Favorite Gadget #5 - Skype

Last year on our way down the Pacific side of the Baja Peninsula, while anchored in Magdalena Bay, we heard another boat on marine radio touting the latest gimmick on the internet.  It had the unusual name, Skype.  According to the testimonial, one could make free telephone calls over the internet.  We wrongly assumed that this was some kind of “techy fever”, probably for computer geeks only and forgot about it.

 

But later in our cruise we began to have a need to make phone calls back to the states, and while it is possible to make phone calls using phone cards from pay phones in Mexico, we thought it would be much easier, not to mention much less expensive if this Skype thing really worked.

 

Well, in short, it does.  At least most of the time.  It is affected by the quality and speed of your connection.  So at times when we are using wireless connections at less then full strength, the people we call may have a hard time hearing every word we say, and sometimes there is a delay between the end of a spoken sentence and when it starts to be heard at the other end.

 

Skype is currently a free download from the internet.  Calls between Skype users are free.  Skype users can call non-Skype contacts (using ordinary phone numbers) for 2 cents a minute.  Until recently it has not been possible for a non-Skype contact to call a Skype user from a regular phone or cell phone.  This would of course require that a Skype user have a regular phone number somewhere.  Skype is just now beta-testing this capability and we haven’t yet signed up.  It will cost about $40 per year to establish a US-based phone number.

 

To use Skype after we have successfully downloaded it is very simple.  As soon as we have established an internet connection we can look at the Skype window and it will tell us if any of our regular Skype contacts are also online.  It will also notify us if one of them signs on to the internet while we are online.  If one of them is online, we simply click on their name and Skype places the call.  Our laptop rings like a phone.  Unless you have a built in microphone, you will also need a computer headset.  These are pretty cheap Radio Shack, CompUSA, etc.  They have two plugs, one for the microphone and one for the headphones.  We often just plug the mike in and use the computer’s speakers so both of us can hear what is being said.

 

We can only talk to other Skype users if they are also online.  However, we can call anyone with a regular (or cell) phone number.  We just set them up as what is called a Skype-Out contact, click on their name and once again the computer dials the number.

 

When we got to San Carlos last spring, we needed to make a lot of phone calls and Skype made it a lot easier.  So, if you’d like to call us for free, or any of your friends around the world for 2 cents a minute, give Skype a try.  Over 211 million people have downloaded it to date.  Just click here, www.skype.com

 

Our Skype name is: svkavenga