numbers for free now.

Also, since Gizmo 5 allows Backdoor Calling, you can use it to reach U.S and Canada numbers directly also, if the person whom you want to call has registered his cell phone on Ringbranch. Its explained here by Ringbranch people themselves.

Hope this information was useful. Head over to the next post for something that's even more useful. See you there.

H@rdeep.

Jaxtr does some major improvements. Brings the social networking factor in.

2008-02-26T08:13:00.000-08:00

Café jaxtr » Welcome to the world's largest talk network.

Thats how They describe it. Yes Jaxtr did some amazing improvements to its site and brought the much needed "social networking" factor in. They have 10 million registered users now worldwide and they want to connect all of them to each other.

4 major improvements that happened are as under:

a). Free International Text Messaging
b). Cafe Jaxtr Talk Network
c). Your Global Contact Page
d). Advance Privacy Controls

So now besides free international calls, they have free text messages too in there and also a community kind of place where all the registered members can interact with each other and make new friends, discuss about a topic or do much more. Basically Jaxtr people have tried to build a social networking site out of a free calls thing & I must say this is 1 clever move. I mean this is an amazing combination and will certainly be more popular than the just the free call site.

Facebook, Orkut, Myspace and other social networking sites rule internet today and if this hits the right note, Jaxtr would soon be a competitor to them because the fun factor is that it will bring people more closer through voice, text messages and thus people will connect faster. great move & an innovation which will have positive reactions from every other site. lets see Jangl, Jajah and even the so called "social networking sites" reaction to this clever move of Jaxtr.

But as always, as a user, I am loving it. A good day so far for me.
1st the google talk improvements and then the Jaxtr thing. And to top it all, I could write about it on the same day. ;)

H@rdeep.

Google talk has some Cool updates

2008-02-26T06:24:00.000-08:00

Yes, Finally Google does add some goodies to the Google talk in Gmail and otherwise too. Its known as "Chatback".

Google People call it The Chatback badge but it is the same as a web call button provided by Grandcentral or Gizmo Project(Now known as Gizmo5) and which you can actually see on my Blogger page. If you find my Blogger page a bit clustered these days, then well I can't help it. 1st came the Grandcentral Voice post which is the "Voice introduction of my blog" and I love the idea. And now comes the Gtalk badge in here too.

It basically reveals your online presence and allows any one to chat with you from your blog or website or for that matter from anywhere. Cool stuff, init?

What makes this special is the fact that no other Messenger like Yahoo, MSN or AOL has done this before and so Gtalk has a hand up here and yes they added the "invisible" mode in Google talk in Gmail. Fun stuff.

This has been 1 of the most requested and needed feature for it. I mean at times I wanted to write My blogs and not to be disturbed by anyone on there or wanted to be on net and just be to myself. Thanks to Google engineers, now its possible. There is a survey of Gtalk where they are asking you what else you require in Gtalk & all the options listed in there are very important. Vote for the options you want to be added in Google talk here or for Gmail here and for Orkut here. I really think the features like webcam and video conferencing and the ability to call landlines and mobiles are something that Google needs to add as quickly as possible. All the additional features listed there are of utmost importance and then I always wanted all the services of Google integrated with 1 another. So Lets see how fast this happens.

As for now, I am happy the improvements have come and I just hope they keep coming. :)

H@rdeep.

GrandCentral Integrated with Blogger

2008-02-22T11:01:00.001-08:00

Oh WOW.

Finally Google is doing stuff with Grandcentral. Yes after acquiring it from the people who were brains behind Dialpad (Acquired by Yahoo and now known as Yahoo Voice), The Grandcentral service went into Beta with Invite only system to register(As happens with all the other services which Google acquires. eg. Jaiku). But then nothing much happened(At least it was not visible).

And now Google has tried to integrate it into its services(while I thought Google talk would be the 1st service where it will happen & it is inevitable and gonna happen sooner or later), the surprise package comes in here as "Blogger".

To cut short this post here, I would like you guys to go her e and read more about this Integration.

All I can say is 1 more great thing from Google. And yes I love these guys. Keep up the good work people.

H@rdeep.

Sabeer Bhatia says "sabsebolo"

2008-02-18T06:51:00.000-08:00

When Microsoft bought Hotmail from Sabeer Bhatia for $400 million in 1997, it made news all over the world and Sabeer Bhatia became the most eligible bachelor in India. He sure did a great job by making the world's 1st free email service, but then didn't do as well with any of the future projects.

His website Arzoo, which is a travel planning site is not even 1% known if we compare to Hotmail and now I saw that Mr. Bhatia is up to something that is the order of the day. Voice 2.0. Connecting mobile and land line phones to internet. And the newest venture is called Sabsebolo( which simply means Talk 2 everyone in Hindi). It has the following features:

FREE Conferencing services

+91 (0)22-3980-4444

Instant access from any land line or mobile device.
Crystal Clear, all digital connections.
Secure and private.
Available on demand, 24/7.
Account never expires.
Dedicated number never expires.
Conference up to 10 callers.

