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October 19, 2004
Power of the Internet
About a year ago I was really impressed with the Vonage technology and service. The general concept of being able to have a phone number anywhere in the US is still a relatively exciting concept that is still awaiting the rest of the phone industry to come up-to speed on.
While I'm not any less excited about this service, I've started to use a few other tools now a lot more. I've been using Skype to keep in touch with some friends dispersed around the world. The voice quality is significantly better than what can be achieved on a normal phone or even a cellular phone. The fact that you can use it to call traditional land lines (at significant savings cost) only adds to the impressive nature of this product. Unfortunately the OS X client is still very obviously a beta, as the client crashes regularly, but I expect this will be corrected in a new release. This is a product I would certainly love to work on and help change the way the world works. Too bad they never responded to any resume submissions.
The second tool I've been using significantly more is Apples iChat. Not just for standard IM practices, but also for it's voice and video capabilities. I'm told it integrates with AOL's Instant Messenger (v 5.5 or higher), but I've yet to test this theory with anyone. iChat is notably more stable then Skype's current client, and seems to correct for missed frames a little better (Skype would occasionally revert to robo-voice). The biggest thrill for me can be found in the video chat, a relatively real time conversation can be had despite the 1 second lag of the camera. My parents, sister, and I have been communicating regularly with this now and find it amazingly easy to use. I know I'm a little late coming to this conclusion (iChat AV is now ... 1 year old?), but I think it's had more of a chance to penetrate the market now resulting in more functional use. When it was just Apple users, video chat isn't as much fun. Now that I can realistically communicate with any AIM user (except those GAIM and and Fire.app users), it opens up a large number of new possibilities for use. My sister gave me a virtual tour of her apartment last night.
With cities like Philadelphia moving to drench their territories in wireless broadband, will this have a strong backlash against tele-cos? If you think I'm a little off my rocker, imagine the scenario where a one time investment of $500 for a PC is made. You can get both AIM and Skype accounts for free, and now use these to call anywhere in the world at a sound quality better than your cell phone (no confusion over B's and D's, or Y's and I's). Now put this in the hands of a lower income household, where basic telephone service costs around $24 a month. In just over 20 months, the PC connection will have paid for itself, provided you get no long distance service on your landline. Pretty cool concept.
The fallout of course is public projects funded by various taxes to your telephone line (i.e. 911). There is also the issue of the computer being non-functional when there is no electricity, or cases of network congestion in areas disrupting service. Finally there is the mental barrier many people have of talking to your computer. It took my parents a little while to get used to the idea, but they've now become a bit more accustomed to it that they don't complain about it.
Posted by Dan at October 19, 2004 01:40 AM