We've done some yacking about making free phone calls over the Internet via our Pocket PCs using a free "soft phone" called
WiFive. Now another Free software phone has made an appearance called
X-Lite - Soft SIP VOIP Phone by Xten Networks Inc.
X-Lite claims to provide all the features of a standard business telephone.
"The intuitive design and familiar layout provides for easy navigation. Already tested with Toshiba, Dell, Compaq/HP, Audiovox PocketPC devices. Features: ~ Line hold ~ 3 Lines ~ Redial ~ Line Transfer ~ Recent Numbers List ~ Caller ID [SIP ID] ~ Mute ~ Touch-tones [DTMF] ~ Push-to-Talk [Optional] ~ CODEC Selection ~ Call Timer ~ Silence Threshold ~ Backspace/Clear/Delete ~ Microphone & Speaker Levels ~ Microphone & Speaker Meters Benefits: ~ Easy to install ~ Intuitive user interface ~ G.711/G.723/GSM codecs included ~ Speakerphone ~ Standard PC and PocketPC hardware ~ NAT/Firewall support ~ Specify NAT IP to be written in SIP messages ~ Supports Windows 95/98/NT4/ME/2000/XP/CE Use X-Lite to make phone calls from your PC, Laptop or PocketPC device. "
My only concern is that the two phones may not be compatible and may in fact cancel each other out as far as making inroads to promoting PPC VoIP. In other words, one VoIP phone product would probably lure in the power users and experimenters but will have a hard time gaining wide acceptance. Now that there are two phones that may or may not be compatible, that would conceivably lead to confusion with the technology and thus even less acceptance.
What do you think?