# The SBHonline Community Daily > Digerati Discussions! >  >  Mobile Skype Review

## cassidain

Please bear with me if this topic has been discussed recently and I missed it. I'd like a little review/confirmation/update on Skype usage abroad on an iphone. It's actually for here this time, but it's pertinent information for SBH visitors as well:
 
So, I want to be able to make low cost phone calls both locally and back to the USofA and receive family and business voice messages from back home. It seems to me that I can buy a Skype phone number and Skype voice mail, forward any domestic land or mobile phone numbers whose calls I wish to receive to the Skype number (which will only be active where I have wifi service), listen to and respond to any voice messages left at my convenience and where I have wifi service available. I think all of this is for a few cents/minute of actual Skype mobile use (either calling or accessing messages) plus the few bucks each for the skype phone number and voice mail...all paid for online via Skype credit. Do I have this right? Is this the best/lowest cost way to accomplish everything I want? Merci d'avance.

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## JEK

Oui.

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## JEK

A little more on cost:

Mar 06 16:44	+1703nnnnnnn, USA	 Call	$0.023	16:25	$0.430


Online number $60/year

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## jeffbg

@JEK -- Have you tried to combine this with Google Voice?

There you can get a number for free.

- Jeff

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## JEK

No, just the Skype. Worked like a charm. I'm sure MS will screw it up :)

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## elgreaux

yeah, what kind of bad news is that, selling Skype to MS, some of my friends with MS-free MACs are facing a dilemma...

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## BBT

Once MS get their hands on Skype it will take about 10 minutes to open the App. Then you will need to reboot about half way through the call.

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## JEK

They will continue Mac support, just like they do MS Office.

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## andynap

Maybe we should wait and see. You Apple people are brutal. MS must have done something right along the way.

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## JEK

They did lots right about 10-15 years ago and then they stopped innovating and continued living off the annuity.

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## MIke R

> @JEK -- Have you tried to combine this with Google Voice?
> 
> There you can get a number for free.
> 
> - Jeff




I have been very pleased with this

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## BBT

Amen just booted my PC after being away for 2 days after I started it I went to get coffee and wait for it to finish booting. I was seated and still had to wait. On my apple it would have been ready to use in less tahn 1/3 the time. I agree with JEK they used to do alot that was right and when they did I supported them and was a big fan. But then they became an obstacle.

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## elgreaux

you know the joke about Bill Gate's 60 million dollar home: none of the windows will open....

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## JEK

And Google, not Apple is there real threat. Google Docs, Google Mail -- who needs MS Office?

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## BBT

Thats good had not heard that. 

I remember in 1996 being in Chicago in a small meeting with Bill and someone asked him what he say coming in the future. His response was instant on. He wanted it to open up just as fast as a light turned on. Well here we are 15 years later and ........

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## JEK

Which he could never really do without owning the hardware. That's where the Apple model is superior. Funny that for years that was a millstone around Apples neck and now it is their competitive advantage.

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## BBT

I don't buy that he never could. With the influence he has with  Intel and and the other makers it could have been better. I just think that each new release has been a piling on

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## Petri

Microsoft could have kept the hardware specs under control, instead of supporting everything out there or enabling folks to create half-bread device drivers.

Not much different from what Apple is doing today, it's all standard PC stuff inside.  Various hackintosh projects also show that OS X actually supports much wider range of hardware than Apple uses.  Just in case..

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## JEK

What he really did was hoodwink IBM out of DOS. That was a the moneymaker.

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## cassidain

Now I'm a bit confused. I thought Skype mobile only worked with wifi service. I just placed a call using my mobile Skype app and received a call to my new Skype phone number on my iphone both with 3g service only and no wifi. Is this new, or have I been confused all along (a frequent occurence in the arena of technology!)?
I do realize that for use abroad wifi is vastly preferable for cost reasons.

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## JEK

3G was added to the iPhone app about a year ago.

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## tomva

As a software developer I prefer Microsoft technologies because of the business and government market place I support.

Conversely, I read over Apples developers contract and found it absolutely unfair and too restrictive ... so it is doubtful that Ill ever develop software products for iOS. From a technologist view, absolutely hate Apple products (Cool looking, but lack features that I want, plus I know too much about ...). 

However, I am rather interested in Google Chrome OS because I think that it has the possibility of superseding MS Windows in the future.

As for Skype, we use it and love it when traveling or when friends/family travel. I am a bit concern that Microsoft might over complicate it with bloat code.

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## JEK

Tom,
I know that Apple agreement is tough, but the iTunes marketplace and the 70/30 split has created a lot of millionaires who were previously tens-of-thousandaires :)

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## Petri

But it's also true that it's really hard to succeed in the App Store.  Your average developer is not going be noticed next to the 400,000 other Apps and most won't even cover the development costs.

Last summer one report calculated that the median paid App earns $682 a year.  Some developers have published their stories and they are quite interesting to read, most methods to "publish" your App don't really work.  Sometimes the sales peaks can be rather surprising, like a large number of Italian buyers because the App was mentioned on a magazine there.

If you're Rovio doing Angry Birds or happen to be featured by Apple, you'll get a train ticket to the other end of the income scale.


Not really sure how Google Chrome OS, a stripped down linux with just a browser built for cloud apps, would be a serious alternative to Windows or OS X / iOS.  I'm surprised if Chrome OS still exists in 2013.

But I'm always down to earth, and always delighted to see success that I didn't expect :)

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## tomva

John, there are other terms that I find unacceptable as well. However in business it comes down to numbers and as such even if Apples terms were satisfactory my business market place doesnt fit into a large consumer base.

Petri, here is an editorial you might find interesting

http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/11/e...ns-might-have/

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## Petri

> Petri, here is an editorial you might find interesting
> 
> http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/11/e...ns-might-have/



Thanks, I missed that.  There was too much coming out from Google I/O.

I don't know about the US market but a lot of companies already lease their hardware, with or without support.  The problem may not be the effort to get companies to lease Chromebooks but to switch to Google Apps in general from their existing applications.  From what I've noticed a lot of companies tend to run applications, both standalone and on the web, that require them to run WinXP or some ancient Internet Explorers.  Google Apps may replace Office and a few other tools but not the more specific tools.

But we'll see, it's always good to have choices.  Many people don't really need such a heavy PC's they currently have.

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## JEK

I may be a guinea pig for one of these.

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## Petri

You'll do that.  I've been cleaning too much useless junk from the basement recently that my quota is up for a while :)


The iPad is going for repair tomorrow.  A single pixel line starts flickering after ~1-1.5 hours of usage.

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## JEK

U R so Finn-icky :)

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## Petri

> The iPad is going for repair tomorrow.  A single pixel line starts flickering after ~1-1.5 hours of usage.



Had to run around the city to expedite the replacement.  Now the courier might bring a new unit directly from the Netherlands next week..  the shop did try it's best to find another iPad (I was willing to upgrade to 64G, too).

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## cassidain

> 3G was added to the iPhone app about a year ago.



Field review on Skype via iphone:
1) with full strength wifi, like being next door
2) with int'l data roaming 3g or diminished strength wifi, hit or miss

On a separate iphone note, was pleased to discover that the compass function (app?) is internal and doesn't require data connection.

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