So Mr. Bhatia wants Indians to have a free conference facility. Yes, they don't charge you anything to use this service. All you have to pay is just the local (In case of Mumbai) and STD (In case of all the other states in India) call charges which can also be 1 Rs/minute depending upon your plan with the carrier.

Lets hope Mr. Bhatia gets great fame and lots of users with this service, though I dont see much future of this unless we have just 1 flat rate for calling all over India without any extra plan charges. There is still a lot to be done in that area to make services like these a success in true sense. But lets just wish Sabeer all the best.

H@rdeep.

Raketu makes news

2008-02-18T01:20:00.000-08:00

Raketu’s latest offering won’t replace your SIM card, but it
does come pretty close.

How much competition can the mobile VoIP sector stand?
Apparently, plenty. Are there so many people who want to make cheap international calls on their cell phones that room has been made for yet another company to compete with fring, Mobivox and EQO Communications Inc.? (Not to mention iSkoot, Nimbuzz, Tello, the Gizmo Project and so on.) Raketu thinks so. Over a few weeks in January 2008, Raketu rolled out two mobile VoIP clients, one for BlackBerry devices and another for Windows Mobile-based smartphones. Raketu released its iPhone client a month earlier, in December 2007.

How It Works

Raketu (which means “rocket” in Czech) is different from its competition because it’s not only a mobile VoIP company but a synthesis of voice, media and social networking. With its phone system, like other mobile VoIP companies, Raketu offers a
combination of free and cheap international calling rates.

Unlike its competition, Raketu offers four calling methods, varying from free to cheap. In addition to mobile VoIP calling, Raketu also offers Skype-like PC-to-PC calling, PC-to-phone calling and phone-to-phone calls established by text messaging.
While Raketu uses P2P (peer-to-peer) technology to transmit these international calls, the company is quick to point out that its P2P technology is a more direct method than that of Skype and other services use that rely on supernodes —
intermediate computers between the call’s source and destination — to carry the load. Raketu states firmly: No supernodes! This makes calling from Raketu faster and more secure.

While its mobile offerings are new, Raketu has been generating buzz since 2006, when it rolled out its first VoIP offering. “It shows definite promise,” the VoIP Service Blog wrote in its November 2006 review. “Never have I seen this many features
wrapped up in an IM client.” PC Magazine noted that Raketu's service even worked over a dial-up connection, as well as broadband, and wrote that “although far from perfect right now, it offers plenty and shows a lot of promise.”

Soon, Raketu plans to issue incoming phone numbers, which will allow users to receive calls and text messages, similar to the SkypeIn service.

Raketu’s Future

Before the day comes when Raketu can successfully bypass a phone’s SIM card using the phone’s data connection, there is one obstacle standing in its way, according to Silicon Alley Insider: the major mobile carriers.

“The carriers won’t like it, and will bounce you from their networks if they find out. Most mobile data contracts expressly prohibit using their data network to stream audio, which is exactly what you're doing,” Silicon Alley Insider wrote.

This could all change with Verizon Wireless’ open-access plans, but Silicon Alley Insider noted that the company intends to charge by users’ bandwidth use, so “free” phone calls won’t be cheap.

H@rdeep.

ooVoo - Innovative name & free calls to U.S and Canada for a month

2008-02-07T01:06:00.000-08:00

Finally 1 more great news.

Free calls to U.S and Canada and I am reporing it 1st. (Vinay, get a clue buddy). Everyone loves a free lunch, so just about everyone should love ooVoo, at least until the end of the month.

The video conferencing company has just launched its new VoIP to landline/mobile phone service and is kicking things off with a month of free calls to the United States and Canada. That’s right, free calls from your computer to anyone’s phone and with no advertisements to ruin the party.

The best part: the company isn’t collecting credit card numbers so you don’t have to worry about canceling an account by March 1st. The worst part: no support for Macs. And the most worrisome part, its disclaimer:

ooVoo reserves the right to change the offer at any time with no notice.

Let’s hope the service’s popularity won’t force it to cut things short.

ooVoo, the Israeli company offers an impressive range of videoconferencing capabilities including six-person video sessions, video stream recording, and in-call video effects, Chats, video Messages and exchanging file capabilities.

This should be 1 company to look forward to. I hope I can make things better here. I really want new stuff reported here before any 1 else. Keep an eye on this blog people.

H@rdeep

Gizmo Again

2008-01-23T04:59:00.000-08:00

hey ppl,

Its been quite loooong now and a quiet stuff out here on "My Mobile Blog".
1. Because I did not have much to write about.
2. Because I do not keep track of websites and VOIP world as well as Vinay does.

