Viber Application Review

I've been using Viber on both my Blackberry Bold 9700 and my Samsung Nexus-S for approximately 1 week and I thought that now was a good time to write a short review on it. Even though I installed/used the program both on my AndroidOS phone (Samsung Nexus-S) and m Blackberry phone (Bold 9700), the majority of my review is based on me using the program on my Blackberry since I was mainly looking for a cross-platform chat program since there were some things that I didn't like about Touch or Kik. Viber is also available for the iOS platform but unfortunately I wasn't able to install it on my iPhone 3GS because I haven't updated the OS in awhile and the version of Viber in the Apple Apps Store isn't compatible with the iOS version that I am still running on m iPhone 3GS.

Viber is a cross-platform phone OS application that allows for voice chat as well as text chat. On the Blackberry platform, it only allows for text chat. According to documentation on the company's website, there are plans to include voice chat capabilities to the Blackberry version of the program but based on the VoIP applications that I've used/tried on my Blackberry, I find it doubtful that it will include VoIP capabilities and if it does, I would expect that the sound quality to not be as good as what it is for the Android platform or the iOS platform.

What I like about Viber is that the registration process is very simple and works via the phone number that is registered as opposed to a username/userID. This makes it easy to add people (or know when people are using Viber) since you don't have to ask them for their username/userID. It also integrates with your phone's address book so that you are notified if anyone in your addressbook is using Viber. If someone has you in their address book (and they have Viber) but you don't have that person in our address book, he/she won't appear as a Viber user in our Viber application.

Registration occurs via SMS or in case your mobile phone isn't capable of receiving SMS (because it is blocked), you can also register the program by receiving an automated voice call. I've tested both and both work without any issues. With the SMS registration option, you receive an SMS on your phone indicating a 4 digit code which you must enter into the Viber program. With the automated voice call option, your phone will ring and you will received an automated message with a 4 digit code that you must enter into the Viber program. In cases of installs/uninstalls, you can only register the phone number twice within a 24 hour period and the application will only work on 1 phone at a time (with the same phone number). If installing onto a second phone and if you were to use the same phone number, Viber would automatically unregister the first phone from its system.

Something else that I like about Viber is that because it integrates with your address book is that the person's name in Viber (if they obviously have Viber installed on their phone) will appear exactly as it does in our address book. It is your phone so why should your contact be able to specify what name/nickname appears on your phone.

Whenever one of the people in your address book install (or have Viber) installed on their cellphone, you will receive a message that they have Viber installed on their device. Some people might have privacy concerns regarding this notification. I don't have any problem with this notification because the contacts will only receive a notification regarding the fact that I've installed Viber if I'm already in their address book so they would already have my contact information and be able to contact me irregardless of whether I had Viber installed or not.

There was a brief problem during my testing period with the text chat on my Blackberry. According to the company's Facebook page, this was due to a problem with the server (Amazon) that they were using but all in all I find the text chat to be very good.

In terms of the VoIP capabilities of the program on my Android phone, I haven't really tested this but it allows you to voice chat only with people in your contacts and does not call phone numbers via VoIP. Because the VoIP capabilities/quality of the call would not only depend on your internet bandwidth/quality but also on the internet bandwidth/quality of the person you're speaking with, for the time being, I don't really have a need for this. I use other phone applications that are 100% VoIP and call actual phone numbers using the internet which doesn't rely on whether the person I'm calling has a data plan or is connected to the internet via WiFi.

If you have any questions/comments regarding this blog entry, please don't hesitate to leave a comment in the comments section below. Please note that comments are moderated and any comment that contains a URL link (whether embedded or not) will be automatically flagged as being spam and will not be posted.

Vonage Mobile Review

I've been using Vonage Mobile on my iPhone 3GS and on my Samsung Nexus-S for a few weeks (after it started being available to Canadians) and I thought that I would write a mini review of the application.


The application does not require that you are a "regular" (landline VoIP) customer. For both applications, you install the program from either the Apps Store (iPhone) or the Android Market (AndroidOS).


