Jesse, I am happy that you have found some folks that like Webtalk. There are a few comments I would like to make. First I have been using net phones for over a year now ( since about a week after the first phone that was available came out). I have logged well over 2000 calls. I use the things daily. I have tested extensively somewhere around 15 different apps. I am a registered beta tester for several phone software companies (Including Quarterdeck). I am sure that I have spent significantly more time testing these apps than any reviewer could possibly spend to write an article. While I can not ignore the experience that the reviewer had in an isolated string of (or perhaps a single) test, ( although I can be suspicious as I know that QDECK undoubtedly spends more in advertising in the computer mags than most) I can say what works in the real world, day in and day out, in a wide range of conditions.
All of these apps lose information under certain conditions!! There even can be huge differences in connection quality in successive calls to the same party separated by only 20 seconds. There have been times that I could get none of 4 applications to work, then tryed Freetel and it worked (not perfectly mind you, but at least a conversation could be sustained). When a good connection is established Freetel has as good a sound quality as any and much better than most (for instance Digiphone).
The comment about the IP addressing is next to irrelevant in the real worl, because the vast majority of users have Dynamic IP addressing. In this case one would have to contact the person that they wanted to call in some way, before making the call, so that they could get a current IP address for them. Unless there is some sort of server registration process going on, the addressing scheme is more bother than it is worth.
I spend numerous hours in front of this computer every day. Because of this I get lazy and conservative with key strokes. To get WebTalk going I have to fire up a browser, wait for it to load, open my bookmarks, select a bookmark for QD, wait for the page to load, go to the WebTalk page, log in with username and password, wait for approval, wait for the Webtalk program to be called as a helper app, finally I can call someone. This is extremely time consuming and inefficient.
Compare this to double clicking an icon, waiting for the program to open and clicking a name to call.
Which would you rather do if you were busy, or was having your online time metered and charged for?
I am not saying that Freetel might not be improved upon, but for cost,sound quality, and lousy connection tolerance, I rate it my personal favorite. I use it far more than the other 7 phone apps that are resident on my machine!
BTW I would watch for the Vocaltec release of Iphone version 4.0, I think it may become my new favorite. It will have a white board, file transfer, text chat, voice mail, voice recognition for auto vox setting, and a whole bunch of other real neat features. They have also improved the sound!! Should be a killer app!
So anyway you can post all of the reviews that you can find raving about any particular application, I will stick to what I know is good from my personal experience, in the real world! |
