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Ted Wallingford posts

Filed under: VoIP

"Adios" to Spanish-American War Phone Tax

Believe it or not, if you're an American, you've been paying a 3% excise tax on all of your long distance calls to finance the Spanish-American war (yup--the same war that ended years before Theodore Veil founded the first long-distance networking firm, AT&T). This week, that tax has been officially repealed, hinting that the old war has finally been paid for, some 108 years later. Or, perhaps more importantly, that your long-distance carrier no longer has the burden of shuffling 3% of their revenue over to Uncle Sam.

Me? I've been a VoIP user for almost four years now, allowing me to circumvent the excise penalty. I'm not sure how much I saved, though. Of course, with VoIP services becoming so popular, the long-term feasibility of this tax was in question anyway. Long distance calling is a dying business, after all. It's only a matter of time before regulators go after VoIP for tax revenue. Oh wait--they already have...

Filed under: Windows, Macintosh, Linux, VoIP

The age of free phoning has arrived

As many have predicted for the last few years, free telephone service is here, today. You just can't get it from your local phone company. You've got to use the Internet to connect to a service that can route your calls for free.

First to jump headfirst into the free phone action was Skype, offering free PC-to-phone calls for the rest of the year, and now Gizmo Project has joined Skype by creating their All Calls Free program. In case you've never heard of Gizmo Project, it's a fantastic VoIP desktop communication tool for Mac, Windows, and Linux. As my VoIP industry buddy Andy Abramson points out here, this is probably a ploy aimed at acquisition of Gizmo's parent company than it is an effort to build revenue, but only time will tell. Free calling is here, now, so don't waste any time--get over to gizmoproject.com and download the newest version.

Filed under: Internet, Video, Macintosh, Apple, VoIP

Apple VoIP? It better be good...

iChatPeople have been wanting Apple to turn iChat into something MORE for years. When iChatAV first arrived, it was quite awesome, and certainly unique on the Mac platform at that time--voice conferencing and video chat plus instant messaging, all in a free download. But now that iChat's competitors have surpassed iChat in features and wow-factor, what can Apple really do to restore iChat's luster? We know that Steve Jobs *must* read this blog, so Steve, here are a few ideas for you to ponder regarding iChat's future:
  • Make its voice and video features to work properly and consistently with Google Talk and AIM and you'll gain a slew of potential users who, right now, have no choice but to use Gizmo or Skype.
  • Give away free voicemail! Heck, voicemail should be built in to iChat.
  • Hold music! Any MP3 file will do. But when I mute my iChat calls, shouldn't my call partner get to hear some Van Halen?
  • Is there any reason each entry in the iChat buddy list needs to take up THAT much room?
  • Better click-to-call support from other Mac applications.
I'm sure you can complete this list with your own set of iChat gripes. So what would YOU add to iChat? Rumor has it, Apple will be adding Mac-to-phone calling in the iChat that slated to ship with Leopard, the next edition of the Mac OS. 464x363

Sightspeed gets up to speed

It wasn't that long ago that I was reviewing the VoIP and video-conferencing tool SightSpeed, which allows Windows and Macintosh users to call each other with excellent quality via the Internet. Sightspeed's big claim to fame is its superior synchronization of audio and video (isn't it annoying when the person you're Skyping is mouthing the words 3 seconds after you hear them?).

Now, Sightspeed has upped the ante on its competitors by adding PC-to-phone calling. So you can call dear old Grandma in Hacketsville, where they don't have broadband yet, via her standard phone.  This brings Sightspeed into the fold with other desktop calling tools like Gizmo Project and Skype, but Sightspeed's superior video implementation and community features puts it clearly in the lead, if you ask me.  Plus, it's hard not to like the Sightspeed Video Guy, pictured here.

Featured Time Waster

Graveyard Shift - zombie-busting Time Waster

With Halloween fast approaching, it's a great time to get in some practice defending your territory against zombies. In Graveyard Shift, you take aim at zombies and other creepy-crawlies, blasting them into splatters of cartoony green guts. It's a casual first-person shooter, and it's very easy to get the hang of - use the mouse to aim, click to fire. Graveyard Shift has at least 15 levels, and it might even have some secret stages I haven't unlocked yet. They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...

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