VoIP

magicJack, the $39.99 USB dongle that connects to your PC so that you can make low-cost calls through the internet, certainly sounds enticing. The $40 cost of entry includes one year of service, and once that has expired, subscribing  is just $19.99 per year–far lower than the price of traditional landline or cell phone subscriptions. It’s easy to see the appeal: slashing your phone bill in these penny-pinching times only seems prudent.

However, magicJack has also proven to be a hot-bed of controversy, at least amongst LAPTOP readers who visit this blog. Although a number have touted the effectiveness of the product, another vocal segment has claimed that the device is shoddy and lacks reliable customer support. Some have claimed that magicJack flat-out doesn’t work; one person has stated that it wrecked the PC it was plugged into.

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Pictured: Current magicJack

You’ve read the news and reviews online. You’ve seen the TV spots. Magicjack has proven to be a surprise hit device since its launch in 2007, and - on this site at least - has proven to be a hot topic that has  stirred passionate debate about the low-cost, plug-and-play telephony service ($39.99 with one year of service included in price).

In that time, magicJack has seen over 700 bug fixes and improved customer service, which has seen its Better Buisness Bureau rating jump to an “A-” (previously, it was a “F”). And with sales totalling over 3 million units, it looks like the company is thriving.

Still, magicJack inventor Dan Borislow isn’t resting on his product’s success; big plans are in motion that will expand magicJack’s functionality. After the jump, Mr. Borislow’s big plans for magicJack.

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Yesterday we stopped by Verizon to take a look at what the company has up it sleeves for the next version of its Hub. While there was some new hardware on display, including two models that ditch the phone-attached feature, Verizon said that these were just mock-up designs and it wasn’t sure which ODM it would go with. Both prototypes, however, had capacitive touch-screens as opposed to the current resistive technology, and Verizon confirmed one was powered by an Intel Atom processor, typically reserved for netbooks .

While the new designs were very attractive, the screen sizes remained the same. One had a glossy black border, while the other sat atop a speaker.

On both prototypes, Verizon added the ability to switch between multiple pages of applications. And to provide new applications, Verizon showed us an application store portal called App Mart for installing things like Rhapsody radio, an Alarm clock, and more.

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While some Star Trek fans use replicas of items from the show for evil, others are coming up with ways to use them for good.  Take this original series communicator/VoIP/Skype phone coming out in April.  Yes, it’s a real phone (for a value of real that includes being used with Skype…) that you can actually make calls and talk to people with.  Apparently it will also come with sound bytes related to the show.  [Insert lame Beam Me Up, Scotty joke here.]

It’s compatible with Windows (XP & Vista) and OS X and has a USB sound controller, speakerphone, and mic.  According to EverythingUSB you’ll even be able to answer the phone by flipping it open Captain Kirk style and attach it to any number of cloth surfaces thanks to velcro backing.  I cannot wait until this thing comes out.

Hat Tip: Everything USB via OhGizmo!

We had a chance to check out iRiver’s latest offerings here at CES, including the WAVE Internet Phone and the Wave Home Multimedia Communication Device.

The Wave internet phone lets you place phone calls through VoIP accounts like Skype to regular handsets wherever there’s an available Wi-Fi hotspot. We like the white coloring and the overall industrial design of the device, including its sensitive touch screen, but it still feels a bit late to the market. Skype phones were a bit popular a few years ago, and they weren’t all that popular, but iRiver builds on the idea by adding additional features like the 7-inch LCD display, support for SMS messaging, a music and video player, an e-dictionary, an FM radio, and more. The device was lighter than we thought it would be, and it’s a novel idea to take a device that can stand alone as a fully dedicated PMP and add in native VoIP support. Read the rest of this entry »

Skype already offers a mobile app for select Java-enabled LG, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson phones. Now, the company is testing an application for Android on the T-Mobile G1.

With this app, users can call and text chat with their Skype friends using their phone’s cellular network, as opposed to their PC’s Wi-Fi or local connecton. That also means you’re subject to your carrier’s calling and data rates, whereas if you made a Skype-to-Skype call on your PC it would be free.

So, you take a hit on costs, but the beauty of it, of course, is the mobility; you can call your Skype friends anywhere, and not have to be tethered to your PC. Particularly, if you’re calling Skype friends living abroad, it’s still a less expensive way of keeping in touch than placing a regular phone call.

Having trouble imagining how this works? Check out the gallery after the jump.

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iRiver announced two multimedia communication devices today, the Unit 2-S and the W10.

