Gizmo calls are free but where's the mobile version?
Big news today from SIPphone, the company that brought the Skype competitor, Gizmo Project. The "All Calls Free" initiative kicks off today and it although it sounds great, there's a slight catch as well as a problem that keeps me from using Gizmo in lieu of Skype. The "catch" is that you can only call people that are registered Gizmo users and only those mobile or landlines that are in their profiles. SkypeOut, by comparison, provides the ability to call any mobile or landline. Granted, not all of those calls are free at this point, but it's an important distinction.
The main reason I'll stick with Skype? They have one key element that Gizmo doesn't yet offer, and that's a mobile client. Gizmo works on Windows, Mac or Linux while Skype adds a client for Pocket PC and Windows Mobile. That mobility and flexibility will keep me on Skype for now. Gizmo is making strides as they just introduced a client for the Nokia 770, so I expect we'll see more on the mobile front from the Gizmo folks. How about you? Does a mobile client outweigh additional free calls?
-kct
I gave Gizmo a try today, and the quality is superb. I've already referred about a handful of people to it, so it'll definitely be useful if the service holds up to its promise.
Skype on the other hand, has the better coverage and access, plus their software is better, however free is just too much to ignore. I'm more than willing to sacrifice some convenience and quality for a free international voice calling service.
Although I still advocate Skype for PC-2-PC calls.
Posted by: Long Zheng | July 20, 2006 at 09:41 AM
Since Gizmo uses the standard sip protocol which means that you can use some SIP devices like Asterisk and in my case the Zoom V3 firewall/handset interface (so I can use my wireless phones with Gizmo and don't need to have a computer on 24x7).
The gizmoproject forum has a couple threads on different windows mobile apps that work with gizmo in case anyone is interested.
I find Gizmo a nice workable product as a replacement for my 2nd phone line and saves me a whole bunch of money per month. Although I mostly do Gizmo to land line communications.
Posted by: bobm | July 21, 2006 at 11:23 AM
And there I thought your preferred mobile device was running the Tablet Edition OS, Kevin... ;-)
Posted by: Oliver | July 21, 2006 at 11:26 AM
I came accross this web nugget today. Apparently it is possible to use Gizmo on a Pocket PC by using SJPhone. Perhaps there is hope...
Posted by: Ryan Schwiebert | October 17, 2006 at 12:27 PM
The main reason I'll stick with Skype? They have one key element that Gizmo doesn't yet offer, and that's a mobile client.--NOT TRUE-- Try
http://www.osnews.com/story/12048/Gizmo-on-a-PocketPC-via-the-SJPhone-SIP-Client
It works like charm
Posted by: Hans de Nie | March 01, 2008 at 11:35 AM