For both platforms, after the Vonage Mobile application is installed, the user is required to accept the terms of service. You are then prompted to enter the phone number that you want to associate with the program (in terms of outgoing call display). The default phone number is the phone number for your mobile although you can change the number to another mobile or a regular landline phone. After entering the phone number, the Vonage system sends an SMS to the phone number with a 6 digit confirmation number which you are prompted to enter into the appropriate box. If you don't receive the 6 digit confirmation SMS for whatever reason such as if you decided to use a landline phone number, you are prompted to have the Vonage system call the phone number and give you the 6 digit number. This is what I did for my landline phone.


After confirming the phone number entered for the Vonage Mobile application, the program imports the contact list from the phone. In my case, the contact list is from Google contacts for all my devices. This makes it easier for me because I only have to change/add/delete a contact in one of my devices (or directly on Google Contacts) and the devices will automatically get the updated information. Because I'm using Google Contacts for my phone's addressbook, this is where I noticed a difference in how the program worked on my iPhone 3GS and my Nexus-S. For my iPhone 3GS, only the contacts which were directly listed in my iPhone 3GS were available to me on Vonage Mobile's contact list. However, for my Samsung Nexus-S (and I'm assuming for all AndroidOS devices), Vonage Mobile's contact list not only included the contacts which I saw on my phone itself (which are imported from Google Contacts "My Contacts") but also included the Google Contacts from "Other Contacts". Some people might prefer that the "Other Contacts" is imported but for me, I didn't like it.


I tested the call quality over WiFi and 3G/3.5G/4G (I'm not referring to LTE) and I would say that the call quality is decent (I would say comparable to Skype). I would use the program for short calls (under 5 minutes) over the cellular data network but I would not use it longer due to the latency which can sometimes get annoying. Over WiFi, I find the call quality to be a lot better. Vonage Mobile's call quality (like all VoIP) is largely dependent on the quality of the internet (speed, latency, etc.). Because of this, depending on your cellular network carrier's data network, the latency problem might not be as annoying to you.


The outgoing call display number does work (and displays the phone number that was confirmed initially).


Please note that Vonage Mobile does not allow for the accepting of calls. You can only use this program to make calls and to send messages to people who have this program on their device. The messages sent use the data network (or WiFi) and does not use the carrier's SMS network which can save costs for people who don't have SMS/text plans.


As of the date that I'm posting my review, Vonage Mobile offers 3000 minutes per month for free to call landlines and mobiles in  Canada, the US, and Puerto Rico. I'm not sure how long this offer will remain but it is probably a good idea to give the program a try given that it is currently free and you can make 3000 minutes per month in free calls (whereas Skype charges per minute unless you have a Skype monthly plan).

If you have any questions/comments regarding this blog entry, please don't hesitate to leave a comment in the comments section.

Netgear SPH200D Dual-mode Cordless Phone with Skype Review

When I subscribed to the unlimited North American Skype Plan, I purchased this phone. At the time, I already had the Belkin Wi-Fi Skype phone but because the Belkin device relies on Wi-Fi and I wasn't overly satisfied with the sound quality with the device, I thought that a cordless phone as opposed to one using Wi-Fi would be better.

I believe that at the time that I'm writing this review, Belkin has discontinued this product but I've seen this product for sale occasionally on Ebay.

As you can see from the picture, there are essentially 3 components to this product. The first component is the transmitter unit. It is here that you would have to plug in your regular phone line as well as your RJ-45 network cable from your router. The second component is the handset which is used to make/receive calls. The third component is the handset charging cradle.

One of the things that I like about this product is that the handset is powered by two AAA NiMH batteries so they are easy to replace if necessary.

When someone calls you via Skype, the phone will automatically ring. If someone calls you on your phone number, the phone will also automatically ring. It does all of this transparently/automatically. When you want to place a call, you can have it either automatically use your phone line or Skype or you can have it ask you before each call.

With this device, you can make Skype to Skype calls (these over-the-Internet calls are free), SkypeIn/SkypeOut calls (used to make or receive regular phone calls over the internet at Skype's low per minute rates), and traditional phone calls (it functions as a regular phone through the use of a "landline".)

