I have heard about a site for free long distance internet calling using your computer. No charges for calls from anywhere in the world, internet based. Some of you may already be familiar with this.
The web site is:
http://www.skype.com/
Both users have to have this downloaded. The download is also free. Anyone you want to call can download the software and voila, you can chat away, for free. Others said they had been using it for years and the sound is clear. You will need speakers or headset and microphone.
It even allows conference calling. Check out the website! Especially those of you with friends and family in distant locations. I am going to have to get a microphone for my puter before I can actually put it to use.
Yeah, I know some folks who call to China on it!
It is a similar service to Vonage, for which you use a regular phone (no computers). It comes under the technology heading Voice Over IP (VoIP).
One thing about Vonage is that you can get a phone number local to just about anywhere. For example, we live in SC, but my wife's family lives in CO. With Vonage and a SC number, we could call them for free, but their calls to us would be normal toll. We can have a CO number (I THINK it is in addition to your real local number) so that it will be local for them to call as well.
VoIP is really cool, and will be ubiquitous in a few years.
I have vonage as a work phone here at home, however vonage has a monthly charge to the service. The cool thing about this site is that everything is free unless you want to call actual land based telephone numbers, then there is a charge. My vonage works great too... unless the electric goes off or the internet service goes down.
Definitely worth looking into if you want to stay in touch with loved ones at home while cruisin. :)
Surprisingly good quality sound - can attach a web-cam if you like - am using it all the time .
Also possible to call land lines (anywhere) by buying a credit - calls within north america/europe very reasonable - certainly cheaper.
I like the Skype app on my ipad. If I have a half way decent connection it works great and is easy to use.... Pretty much like everything on the ipad. ;)