I've recently become a huge fan of Skype (in case the headline wasn't enough of a tell). Skype is a computer program which allows users to make voice and video phone calls over the web. I'm a little behind the times, since I've known in the back of my mind that this was possible for quite a while now, but I've never really had a reason to use it. Wikipedia tells me it's been around since 2003.
Now that I'm stuck 1000's of miles away from the woman I love, and am going to be going further still, it made sense to explore this option. It also helps the my EEE PC comes equipped with a built in web cam and a version of skpye pre-installed. The pre-loaded version was somewhat outdated, but installing the latest version was quite simple.
I've been using it now for a few days and I am quite impressed. The best part of skype is that PC to PC calls are free. Thats video and voice. Calls can be made to a land line or a mobile phone as well for a fee. The call quality is decent, and the video quality is not too bad either. I don't know if the video is limited by the poor quality of my camera, or by bandwidth limitations, but over all the quality is fine for my purposes.
I expect this will save me and my sweetheart quite a bit of money while I'm traveling in foreign lands, but it can also be useful to see friends who you haven't seen in a while. Even though I could call them on my cell, a video would be nice as well.
To learn more check out Skype's website.
As the referred to Sweetheart *:)* in the post, I can also testify to the usefulness of Skype. It's reassuring to see your love's face and verify that they are doing well, when you can't be there in person.
As an added bonus, I have several friends who also use it, including one couple who were stuck in different continents for a couple of years as well.
Reach out and Touch Someone!
Posted by: Mel | February 11, 2009 at 07:51 AM