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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?
What I mean is that if the goal of each of these phones is to expand the use of VoIP, then they should be compatible - in other words you should be able to call a wifive phone from an X-Lite and vice versa. If not, that will cause confusion with regards to VoIP using Pocket PCs and people will get annoyed with it before it gets off the ground. Make sense?
I am not saying that you can't call one phone from the other. Just seems like from what I know about WiFive's connection scheme you probably can't. :?
Ohhhhh....I understand now....your talking about the ability on to call other VOIP providers....I didn't even think about that....Is that true? You cannot contact a VOIP subscriber from another VOIP service? How come I haven't heard of this before with all the VOIP news about it being accepted in businesses?
Very interesting point! I need to research this.
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So are these VOIP applications strictly limited to call other users using the same provider (as suggested) or can they be used to call regular phones/mobiles too.
How the hell do you use one of these :? , I presume you need a headset and mike or do they work through the inbuilt speaker/mic, in which case the quality of your devices speaker/mic would have a direct impact on the audio quality.
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Ohhhhh....I understand now....your talking about the ability on to call other VOIP providers...
Well, sort of but moreso...think of this: Instant messaging pretty much was pioneered by ICQ. They owned the IM field for a year or more. Their software connected to their servers, etc. Had AOL and MS, etc released their IMs the same month as ICQ, then there would be mass confusion and I would argue IM would not have caught on the way it has. You'd have your Aunt downloading AIM, your brother downloading ICQ and Me downloading MSN messenger and we all would not be able to talk because the different companies' IMs do not talk to each other. By virtue of it failing for so many people in the beginning...they'd be less likely to try to make it work. (Just a theory)
It looks like the same thing is happening with VoIP software. It looks to be incompatible phones are rushing to market. Can they talk to each other? Perhaps, but by looking at WiFive's connection grid I don't think so.
So are these VOIP applications strictly limited to call other users using the same provider (as suggested) or can they be used to call regular phones/mobiles too.
How the hell do you use one of these :? , I presume you need a headset and mike or do they work through the inbuilt speaker/mic, in which case the quality of your devices speaker/mic would have a direct impact on the audio quality.
I can answer the second part of your question. It's really easy and cool. I'd say download WiFive since they have a 1 month lead on X-Lite. But it basically turns your Pocket PC into a speakerphone that can call other WiFive users on the internet. I was impressed. Hantra and I had a phone chat using the technology too and he said it was the best VoIP trial he'd ever used too.
I personally would use it in this manner:
1. use your headphones
2. Talk in a normal to quiet voice.
It takes a few minutes to get used to - yes...but it does work. The quality is sort of like an overseas call.
When you talk about softphones - these products are just "teasers" so to be speak. The real market is in the switch market, there in lies the key to compatability. Siemens Rolm on their PBX switches have softphone Wifi cards, so all Wifi calls go to the switch and are converted to analog or digital calls and travel over circuits or POTs lines to the other end. So you can be on a normal land line talking with a soft phone. I am sure that with the new internet phone companies public switching will be available.
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