But Finally I have some thing great to write here and this is a killer stuff. I mean Gizmo project has been my most favorite VOIP software piece and they gave me and all the Indians, their relatives and friends worldwide a BIG GIFT by adding "INDIA" to their ACF (ACF = All Calls Free) list of countries. YES.

This is 1 hell of a news and I am surprised why is Gizmo Project or people at Sipphone actually not advertising this stuff or making a big deal about it when they actually should. I mean come on India being added to the list of ACF is 1 thing that can make Gizmo project the most widely used VOIP software in the world. Skype, Yahoo Messenger, Gtalk, MSN, AIM, MyspaceIM and all the other VOIP software will have a tough time competing with Gizmo when thousands of users will register and start using Gizmo project in India and worldwide because they can call any landline and mobile phones in India for free*.

Of course the conditions apply*. And this time they are stringent as they have been recently changed, but then who the hell cares. We can still make it. And to make this news spread like wild fire I am sending this to Vinay who I am sure will give this news its due. So again Gizmo people should actually think of employing and paying [:P] me and Vinay.

Here are the conditions. And the page also lists the countries. India is there. So Vinay, I hope you will have a great post and make Gizmo the most popular VOIP software. I suggest Vinay to write to them and talk about employing me and him for them as "Brand Ambassadors". And yes I am going to get maximum people on Gizmo again by sending them the mail. All I want is that they should all be registered and also have "active" status so that we can talk for free. Finally "Talk is FREE". Now the ball is in your court Skype, MSN, Google, AIM, Yahoo. Lets see what these biggies do to save themselves. I just hope we see great results after this and Vinay's posts.

H@rdeep

Gizmo does a NimBuzz

2007-09-17T00:48:00.000-07:00

After I finished off writing my previous blog post praising Gizmo Project which they actually deserve, I headed over to Gizmo forums and guess what?

They gave me a pleasant surprise. This.
OK. Thats Gizmo for mobile. Now whats so good about it. This people just don't rest. This makes Gizmo a great VOIP software. Its available for any damn mobile handset now and you can chat and call and receive calls from all your Yahoo, AIM, Gtalk and MSN buddies right on your cell or any international number just like Gizmo Project on your PC. The only other VOIP software maker who has this kind of presence(PC application, Mobile VOIP software for smart phones and other mobile phones supporting java applications) is NimBuzz.

Check out Gizmo for mobile and yes if you team up/link it with Grandcentral, you have the ability to receive incoming calls on your cell if any of your friend dials the Grandcentral number.

And yes if You do not understand anything or still have questions visit the Gizmo for mobile FAQ page

So just Thank the Gizmo people and hope they never rest and keep improving our VOIP experience. Kudos to the Gizmo team. Just a small information more. Check out Gizmocall and GizmoSMS also. These sites may also interest you

H@rdeep

Gizmo Project- The BEST VOIP software

2007-09-16T09:22:00.000-07:00

They call it:
Gizmo is a Free Phone for Your Computer
That makes calling as easy as instant messaging

And I totally agree with them. When Gizmo Project was launched, it received great coverage everywhere on internet as the Skype killer and I must say yes it is. I mean for starters it provides features which are way great than Skype. Check this:
Why use Gizmo?

* It’s FREE!
* FREE call's to any Gizmo Project, Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk, or Windows
Live user
* Chat with AIM, MSN and Yahoo buddies
* Free Voicemail and Conference calling.
* Super clear call quality
* Inexpensive add-ons that let you make and receive calls from any mobile phone or landline

and features like this make it a Complete phone
Custom Avatars

Customize your avatar by picking a personalized graphic. Your avatar is the picture used to represent yourself in Gizmo Project.
Learn More »

Gizmo users can now exchange files!

Gizmo Project now supports file transfers via the Jabber protocol. This means users can now exchange files with anyone using a jabber client!
Learn More »

Chat History

Chat history allows you to save all your past IM conversations. In the Chat History window you can click on a contacts name and see all your previous chats with that person listed by date. IM chats often contain important information and now it's easily accessible.
Learn More »

Chat with several users at once!

