Jul 29 2006

Is Gizmo better than Skype?

Published by Rich Pav at 11:31 am under General

(Forward: If I were to talk about what I've been doing lately, I'd bore you all to tears. I'm thinking about recoding all those little stories of my life I tell people when we're getting to know each other. Know what I mean? Like the drug deal that went bad in Bolivia, or that crack whore in Phoenix who turned out to be my ninth grade art teacher.)

Gizmo Project is a VoIP (voice over IP) app similar to Skype. The two main differences that come to mind are that Gizmo has a recording fuction built into it and it uses an open standard VoIP (called SIP if you're interested) so it's compatible with other hardware and software that also use it.

Recently, they've made it possible to place international calls to landlines and mobile phones in selected countries for free. Of course there's a catch, but it's reasonable. The person you want to call needs to download Gizmo, create a user profile and enter their landline or mobile phone number into their profile. After that, they don't need to use Gizmo at all.

Although I haven't tried it yet, but I assume it'll work, I can't think of anything stopping me from creating a Gizmo account on my parents' behalf so I can call them for free.


No tag for this post.

Supposedly similar posts:

  • None Found

15 Responses to “Is Gizmo better than Skype?”

  1. Drew UNITED STATES Windows XP Mozilla Firefox 1.5.0.5 on 29 Jul 2006 at 1:18 pm

    Do your parents need to have an actual computer? Or can you simply enter their phone number into an account you create on your computer, in Japan?


  2. Kyle Eppard UNITED STATES Mac OS X Mozilla Firefox 1.5.0.5 on 29 Jul 2006 at 1:51 pm

    I think he's talking about creating an account for them.

    If i'm not mistaken you can use Gizmo to find other people to chat with. It's more focused on social networking rather than personal voice calls. I haven't tried it yet.

    Just want you to know that I check my "Live Bookmarks" every day for updates. Have you noticed a drastic traffic decrease due to the infrequent updates, or do you still have people like me who check it religiously?


  3. Pascal Godin FRANCE Windows XP Internet Explorer 6.0 on 29 Jul 2006 at 3:29 pm

    Kyle I don't know if Rich has had a traffic decrease but, if he does, it shure ain't because of me.

    Rich I still check out Herro Flom japan on a daily basis.
    I'm one of your many hopeful listeners that dream of a "Retun to podcasting" on your part. Like Dick Clark use to say on American Bandstand "ONE MORE TIME":)


  4. Robert Sanzalone CANADA Windows XP Mozilla Firefox 1.5.0.5 on 30 Jul 2006 at 4:59 am

    Skype is still it and growing. Their deal to call N. America is still good to the end of the year (work around your IP and you should be able to do it from there).


  5. Anonymous UNITED STATES Mac OS X Mozilla Firefox 1.5.0.5 on 30 Jul 2006 at 4:11 pm

    I miss my existential bullshit! Get it together man; my mind depends on it. You neglect the public.


  6. Leo UNITED STATES Windows XP Mozilla Firefox 1.5.0.5 on 31 Jul 2006 at 1:51 am

    I haven't noticed much of a quality difference between Skype and Gizmo. And I haven't had the need to call a landline phone so I can't really talk about that, but it sounds like a good deal.


  7. Rich Pav JAPAN Windows 2000 Mozilla Firefox 1.5.0.5 on 31 Jul 2006 at 10:47 am

    I need to test it, but I don't see why I can't simply create an account for them that includes their phone number so I can call them for free.


  8. Rich Pav JAPAN Windows 2000 Mozilla Firefox 1.5.0.5 on 31 Jul 2006 at 10:48 am

    I haven't been checking my web stats.


  9. Rich Pav JAPAN Windows 2000 Mozilla Firefox 1.5.0.5 on 31 Jul 2006 at 10:50 am

    Once the site I'm developing for work is finally finished and goes live, I'll start podcasting again. It might take another month.


  10. Rich Pav JAPAN Windows 2000 Mozilla Firefox 1.5.0.5 on 31 Jul 2006 at 10:55 am

    Check out the Zencast for some good BS. Also Lamrim Radio and DailyOM, which is an e-mail newsletter but the articles are really good. They should offer a podcast, but they don't.


  11. saluradamon UNITED STATES Mac OS X Safari 419.3 on 31 Jul 2006 at 1:19 pm

    I am hearing more and more about skype but I have not used it. will it work with apple computers ?


  12. Liz UNITED STATES Windows XP Internet Explorer 6.0 on 01 Aug 2006 at 1:02 pm

    Yes, Skype works with apple computers


  13. Kyle Eppard UNITED STATES Mac OS X Mozilla Firefox 1.5.0.5 on 02 Aug 2006 at 2:48 pm

    yeah in fact the new version is the first to support video on the mac…


  14. toys ARGENTINA Windows XP Mozilla Firefox 1.5.0.6 on 10 Aug 2006 at 6:19 am

    the thing about Gizmo is that the contact you want to call (his landline number) must be online, you cant create accounts and call them if they are offline


  15. Emmanuel MEXICO Mac OS X Safari 419.3 on 03 Nov 2007 at 4:45 pm

    Is it true it will support yahoo, hotmail and other accounts?
    If so, it'll be much better than skype because the latter requires a new skype account..!