Skype
June 23rd, 2005
After more than 120 million others blazed the way, I finally downloaded Skype today.
For the apparently few who don’t already know: Skype lets you make voice calls through your computer. Computer-to-computer use is free, no matter where in the world the parties to the call are.
Computer-to-regular-phone use (land line or mobile), known as Skype out, costs a nominal amount per minute, the precise amount depending on the country called. It’s about .03 cents/minute to China. On the high end, it costs about .15 cents/minute to call Ukraine.
You can also get a traditional phone number through Skype. People can then dial that regular number (potentially a local call for them) while you receive the calls or check your messages through your computer (Skype in) from wherever in the world you may be.
In my initial testing, Skype’s voice quality for computer-to-computer use (with a headset) was very good. The sound quality tapered off on a computer-to-land-line call, then diminished some more on a computer-to-mobile-phone call. But in all cases it was quite serviceable.
I also tried sending and receiving files (photos and spreadsheets) through the Skype interface. There’s a “send file” button at the top of Skype’s menu bar. For some reason I couldn’t get that to work. But there’s another “send file” command under the pop-down menu that appears beneath the name of the person called. That worked fine.
Skype also has an online chat feature—not chatting by voice but chatting through typing, also known as instant messaging (IM). Many teenagers seem to heavily use AIM (AOL instant messaging), MSN Messenger and sometimes Yahoo Messenger, but those my age and older often don’t bother to install any of these services.
While making a voice call I tried Skype’s IM features. They are easy to use and work well. However, I doubt I’ll use the IM features often. What’s the utility of IM when you can hear someone’s voice? Maybe just to “whisper” an aside to someone during a conference call? Or send a message to someone while you are talking by voice with someone else? Perhaps occasionally this will prove handy, but it is not something I expect to use often.
Maybe I’m too old to “get” IM. More than 10 years ago, back when 32k dial up connections were considered fast, I recall entering chat rooms as I experimented with computer bulletin boards and first tried AOL. More recently, I tried QQ (Chinese chatting software from the company Tencent) to see what the fuss was about. There is an initial thrill in being able to interact in “real time” with people far away, but this novelty quickly wears off, and for me IM never became part of my routine. In the last 10 years I’ve probably spent less than a couple of hours in online chats, whereas I shudder to think how much time I’ve spent web surfing and emailing. Routinely whole days (years of my life?) disappear in those pursuits.
I think my experience is typical. While email and web use are now almost ubiquitous for white-collar workers, online chatting seems to remain the domain of the young. Maybe this disparity will diminish now. It seems any difference between IM and VOIP is melting away. IM services have grown to include voice and video, and Skype, as I just discovered, offers IM chat features. As all this fits under one rubric (IP communications, which could include voice, voice mail, IM, SMS, email and file sharing), perhaps more of us will become IM’ers.
Next, I want to set up Skype software to work with a web cam. Web cams are very popular in China. I’ve never used a web cam on any computer I’ve owned, but it seems Skype plus video could provide a nice way to “visit” with my daughter when I’m in China.