Now, the most important question is... how is the reception? I find that the reception to be like any other cordless phone for regular phone calls. For Skype calls, I find the call quality to be better than the Belkin Wi-Fi Skype phone but it is nowhere as good as a regular phone call and can't be mistaken as a regular phone call.

Similar to the Belkin Wi-Fi Skype phone, the Skype contact list appears on the display and you can add/delete someone from your Skype contact list directly using the handset. Once added/deleted, these changes are made to your account's contact list so when you use Skype on a PC or another Skype device, the addition/deletion will also be reflected there.

This device supports up to 4 handsets where the additional handsets are sold separately. If you ever lose/misplace one of the handsets (and the handset still has power), there is a paging function on the top of the transmitting unit that you can press. Once pressed, it will page all the handsets that are "married" to the transmitting unit and that are within range and they will all ring.

The cordless phone technology for the Netgear Dual-mode Cordless Phone uses DECT 6.0 (Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications) and broadcasts in the 1.8/1.9 GHz band which according to the documentation should avoid interfering with Wi-Fi networks as well as offering long range and clear voice quality. Based on my usage, I found that cordless call quality (using the regular phone line) to be on par with other cordless phones that I've used in the past.

If you have any questions/comments regarding this blog entry, please don't hesitate to leave a comment in the comments section.

Belkin Wi-Fi Phone for Skype Review

A few years ago, when their was a sale, I purchased a Belkin Wi-Fi phone for Skype (F1PP000GN-SK) when I was subscribed to Skype's unlimited North American plan. I was looking for a way of making calls without needing my computer to be on. Even when my computer was on, I did not want to always be running Skype in the background. This phone seemed like a good idea.

In terms of the physical construction of the phone, I find that it is okay (not great... just okay). The keys don't seem to be that great and sometimes the phone will not detect that a key has been pressed.

This phone supports WPA (as well as the weaker WEP) and is also capable of connecting to wireless routers that aren't broadcasting their SSIDs. The phone supports the B & G wireless standards. Connecting to the Skype service is fairly straight forward. Once connected, the phone automatically displays the time (you have to configure the settings and manually adjust/change the time/date based on your time zone), your Skype balance, as well as your online status. Using the joystick pad on the phone, you can navigate through the menu system. Your Skype contacts' availability status will be displayed when you access the "Contacts" menu.

The phone is rechargeable and it recharges via a standard USB cable. According to the documentation, the battery is the same rechargeable lithium ion battery for digital cameras/camcorders made by Fujifilm, Pentax, and Panasonic. I haven't had to replace the battery so I'm not sure how easy it is to find the battery (NP-60).

In terms of sound quality, I find that the Belkin Wi-Fi phone for Skype does a sub par job. I find the sound to be very low when speaking to someone and my Skype contacts have informed me that there are sometimes gaps in the sound. They have also informed me that sometimes the sound level is very low.

Another negative thing about the Belkin Wi-Fi phone is that if someone decides to text chat with you because they see your status on Skype is "Available/Online", you won't get the text message. You will also not be able to reply to their text message on the phone.

I have used the Belkin Wi-Fi phone both to contact Skype users and I've also used it to make regular phone calls. The sound quality is similar in both cases. The sound quality would get better when I approached my wireless router but it would never be what I would consider great.

If you have any questions/comments regarding my review on the Belkin Wi-Fi Phone for Skype, please don't hesitate to leave a comment in the comments section.

DID (Direct Inward Dialing) Phone Number

Some people asked me about my telephone service/features and one of the pay services that I use in order to get a DID (direct inward dialing) phone number is from VoIP.ms.

VoIP.ms offers a lot of features and it would be too long for me to go into all the features so you can check out their website.

I only use their service in order to get a phone number to use as a forwarding number. I find their rates very reasonable for this. When I travel to the US with one of my US prepaid cellphones, I will purchase a local Montreal phone number from them so that my friends/family does not have to pay long distance in order to reach me. I set this Montreal number to forward all calls (or only certain calls) to my prepaid US cellphone. I also use them in order to obtain a Canadian (Montreal) number to forward to my Google Voice number.

I've also done this with a toll free number (purchasing a toll free number) from this website but I found that based on the call volume that I was receiving and the extra costs of a toll free number as well as the fact that when I travel to the US over 95% of the people whom I want to be able to reach me for free at located within the Montreal local calling area, in my case, it was not practical.

