My daughter Sonja is very close to her due date. I have some foreign travel coming up, and I fear that I'll be out of town when little Beatrice arrives. So I was trying to figure out a way to stay in touch while away. My other daughter Natalie suggested Skype, and I'm glad she did.
The idea is that you can make calls to anyone in the world at no cost. The limitation is that both people must have Skype, and both must be on the computer. (Skype also has a computer-to-phone service, which costs $2.95 per month, but for my purpose, I don't need it.) You need a microphone of some sort, and many computers have them built-in. If you don't have one, Skype sells a low-cost digital headset that works like a charm.
After I loaded Skype, I had to find someone else who had it in order to test it out. The search function on Skype is intuitive. I searched for a friend of mine in England, and it turns out he had an account. I called, he answered, and the sound quality was so good that it seemed like he was in the same room.
Sonja and Ash have a webcam, and yesterday we tested it, and wonder of wonders, it was almost like they were sitting across the table from me. So if Beatrice arrives while I'm gone, I'll be able to see and talk to the proud new parents and the baby. We also tried a conference call with Natalie, and it too worked very well.
The website is skype.com, the download is free, and once you use it, you'll appreciate what a great application it is.
2 comments:
Hop on over to my blog, Sam. I have given you an award.
Skype is great, isn't it Sam! I have had it since #2 son headed away to Dunedin.
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