Review of iCall For Windows

Everyone’s been raving about how Skype has allowed free VOIP calling to phonelines.  But iCall (named ironically, because it doesn’t work on a Mac) has been doing this for a year!  You can call in the US or Canada for free.  It’s ad supported (there are contacts that don’t go away), and they sell international rates.  Don’t worry about getting a free iPod, its a raffle, not a spyware link.  It includes voicemail for free!  It doesn’t let you call other iCall users, but it’s not meant for that.  Here’s what we found:

Voice: Terrific!  Sounds better than our phones.
Video: None.
File Transfer: None.
Smileys: None.
Games: None.
Interface: Good.  Looks almost like a real Apple product.
Bottom Line: iCall is really a nice product.  We’ve got friends who use Skype, so we’ll stick to that, however.

Review of Google Talk ? (Windows 2000, Windows XP)

We really like Google. When it came out with an IM, we immediatly downloaded it. Here’s what we found:

Voice: Subpar. But hey, how many other IM’s version 1 has audio?
Video: None. First generation, go to give it some room!
File Transfer: None.
Smileys: None. This is really not good. But hey, it’ll get some in 2.0!
Games: None.
Interface: Terrific. GTalk is the best interface we’ve ever seen.
Bottom Line: Google Talk’s interface is the best we’ve ever seen. It can also talk to Jabber users (no calls though), and Gmail users can chat without downloading it! But, you might want to wait for the next release.

Google Talk ? for Windows 2000 and Windows XP.

Screenshot:

Review of PhoneGaim 0.79.5 (Windows XP, Linspire)

So, we really wanted voice with Gaim. We found a solution: PhoneGaim. To use it, you need to get a Sipphone account. One problem: PhoneGaim doesn’t work.

Voice: Not tested. Why? IT DOESNT WORK! We tried it, even got a Sipphone account, but it STILL DIDNT WORK!
[For other features, go to the Gaim page]
Bottom Line: Maybe you’ll get it. But for us, we’ll stick to Skype.
PhoneGaim 0.79.5 For Windows XP
Phone Gaim ? For Linspire

Screenshot:

Review of Skype 2.0.0.79 (Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows PocketPC, Macintosh OS X, SuSE 9, Fedora Core 3, Mandriva 10.1x, Xandros, MEPIS, Ubuntu)

We’ve always been a fan of Skype. So when 2.0 came out, we had to get it. Here’s what we found:

Voice: Terrific. After all, what can you expect from a VOIP program?
Video: Subpar. Skype only has 15 fps, and only Windows XP users can use the video option.
File Transfer: Not tested.
Smileys: Subpar. It has animated smileys, but a small amount.
Games: None.
Interface: Subpar. The interface was only OK.
Bottom Line: Skype just got better with support for most webcams. You can also get several other features, such as calling phones, receiving phones calls, and getting voicemail. You can even buy Skype cell phones! Skype can also be downloaded to a Pocket PC. However, its interface is pretty cluttered.

Skype 2.0.0.79 For Windows
Skype 1.4.0.35 For Macintosh OS X
Skype 1.2.0.18 For SuSE 9, Fedora Core 3, Mandriva 10.1x, Xandros, MEPIS, Ubuntu
Skype For 2.0.0.39 PocketPC

Screenshot: