Recently i retried Skype based on watching others use it to communicate via video with their families. Being a fan of the Jetsons as a child i was looking forward to a video phone type experience that met my childish expectations.
I had tried Skype and iChat when it came out a few years back and the experience was very choppy and unimpressive. The conferencing was mainly being restricted by the bandwidth limitations at both ends. Now we have better upload speeds on standard DSL and cable internet deploys some even up to 1.5mbps at a home site.
Skype also has come a long way with their interface and web cam drivers and navigation and set up is a lot simpler. I decided to give it a another go this last week and i have to say I feel like George Jetson for real now.
The video is clear and the sound is as good as any VOIP telephone setup. I am excited to give the conferencing feature a whirl and I can see some commercial support application use for this tool as well as recreational.
I can now fully endorse Skype as a video communication tool and highly recommend for wither business or personal use. You can download your own Skype trial at www.skype.com.
Have a labor day weekend!
Thanks
Abel
Comments
Now??.. (Unless you've shares in the new owners of Skype?!!)
Even ignoring Skype's legal fight for rights to its underlying technology... I'm baffled why a VoIP advocate would suggest getting bound into the proprietary skype-net now, just as we see the rise of multiple protocol VoIP/IM communicators. These work with the competitive open standards (notably Jingle aka Google Talk, and SIP as used natively by telephone companies) as well as MSN, Yahoo, etc. Plus solutions that can bridge from/into skype-net. Do you want people to be forever running two video softphones? Let's avoid that by pointing people to the options besides this walled garden, till the growth and clamour brings down its walls like with AOL.
Best wishes, Chris
Great feedback Chris and well
Great feedback Chris and well thought out points. My comments were directed towards an earlier position i took at utilizing these applications at the consumer level. The experience was just not there. I am a huge proponent of open source solutions and typically do not endorse closed ended solutions, but in this case I like the simplicity of the install and I would like to see a larger acceptance to the idea of the video/voip conferencing then introduce alternatives. I appreciate the comments and thanks for taking the time to post!
Thanks
Abel