In order to use the VoIP.ms services, you will obviously have to register on their website. After registering, you will see all the features and prices. Prior to registering, you are only given a brief cost structure for most of their more popular services. Once you've registered, if you want to purchase a phone number or any pay service, you will have to have a positive balance on your account. The company accepts PayPal, credit cards from certain countries, wire transfer, etc. as a means of payment. The minimum payment is $25 via PayPal.

In terms of the price plans for DID phone numbers, there is an unlimited monthly plan and a pay per use monthly plan. Initially, I opted for the unlimited monthly plan but then later opted for the pay per use monthly plan.

Using VoIP.ms, you can also set up your unlocked VoIP router and get phone service similar to what you would get with the locked Vonage router. I haven't tried this myself but it does look like something that I might eventually try in the future. If I do, I will write a blog entry for it  ;-)

Something else that you can do with VoIP.ms is that you can use their service in order to install/configure your own Asterisk server. I haven't done this either but I know someone who has implemented this and it is definitely an interesting project that I might attempt as well.

If you have any questions/comments regarding this blog entry, please don't hesitate to leave a comment in the comments section.

Free Canadian Phone Number (with Free Calling capabilities)

Quite a few people ask me about all the phone numbers that I have as well as the costs associated with the phone numbers. I've already written about magicJack, Skype, some of my GSM service providers, etc. so I thought that I would mention freephoneline.ca.

Freephoneline.ca is a service that I've used to get a free phone number in Toronto. You can see all the free features offered by this service on their website. Using a softphone computer program which can be downloaded from the company's website, you are able to make/receive calls. When you are not logged into the softphone program, you can configure the software to forward to certain Canadian phone numbers free of charge. This is what I did with my Toronto number. I would set it to automatically forward to my Montreal number. This way, people in Toronto could call me in Montreal for free. Unfortunately because I didn't actively use the program, the company canceled my free Toronto phone number.

The company allows 1 free phone number per household. During the registration process, you are asked for the standard personal information (name, address, e-mail address, and contact phone number). You are not asked for any credit card information. Using the contact phone number and your e-mail address, the system calls you in order to complete the authentication process.

The company will continue to conduct their verification process and if the company detects any discrepancies with the registration information that you've provided, you will receive an e-mail informing you that your account has been deleted/canceled even though you've already authenticated yourself via e-mail and via your personal contact phone number.

Based on the information that I've read, the freephoneline.ca service also works with ATA SIP adapter. Unfortunately I've never verified this although I did download the ATA configuration instructions. Using the provided Canadian phone number in your ATA SIP adapter is free as long as you limit your calls to Canadian numbers. It is something that I am looking at trying, if I ever purchase an unlocked ATA VoIP adapter. Unfortunately, as mentioned above, the company deleted/canceled my account because of non-use so I will have to get a new free Canadian phone number when I get a chance.

I've also never used the softphone feature. I would assume that the audio quality is similar to the audio quality obtained by other VoIP solutions like Skype, magicJack, etc.

The only thing that I've used the freephoneline.ca service was to forward the Toronto number that they provided me to one of my Montreal numbers. I found that this worked well although once or twice people have informed me that they've called me at the Toronto number and according to them the phone was ringing but my Montreal phone did not ring nor was the call forwarded to my Montreal voice mail box. I find the audio quality of a forwarded call to be good. There was the occasional problem but this might have been due to me forwarding my Toronto number to a Montreal cellphone that had poor coverage.

My actual suggestion for anyone who wants a free Canadian phone number is to install the softphone onto their PC and have it log into their server occasionally in order to keep your account active. I didn't do this since I was only using their service as a free Toronto forwarding phone number to one of my Montreal phone numbers.

If you have any questions/comments regarding this blog entry, please don't hesitate to leave a comment in the comments section.

magicJack Review

I purchased the magicJack approximately 1 year ago at a local store for some testing after reading about it on the internet and watching a few infomercials.

