My stepdaughter Morgan suggested the other night that we install Skype so we could have video conversations while Maria and I and Morgan and her fiancée opened Christmas presents.
Things were too hectic to undertake the project then, but I had some time on my hands this afternoon, so I signed up for the free version of Skype and downloaded the software onto my netbook.
I let it search my Gmail address book for fellow Skypers and it came up with 32 contacts. Throwing out people I don’t know or don’t ever want to talk to on Skype, I winnowed the list down to a dozen. Then I fired off an email to my sons, Morgan and some friends giving them my Skype ID and inviting them to join me on Skype if they weren’t already on it.
Indianapolis BMW Club friend Dom LoDuca took me seriously, joined Skype and contacted me an hour or so later from his home near the Butler University campus in Indianapolis. It was the inaugural Skype call for both of us and I’m very impressed with the quality of the audio and video.
That’s how it looked on my netbook when I went fullscreen – Dom in the big picture and me in the inset. He saw the reverse on his end.
The pay version of Skype lets you call land line phones and mobile phones. I guess if I were going to dump my AT&T home phone line, that would be a good idea, but Skype is useless for 911 calls and cell phones are only marginally good for 911 calls. So I see no point in moving up to the pay version.
2 comments:
Well,for me, Skype is a very important and marvelous invention, better than a phone.I'm in Portugal and, almost everyday,besides talking, I can see my daughter in USA.Only looking into her eyes, a mother can be sure, that everything is OK
I understand. I'm hopeful that my son in Las Vegas will get on board so we can see him, his lovely wife and our granddaughter. My son in Portland, Ore. is already on Skype, but we haven't connected yet.
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