Just today I read that WalMart is announcing that they are going to sell Skype phones and related equipment. I thought this was very timely considering yesterday's post. Sinse I've only been "skyping" for 1 day, I'll add what little knowledge I have on the subject.
I have been made aware that to maximize the experience you need a skype phone. I'm not entirely convince that you NEED one, but I suppose that the good people at Skype have to make their money in some way or another. My experience yesterday is that what you TRULY need is a (1) A webcam. (which we have built into our laptop) (2) A microphone (which we have built into our laptop) and (3) Speakers (which any moron with a computer would have - myself included.... not that I'm implying I'm a moron.... nor denying....)
The one problem that we experienced was that as the other party says something, their sound comes through our built in speakers and right back into the built in microphone. Therefore, they get echoing and feed back. The solution is to plug in our headphones so that we can still hear them, but the microphone doesn't pick up THEIR voice.
As I think through the process, I'm sure that's what the "skype phone" is all about. Headphones and a mic. Which is pretty much what we have. Our's is a little more make-shift, but oh well. Either way, I'm psyched to have this set up for our trip to Russia. The big problem will be finding a WI-FI hotspot. Without WI-FI, all of this Skype stuff is pointless.
3 comments:
You don't necessarily need WiFi, but rather just hi-speed access. We had no problems with hi-speed in Khabarovsk, and if all else fails the TGIFridays in Moscow is a hotspot.
Say, I noticed that the SKYPE website has a listing of all of the hotspots/locations in Russia for SKYPE services - most in Moscow, a few in St Petersburg, and one in some other place (can't remember.) I don't know if this applies to all services or just their phone service. I noticed that the fee$ seem to be tied to the SKYPE phone services such as calling a land or mobile phone number from the computer/SKYPE account. I think (obviously new to this as well and much less technology savy than you) that the internet part of their service which we used in our practice session remains free as long as there is some kind of internet service (is that the WIFI thing?) I don't know what the SKYPE phone is about -- I did notice they have a LOT of gadgets for sale on their website. Like you, I think we have what we may need for our purposes unless you also want to make phone calls using this site. That should sufficiently cover, for now, what I don't really know, but think to be true about SKYPE. Actually, I am just anxious to be able to try it out with you in Russia. N&P
o.k. group. We are beginning to feel out of the loop. We, too, are anxious to get this thing going. I didn't realize we needed equipment as well. Can you include us on what we need? We don't have anything major going on this evening and could easily make a walmart run. Please let us know if we can share this with you guys and N&P. Love you all.
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