MagicJack is a device that plugs into a PC's (running Windows) USB port that allows users to make/receive free calls to Canada and the US. According to the company's website, magicJack also works on Macs but I don't know anything about this since I've never tried the magicJack dongle on a Mac.

Even though I purchased my magicJack approximately 1 year ago (it will be up for renewal within a few months), I remember the installation being very straightforward. Once the magicJack is plugged into the computer's USB port directly or via the included USB short extension cord, the program automatically installs if autorun is enabled. If autorun is not enabled, I believe that a drive is mounted on the computer. You would then have to double-click on "My Computer" or "Computer" and double-click on the appropriate drive which represents the magicJack device and run the associated installation program.

During the installation process, you are asked to register by including your name and address for emergency 911 service. You are also asked to select an area code in the United States. The program only supplies phone numbers for the US but using various non-associated/non-affiliated workarounds, you are able to have people call a Canadian number reach your magicJack number but when you call people with your magicJack line, the outgoing phone number will be your US number. With the purchase of the magicJack USB device, it includes 1 year of free service/subscription. The subscription gives you free calling to Canada and the US. You are not asked for any credit card information until your free subscription expires or you want to make calls outside of Canada/US.

The magicJack software/service also includes voice mail, call display, call logging, and call forwarding. There is apparently some unknown limit to the amount of free calls that you can do to Canada and the US but I believe that it is sufficiently high enough for most consumers. There is mention on various forums and blogs of users being cut-off when they've exceeded the number of minutes for calling the Canada and the US within a month.

Technical support for the magicJack is entirely done by online chatting. There is absolutely no call-in support. There is also mention that the program runs in the background on your PC and monitors what you do and the numbers that you call in order to target advertisements to you based on the wording in the licensing agreement. You will find many users mentioning this on the internet.

Another negative thing about this program is that there is no automated uninstall for the program. After your 1 year of included free service (subscription) expires, if you don't want to renew your subscription and/or continue using magicJack, you will have to manually uninstall the program. Searching on the internet, I managed to uninstall the program from my PC. I'm not sure if following the instructions removed all the components of the program but it seemed to be uninstalled from my PC and even with some programs that include uninstall programs, the uninstall programs still leave remnants of the program on the PC. A few months later, I reformatted my PC since I wanted to install a new OS on it.

I have since installed magicJack on a low powered laptop that I don't use for anything else so even if magicJack was monitoring my internet usage (which it might not be doing), it doesn't really affect me.

In terms of the sound quality of magicJack, I find it to be very good. I've tried it both using my cable internet connection as well as my celluar carrier's 3G data network. With the carrier's 3G data network, there is some latency and pauses in the audio but I think that it was fine for short calls. Something that I noticed with my magicJack was that if the phone call lasted over 30 minutes, the line would disconnect. I'm not sure if this was a problem with my unit or a built-in limitation of the service/hardware. When this happened (and it happened rarely since I rarely used my magicJack and I also rarely talk on the phone for more than 30 minutes on the same call), I just dialed the number again. I find the sound quality better than Skype but this could be because I am using a real telephone with my magicJack but I'm using a cheap headset when using Skype.

Even though I find the sound quality to be good for magicJack, I don't recommend using it as your only source of making/receiving calls even if you live in the US. The reason for this is that even though the sound quality is good (but obviously dependent on the quality (speed) of your internet connection), based on my limited usage, I've experienced problems occasionally when making/receiving calls. One such problem that I encountered was that when calling Canadian Rogers or Fido cellphones, it would appear as if I was ringing the recipient's cellphone but in fact, his/her cellphone was not ringing at all. There was also the "annoying" cut-off that seemed to occur for me roughly 30 minutes into a call (I experienced this a few times but didn't test it enough to know if it always happens or whether it was due to some internet connection problem).

The service/subscription price is approximately $20US per year. I find it to be a cheap alternative for a second line provided that you have a PC that is always on (or you're willing to turn on the PC whenever you make calls).

There is an unofficial MagicJack forum located *HERE* where you can find information about minor hacking, tweaking, and/or using the magicJack as well as possibly solving some of your magicJack problems/issues.

If you have any questions/comments regarding my review on magicJack, please don't hesitate to leave a comment in the comments section.

