Skype - it's pretty good.
I was introduced to Skype a while ago, but didn't really try doing much with it. I was impressed by the Linux version that they provide (especially that they provide Debian packages - ideal for Ubuntu Linux, my distro of choice), but I don't much fancy having to use either a headset or a separate microphone and headphones, and using handsfree phones is a nightmare (I hate 'em). Also, if you're going to go the headphone/headset route you have to plug them in, which isn't such a problem on modern machines with front headphone/microphone inputs, but on some of the brutes I use on a day to day basis they're absent. Add to that the fact that I don't know many other people who use it (I could count them on the fingers of one hand... well, on the thumb of one hand) at present, it was a novelty I didn't think too much more about.
Then... my dad asked me about internet telephony, and Skype came to mind immediately. He phones relatives in Belgium and Spain regularly, both with broadband internet access, and I figured Skype could be a nice way for him to keep in touch on the cheap.
And then... Skype's SkypeOut service was rolled out across the planet, which lets you phone virtually anywhere from your computer. Not free, but pretty cheap. Most countries that you're likely to want to phone cost 1.1p a minute (more or less - it's €0.02), and that cost is the same for mobile phones in America, incredibly. But that fills the gap for those people who aren't online, and also makes it easy to alert people who are online but switched off that you're wanting to give them a tinkle in a minute.
So, with all this in mind, I decided it was time to dust off Skype and try again. And seeing as my dad was asking about them, I decided to get a USB phone handset to use with it. One quick eBaying later, I had quite a nice little handset for £18.50+shipping, which looks like this...
It's not a bad little gadget - the only odd thing is that the cable comes out the bottom, meaning it can't actually sit in the way that the picture shows! I figured getting a cheap one like this rather than a posher two-piece like this one would make sense because if I didn't get on with it, it wouldn't be too much of a financial dent. (As is typical, Play.com is going to be making this same phone available for £18 including shipping in a couple of weeks. Ah well!) I also forked out €10 for SkypeOut credit, so we could see how that works. It actually cost €11.50 because VAT was added at Luxembourg's rate of 15%, and Skype's operations are based there for some tax reason or other I imagine!
When you plug the phone into your PC, it gets identified as a USB combined device (in Windows), comprising of a USB soundcard (to drive the earpiece and microphone) and a USB "Human Interface Device" (commonly known as a keypad). Then you run a little piece of software that integrates with Skype, so the buttons on the keypad control the menus in Skype. And all that goes swimmingly well (except, being Windows, you have to reboot, and it initially tries to use the phone as the primary sound device so you have to put things back to how they were). I imagine there'll be a couple of extra hoops to leap through if you hook this up to a Linux box - the soundcard side of things will be identified easily by any modern distro, but you'd have to fiddle about with ALSA and "/dev/dsp"-type things - the weak point in Linux's sound system, for my money.
Now, you start Skype, head to the settings and make the ear and mic use the USB device in case it hasn't already guessed that that's what you want it to do. (My installation had guessed.) And then, send a call to echo123 to make sure it all works. And... mine did, straight away!
The one thing I was unsure about was the sound quality I was getting in the ear - a little distorted and crackly sometimes. Then I realised, given it was a normal soundcard, I could double-click the speaker, get the mixer up, select the USB soundcard and tweak the volumes. I found the Wave device was on full, whereas the master volume was at 50%, and CD and Wavetable were also at full when they really weren't necessary. With both the master and Wave at 75% and the others muted, the sound was much better.
Then... try Skype out. I dialled our home phone number in international format (normally +441443..., but with no + on the keypad I realised 00441443 was the same) and... nothing. I was getting a US-style ringing tone in my ear, but our phone remained silent. Odd. Tried again, and... clearly the €10 credit had just kicked in because the phone... it rang!
Sound quality was excellent. Clearer than a normal mobile phone call. No distortion, and the lag was minimal - about the same as a mobile, and less than Indian call centres have. Big thumbs up there. A few minutes of pissing around cost about 2p which, whilst not as cheap as a BT evening call, is cheaper than a BT daytime call.
Next to try is a Skype-to-Skype call, but Gazmond insists on being out of the country so I can't try yet. I've come to this the wrong way around, normally people do the free thing first!
In conclusion... Skype is ace, and USB phones are the way to use it. For sure. I look forward to more numbers being made available in the UK for SkypeIn, so people can call your Skype-running PC by ringing a regular phone number - sadly all the current UK numbers have been snapped up already, so I can't testdrive that as well. Nuts.
