Skype client beta released for iPhone

[pm]

I've been waiting for this one for quite a while. A Skype VOIP client has been released for the iPhone. You need to have a "jailbroken iPhone to use this - I recommend either iLiberty or ZiPhone for this (search google).

There's an article at the Inquirer here:
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/...4/15/talk-skype-iphone

And Engadget talks about here:
http://www.engadget.com/2008/0...tions-thanks-to-fring/

And then there's step by step instructions on how to install it here:
http://www.fring.com/iphone/

I'm trying to install it now - the server they have seems to be running slow (or maybe it's just my WiFi connection).

It should work with an iPod Touch, if you add a microphone like a "TouchMic" ( http://home.swipnet.se/ridax/touchmic.htm ). There have been other VOIP-SIP clients which work with the iPod Touch (with a microphone added) such as this one:
http://lifehacker.com/378511/t...d-touch-into-an-iphone. One would think that Fring would work with an iPod Touch (with the added microphone) as well, but I haven't seen anyone say that it does.

 

[QueBert]

this is awesome news, I'm going to be getting an iPhone if the 3G model comes out in June or July and would love to be able to use Skype on it.

 

[ViRGE]

As amusing as using the Touch as a phone sounds, it's rather impractical. The lack of a built in mic and a speaker means you can never really use it as a phone, at best you can attach fairly large 3rd party headsets like pm links to and get similar functionality, but who wants to use a headset for a phone all day long?

 

[pm]

I agree, Virge, but it's a neat idea. And the attachment linked wasn't really a headset - more like a "dongle". But yeah it's impractical - but if you don't want to pay for a cell phone, or you are in another country and don't have a local SIM, it's an idea for free phone calls. Plus it's just kind of neat in a geeky way to be making phone calls from an MP3 player.


As far as "Fring" and their Skype and SIP and IM client. I got it installed and it works as advertised. You need to dial international prefixes - and this had me confused for a bit. I couldn't figure out why my home phone number wasn't working and I accidently called someone in the Palestinian Authority (my area code: 970 (Ft. Collins, CO), internal prefix for Palestine: +970). Once I figured out how to dial US numbers (011-1-area code-phone number), then it worked great. I played with the SIP support as well and that worked better than Skype in my opinion.

The app is very clean and fast, with a simple interface. It was a bit unstable and crashed occassionally, but it's their first Beta. I had to power-cycle my iPhone a couple of times when things started to get flaky. But overall, I'm pretty impressed.

The only real problem that I had with it is that they must be running a background process that runs continuously because I saw much larger amount of battery drain compared to my normal usage. The battery life issue was bad enough that I finally removed the Fring application from my iPhone this morning when I found my battery halfway drained after just five hours of not really using it. I presume the battery drain is the application monitoring for inbound calls and IM's, but it's a steep price to pay for Skype. Too high in my opinion. Maybe they'll add a way to turn it on and off in future versions.

 

[DanMart25]

Thanks for sharing the news and the links; quite useful.

 

[secretanchitman]

hmm....im still confused as to what fling is. it can only dial out to skype contacts and use all those IM programs right? or can it dial out to any number...?

sorry noob question here, but what is SIP?

 

[uli2000]

How well does this work? I have skype on my WM phone and it has an annoying bug. You can only take a call over the speakerphone or bluetooth headset, not out of the handset speaker. Plus, even in a 3g area, call quality sucks unless you are on wifi. Are any of those things any better on iphone skype?

 

[pm]

Secret, you can dial anyone with Skype using "SkypeOut". It isn't free though. But I've called my wife's cellphone and our home landline phone with Skype using Fring on my home WiFi network and from the WiFi at a local Starbucks. But both times it cost me a 2 cents a minute.

SIP is a common VOIP protocol. It's the underlying VOIP protocol used by AT&T CallVantage and others. With some of the smaller VOIP providers, you can buy minutes on SIP plans and use them with or without a monthly plan. So you get the VOIP equivalent of a prepaid VOIP account and then just use the minutes at $0.02/minute or something like that.

Ull, I couldn't use Skype on EDGE - it didn't even ring - and the iPhone doesn't have 3G. But it worked great on WiFi. Calls were through the usual microphone and standard phone speaker, and the sound quality was very good. There was a bit of latency, but it was tolerable.