Skype

I thought that I would write about Skype. For those of you unfamiliar with Skype, where have you been?  ;-)

Skype combines VoIP and instant messaging in their proprietary product. As I'm writing this, Skype was recently sold or a large stack of it was sold by Ebay.

I've been using Skype for awhile and I have 2 Skype phones. One Skype phone works via WiFi and the other Skype phone works via a cordless handset where the charging dock is plugged into a network cable. I've also used Skype on my PC/laptop/netbook.

I find the audio and video quality of Skype when using my PC/netbook to be very good. I've also used Skype via my carrier's 3G network and I find that the voice quality is acceptable for short calls but for longer calls because of the latency which can be ten times larger than what I get with my land based internet service, conversations can sometimes get annoying.

I used to subscribe to the unlimited US/Canada plan but because I have many long distance options available to me, I cancelled my Skype voice plan after the first year but continue to use my account for Skype to Skype text chatting or Skype to Skype voice chatting as well as the occasional Skype to phone (pay per use).

If you have any questions/comments regarding my review on Skype, please don't hesitate to leave a comment in the comments section.

Vonage Talk Alpha Abandoned/Decommissioned

Vonage Talk for people unfamiliar with it was a free softphone application for Vonage customers similar to Skype, Gizmo5, etc. where customers could make phone calls to Canada/US numbers and have their Vonage numbers display on the call display of the recipient's phone. Another feature of Vonage Talk was that anyone calling you could answer calls with the Vonage Talk software whenever someone called your Vonage number. The Vonage system accomplished this by creating a SimulRing to an additional number which represented your VonageTalk software client login. The Vonage Talk software also allowed you to enter and use certain instant messaging protocols like MSN, Yahoo, and GoogleTalk somewhat similar to Pidgin and Trillian. Vonage Talk Alpha was abandoned/cancelled earlier this month. I received a voice mail from them informing me that it was cancelled. A transcript of the voice mail message is here:

"Hello from Vonage. We want to thank you for helping us try out our Vonage Talk Alpha feature. Since the Alpha test of this product is now finalized, Vonage Talk Alpha has been decommissioned. If you like Vonage Talk, give our updated product Vonage Companion a try. It's available as part of our Vonage Pro plan. You can sign up for Vonage Pro online at www.vonage.com. Thanks again for your participation."

Since I had a hardware USB Vonage solution with limited minutes (my plan no longer exists on the Canadian Vonage website.), I was able to use Vonage Talk for free. Since I almost always had access to a phone whether it was a cellphone or a landline, I was only an occasionally user of Vonage Talk. I used it whenever I travelled and had internet access and my laptop. The quality was not the best but for short calls, I found it okay and since it deducted from Vonage minutes which I rarely used, I didn't have to pay extra to call anyone in Canada/US. Even if I was interested in paying extra and signing up for Vonage Compagnion as outlined in the voice mail message (which I'm probably not because my current Vonage price plan suits me), it isn't available in Canada (to Canadian Vonage subscribers). It is only available to US Vonage customers. Vonage Talk was one of the things that I liked about Vonage because without the USB Vonage adapter, I could appear as if I'm making the call from "home" regardless of my physical location. I could also accept the call on my laptop regardless of whether I had the USB Vonage adapter with me or not. Even though I wasn't a frequent user of Vonage Talk, I'm sorry to see it go. Without Vonage Talk, since I don't use my Vonage USB account a lot, I might give it up as I'm currently investigating some other Canadian VoIP companies. The only thing is that is giving me some hesitation is that my Vonage price plan no longer exists and once I cancel it (and port the USB number to another provider), I won't be able to get it back. Even though I don't have an iPhone (yet), one of the reasons I still haven't cancelled my Vonage account yet is because of the Vonage iPhone application. The Vonage iPhone application has apparently has been approved but is currently being tested before being released. If the Vonage iPhone application has the features that interests me and doesn't require a new Vonage subscription/account (similar to what Vonage Talk Alpha offered), it might make me stay with Vonage as well as make me purchase an iPhone 3G/3GS.

If you have any questions/comments regarding my post on Vonage Talk Alpha, please don't hesitate to leave a comment in the comments section.