Gizmo Project now allows you to create and join group chats, this way you can participate in several conversations at the same time.
Learn More »

Customize Voicemail Messages

Record your own outgoing voicemail messages. (So when people call you, and you don't answer, they will hear your voice, instead of a generic message)
Learn more »

Instant Messaging (IM)

Click on the IM icon next to your contacts name and you can instantly text message other Gizmo Project users.
Learn more »

Free Mobile phone and Landline Conference Calling

The Gizmo Project network provides a free conference calling system. Using FreeConferenceCallTM you can conduct a conference call between mobile phones, landlines, and Gizmo Project users.
Learn more »

Asterisk PBX Support

Starting with Gizmo Project 2.0 for Mac and Windows you can now log into your office PBX (like the popular Asterisk PBX software) and the Gizmo Project network at the same time. This lets you be universally reachable and seamlessly receive calls from your office while anywhere in the world!
Learn more »

SIP Number

Your Gizmo Project account has two important identifiers. The first is your Gizmo name. The second is the SIP number, which is automatically assigned to your account. With this number, VoIP networks can reach your Gizmo account free.
Learn more »

Access Numbers

Access Numbers are a gateway to make calls to your Gizmo from the old phone system. With a simple, two-step dialing procedure, anyone on any phone can give your Gizmo a ring.
Keep reading »

Calling Other VoIP Networks

You can make calls to and receive calls from VoIP networks all over the world, including Asterisk-based networks. Even some universities have begun connecting their campus networks.
Learn more »

Call Recording

Your Gizmo software has call recording functionality built in. At the top of the call drawer, you’ll see three buttons which allow you to mute, hold or record a call. Learn more about this powerful feature, and some important restrictions you need to know.
Learn more »

SIP Adapters

Super simple software not enough? If you are interested in making and receiving Gizmo calls with a regular telephone (even if your computer is turned off), you can, and it’s cheaper than you might think. Learn more about these Gizmo friendly phone adapters »

Ok Now if any of the employees or people at Gizmo project are reading my blog and they find a sudden surge in registered users you know I did it and I deserve a Share of the pie :)

Yes a great tip, Gizmo offers free calls to 6o countries too. NO CATCH HERE. and yes if You are thinking to receive calls on Gizmo DONT PURCHASE GIZMO CALL IN or Area 775. Just link Gizmo with Grandcentral. For more details refer this post

Happy Gizmoing.

Let me know your experiences of using Gizmo project and hope I can see more of you reading my blog regularly. Spread the word.

H@rdeep

Free incoming calls from anywhere in the world

2007-09-16T09:05:00.000-07:00

Since my last post I have got some comments and encouragement to write more about Mobile VOIP. We all want our friends, relatives and acquaintances to be able to call us for free on our cell phone because we are able to answer it any time whereas its not the case with landline.

So here is another great VOIP company which can do that for you. Its called jaxtr. Just register your cellphone and landline(you can register upto 3 numbers on 1 account) on jaxtr and receive calls from anywhere in the world for free. They provide you even the gadget which you can post on blogs(Just like I have done) and even on websites. Also the incoming calls are limited to 100 minutes/month but Yes it is free and any one can call you on your cellphone from the entire world.

The sad news for Indians is that you can receive just 16 minutes of incoming calls as jaxtr provides you 100 jax/month which is utilized normally as 1 jax/min(so 100 minutes/month) but India being in the VOIP ban list where call termination charges have to be paid by foreign service providers(VOIP, PSTN and mobile providers) they use up 6 jax/minutes which just gives you 16 minutes of incoming calls(16 multiplied by 6=96)

Tip:- Don't forget to uncheck "Privacy Shield: Receive calls only from people I approve" otherwise the calls would go to voicemail. Hope this post helps you get connected top people across the world. And yes I love Nokia's punch line "connecting people" thats what I love to do

H@rdeep

Totally Free incoming calls from anywhere in the world

2007-09-14T14:42:00.000-07:00

Vinay just wrote a post "Totally Free incoming and outgoing calls to USA". I would add to it and make it "Totally Free incoming calls from anywhere in the world right on your mobile"(even in INDIA).

I personally hate when all the VOIP companies start up in and give more preference to USA, but we Indians have the knack of using it to our benefit no matter wherever we are :)

I love Gizmo project and yes I have a Grandcentral Account too. This is what you need.

Ok here are the steps:

1. Get a Grandcentral account(Needs invitation)
2. Register & Download Gizmo Project on your PC(for receiving calls on PC) or on supported mobile devices (Nokia) or Palm treo(If you want to receive calls on your mobiles)
3. In your Grandcentral Account, you can add upto 6 numbers where you can receive calls and you can also add Gizmoproject (see this) & this
4. Now if you are registered with Grandcentral and Gizmo and you link them, you can receive calls anywhere in the world for free on your PC or mobile(& yes even in India).

Making Outgoing Calls with GrandCentral:

1) Login to GrandCentral
2) Go to click2call feature
3) Dial any USA number
4) It will first call you and then connect you to the party!
5) For non-USA residents, If you have setup everything correctly, you can also receive this call on your Gizmoproject.

Happy calling to USA and yeah don't forget to give your USA number. Show it off as if you live in USA :-)

I have emailed my Blog link to Vinay and since I am novice to VOIP and blogs in general, any suggestions are welcome. I will try and improve and will keep providing valuable information in the future. Thanks for reading.

H@rdeep.