The Unit 2-S is a simple touchscreen computer that would best serve as a secondary PC in a living room or kitchen. It offers a 7-inch touchscreen display and runs on Linux. You can use it to place VoIP calls using its built-in speakerphone or a home wireless handset, or you can make video calls using its built-in webcam. Its Linux operating system lets you launch widgets for checking the weather, viewing photos, listening to music, watching movies, and surfing the Web.

The device seems fairly limited and you would probably be better served by a netbook running Windows XP, which wouldn’t put limits on what you can do in terms of the operating system functionality. But you may appreciate its futuristic-looking design and the lack of a need for a keyboard or a mouse, thanks to its touchscreen.

The W10 reminds us of a few Skype phones that took off a few years ago from the likes of Linksys and Netgear. Except the W10 is a bit more advanced. It offers a full 3-inch, 480 x 272-pixel resolution touchscreen display, 4GB of storage, a music player, video and photo viewer, E-Dictionary, Flash games, an FM radio, and SMS messages. Those features all support the true purpose of the device: Internet phone calls. The only trouble is, you’ll need to have access to a Wi-Fi connection to place those calls.

We like the white form factor and sleek design of the W10. It reminds us a bit of the Samsung Omnia that launched on Sprint last year, especially considering the simplicity of its face: there’s just a single control button under the display.

It’s a compelling device, but a smart phone can also support all the aforementioned features and place calls anywhere. Still, if you’re looking to cut back on your cell bill, you may appreciate the W10.

Stay tuned for a full hands-on with both of these devices as we tackle the CES show floor.

It is always nice when a company is listening to the press and its fans. In June, Skype released a new version of the popular VoIP/chat client. We wrote about the beta software at the time of announcement and had some doubts about it; our biggest being that the window sizing of the new software was just too large for smaller screen devices, like netbooks. I couldn’t stand that the contact list was connected to the chat/calling box, which took up a lot of screen real estate.

Skype promised at the time that they would listen to user feedback and reaction to the new beta. And listen they did, even to me. I said in my original impressions post of 4.0 that “I wish it had a classic mode that could revert back to the settings that frequent Skype users are used to.”

Today, Skype unveiled the second beta version of its 4.0 software (it will be available for public download tomorrow at 4p.m. EST) and lo and behold it has a “compact mode.” This time around, you can select the compact mode (from the View menu) which allows you to separate your contact list and from the chat windows. Hallelujah!

I have been running the new version of Skype Beta 4.0 in compact mode for the day and think I am finally ready to give up on version 3.

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magicJack is a point of contention for many users who’ve decided to give the low-cost telephony service a shot since its launch in late 2007. While many of have hailed it as a great, low-cost telephone service (including us in our magicJack review), others have voiced numerous complaints.

All you have to do is check out the comments section of our What’s New With magicJack and magicJack Inventor Q & A posts to witness some of the opinions being shared on both sides of the magicJack debate.

Being the intrepid reporters that we are, we decided to contact the Better Business Bureau to see what have been the primary customer issues with the little-telephony-device-that-could. A quick search on the company Web site revealed that the Better Business Bureau has given magicJack a less-than-stellar letter grade.

A grade is determined by a number of factors including the length of the time the company’s been in business, complaint volume, complaint history, how the company responds to said complaints, and other factors. So which grade did the Better Business Bureau give magicJack get?

A big, fat “F.” The BBB’s summarizes an “F” with:

“We strongly question the company’s reliability for reasons such as that they’ve failed to respond to complaints, their advertising is grossly misleading, they are not in compliance with the law’s licensing or registration requirements, their complaints contain especially serious allegations, or the company’s industry is known for is fraudulent business practices.”

According to the BBB, the two most common complaints involve consumers being charged the full price of the magicjack shortly after signing up for the free 30-day trial, and that it’s extremely difficult for them to contact customer service in order to receive a refund.

Since we’re a fair and balanced crew, we reached out to magicJack creator Dan Borislow for his response to these charges. Here’s what he had to say.
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There isn’t a mini-notebook that lands in my hands on which I don’t run Skype. So to say I was excited when I read my friend Andy Abramson’s post on the new release of Skype 4.0 (Beta) is an understatement. I was psyched to get it running on the latest mini-notebooks (including the Eee PC 901, 1000H, and the Acer Aspire one). Until I realized the software release is nowhere near appropriate for a mini-notebook.

As I have been inseparable from the Eee PC 1000H for the past few days, I downloaded Skype 4.0 (Beta). The 1000H has a 10-inch screen, which is quite large compared with the others that sport 7- and 8.9-inch displays. After running through the initial installation and sign-in process, Skype takes over the entire screen with a initial start window that provides the user with the options to configure audio and add contacts.

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