After I posted my May 16, 2006 entry titled Skype Users Can Now Call Land Lines for Free, I decided to give the Skype service a try. I've tried other "free" PC-to-Landline VOIP services in the past (Yahoo Messenger being the most recent) but was always less than impressed with the quality of service. However, after only a few short days, I'm pleasantly surprised with what I've found. I've made all calls from a laptop running Windows XP, connected to the internet via a wireless 802.11g Linksys broadband router and standard BellSouth DSL (1.5mbps down/256kbps up). I'm also using a Plantronics Audio 90 Headset connected to the laptops built-in microphone/earphone jacks. Sound quality has been excellent and I've yet to have a dropped call. The other parties I've called report excellent sound quality on their end as well, although, one did say there seemed to be a tiny amount of "lag" (for lack of a better term) at the beginning of the call. The only "problem" encountered so far seemed to be related to the new "free" calls to land-line phones feature I reported on in the post mentioned above. I had just made and ended a successful call to a land-line phone and when I attempted to immediately place another call to a different land-line phone, the call would not go through and I received an error message saying that I had to purchase SkypeOut credit to call "real" phone numbers. I made several more unsuccessful attempts to dial the number, all ending with the same error message. Finally, I closed the Skype client, restarted it, dialed the number and the call completed without any further problems. Hopefully, this is just a small glitch they will correct in the days to come. As it stands now, I can whole heartedly recommend giving the service a try.
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Richard Hatch, 45, the first winner of the once popular CBS 'Survivor' series has been sentenced to more than 4 years in jail for failure to pay income taxes on the $1 million in prize money he received. He rejected a plea bargain and opted for a trial to prove his innocence. He claimed that the show's producers told him they would 'take care of' the taxes. I guess we'll see if the 'big naked guy' can 'survive' 4 years in a cell with Bubba.
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Skype, which offers free PC-to-PC VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) calls announced yesterday (May 15, 2006) that they are extending the service to include free PC to land line calls as well. User can now make free, unlimited calls from their PC to any phone number in the United States and Canada through the end of the year. Prior to the announcement, users were charged a very small per minute fee for making such calls. Members must still pay a nominal subscription fee (about $25 U.S. per year) for the SkypeIn service which provides a phone number that allows them to receive calls on their PC from land line based phones.
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THQ Inc. announced plans to develop a video game based on the HBO hit series The Sopranos. It will feature voice-overs and likenesses of most of the cast members including the don himself James Gandolfini. The game is tentatively slated for release in October in both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 2 formats.
Initial reports say that players will assume the role of Big Pussy's illegitimate son and carry out orders to prove their allegiance to the family with the ultimate goal to become a "made" man in the midst of brewing war between the New Jersey and Philadelphia mob.
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Bloomberg News is reporting that Apple Computer has signed contracts with the four largest record labels which will allow the company to continue offering songs via it's iTunes music service for 99 cents each. This is seen as something of a victory for Apple CEO Steve Jobs who has been fighting the music industry's attempt to raise the per-song cost.
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