I was offline for over 7 hours yesterday due to technical problems with my ISP, which I assume had something to do with the line of storms that swept across the state. Fortunately we had no major damage in this area… a lot of lightning, loud thunder, strong winds and even a bit of hail. But it passed through fairly quick.

What to do for 7+ hours with no access to the web? Oh, things around the house, of course. But I have to admit, we were all three bummed. My son was disconnected from his online gaming group. My daughter was cut off from her quest to find a new pair of skates (”sk8r grrl” - new phase, lol). Me? I missed Skype.

I was actually forced to talk on the telephone instead (shudder) . I didnt realize just how wonderful Skype was until I had to resort back to that old cordless phone. Sure it was cool when I bought it (6 months ago, lol) — but it has quickly become nothing more than a paperweight on my desk since I discovered Skype.

Actually, I’ve had Skype for awhile. I found it was a great tool for scheduled conferences with online partners, etc - but it took me awhile to convert 100%. That’s just me, though. I’m slow to change. But now? You couldnt convince me anything’s better!

Why should you ditch the phone and download Skype?

Instead of just ‘talking’ (blah!), you can completely interact. The sound quality is incredible, and the closest thing you can get to being in the same room with someone - no matter how far away you might be. You can see each other too, of course, with a simple web cam hook-up. You can share files, send photos, drop links to each other…

And best of all: you can talk every waking minute… for FREE

Picking up a telephone after that felt like talking into a tin can. And if you’ve tried other programs… you’re missing out. I’ve tried them too. NOTHING compares to the quality of Skype!

The next purchase on my list is the Skype-certified USB ‘Motorola Wireless Internet Calling Kit’. This baby lets you go totally wireless, up to 30 feet away from your computer. At under 100 bucks, this is a great addition to your Skype experience. Trust me, you’ll get tired of the ‘headband headphones’ and that pesky wire after awhile. 

All the true geeks are Skypin’ Are you?

Check out their website. Check out their store too - super cool stuff. And take a look at some of the stories on their testimonials page. You can add ‘Skype Me’ buttons to your website, blog and even your email messages… There’s really not much that you can’t do with Skype - except make tea, according to their overview:

Skype Overview

Skype Technologies S.A. provides an international online communication service. It is 2 years old and has 50 million registered users. The company is the fastest growing and largest of its kind with 150,000 new people joining every day. We’d like to do for telephones what e-mail did to the post.

Skype is a small piece of software that you can download from the Internet for free. If you have a broadband connection, you can call between two computers anywhere in the world. You can also conference up to 5 participants, send instant messages and share files. Voicemail will record a message for you if can’t take the call, and allows you to send voice messages between users. What’s really cool about Skype is that you can also call almost any number in the standard telephone network, receive calls from normal telephones and forward calls to up to 3 different numbers when you are away from your computer.

What can’t Skype do?

• Skype cannot make emergency (911, 999, 112, 211) calls
• Make the tea

People use Skype to stay in touch in ways that they haven’t been able to before. They can talk to each other for hours free of charge (even though they may be thousands of miles apart). They can carry their landline number and check their voicemail wherever they go, and avoid roaming charges. Skype is also ideal for staying in touch where the telephone infrastructure is poor.

There are a lot of services out there that do a similar thing. We believe that Skype is different because it has the best call quality and works behind any computer firewall without any setting up. Your calls and chats are totally private because they are encrypted. You can make calls to any telephone and any computer, whether it is PC, Mac, Linux or PocketPC.

Skype. The whole world can talk for free

Tags: skype, file sharing, telephone, voicemail, headset, headphones, conference, web cam