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http://www.insanely-great.com/news.php?id=1532
Review: Mac2Phone delivers at last
By ron carlson, Insanely Great Mac
January 14th 2003
Months after it was promised, here's a write up on one of the only available VOIP
solutions for X
Back in October last year, I reported on the arrival of the Java-based Mac2Phone,
which at the time was the Mac-to-phone/PC/Mac VOIP solution. In that initial report, I
promised a review but never followed through because, frankly, the results were
absolutely abysmal and in 12 years of IT writing/reviewing I've never had to
completely pan a product before.
Honestly, I hoped no one would notice that I failed to deliver the promised review and
until today no one did. Enter IGM reader "Matt" and his serendipitous inquiry
vis-a-vis the long-overdue review. Thanks Matt -- I have been duly shamed!
Back to the future...
As noted above, my first encounter with Mac2Phone back in October was horrible and
perhaps a dozen furtive attempts to call friends and relatives in the US (I live in
Taiwan) ended in frustration. For the most part, I did manage to connect, but no one
on the other end could here me and, likewise, I couldn't hear them.
Moreover, two or three attempts to make calls would result in application crashes and
after several days of trying to slash my international long-distance costs by 90
percent, I gave up. I also gave up on the idea of writing a review.
Once again into the breach...
After Matt's prompting, I once again tried Mac2Phone v1.4.1 and encountered the same
problems again -- I could connect, but hearing and being heard just wasn't happening.
However, a quick check of the Mac2Phone website revealed an update, v1.6.1, was
available. After digging out my long-forgotten username and password (free
registration required to download), I got the updated app and installed it (under 5
minutes door-to-door).
With breath firmly held, I launched v1.6.1, entered my sister's (Northern Virginia)
number and waited. However, it took only a moment for the phone at the other end to
start ringing -- so far so good.
My sister dutifully answered and immediately reported my voice was far too loud --
success.
I quick trip to the Sound Panel in System Preferences remedied my volume problem and
we set about chatting about events and family business. At the end of the call, I
informed her I was calling via the Internet using a technology called VOIP (additional
references here).
Following my success calling my sister, I called my parents in Pennsylvania and, once
again, Mac2Phone v1.6.1 came through with flying colors: My two-year-old twins sang
the A-B-C Song for dad (well, they got to "H" before something distracted them), we
chatted about the snow and cold, etc.
Mac2Phone almost rocks
Some notes about Mac2Phone's second coming:
? Before you can use the service, you must pay a one-time sign-up fee ($29.99). I paid
$10 back in October and that money was still in my account now in January. Mac2Phone's
parent company, Nikotel (same URL), offers secure online credit-card transactions.
? I also called a friend in California and the connection was clearer and the delay
between speaking and being heard was almost non-existant.
? I also called (seeing a pattern develop here?) Mike Flaminio (IGM's own/publisher)
in Michigan and the delay was quite noticeable -- about 1.5 to 2 seconds. Which brings
me to my last point.
? All of these calls cost me 2.9 US cents per minute billed in 6-minute increments (ie
the cost for all 11 of my calls today, successful and otherwise, totaled $0.96).
In general, the delay time (speaking to being heard) was well within tolerance. The
call to Mike was a bit sketchy though definitely workable at 2.9 US cents per minute
(this rate is good for most of the civilized world, Nikotel claims to offer the
"world's lowest rates," check their site for country-pair-specific rates).
It is worth noting that after updating to v1.6.1 of the software, all of the calls I
tried were succesful.
Along with your sign-up ($29.99), Nikotel offers a plain-phone to IP conversion box
for "free" and 1,000 minutes of USA Long-Distance Minutes. The company claims that
anyone using any touch-tone handset can take advantage of their low rate simply by
installing this widget between their phone and the wall jack.
To try the service, you need only register, pay the registration fee and install the
software. It's fairly low-risk, but please note that your own mileage may vary.
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