This post was initially a reply to a friend on their LiveJournal, but I put enough time into it, so I thought I’d make a full-out blog post out of it. Keep in mind that this is all personal observation and thoughts, so for the most part, your mileage may vary.
For those of you not in the know, there are now two programs out there that do free P2P VoIP - Skype has been around for quite awhile now, where Gizmo Project (which may get a new name soon) is a relative newcomer. Both offer similar paid services, such as the ability to call out to standard phone networks, or the ability to have your own custom inbound number. In fact, I used Skype rather extensively when Lisa was in Argentina as a means of talking to her. I’m sure we saved quite a bit in long distance bills by using Skype and getting her a SkypeIn phone number that was a local phone number for our land line, not to mention it made it a lot easier for the less tech-savvy family members to reach her.
My friend asked me if I knew how they compared, in terms of RAM utilization. Skype.exe is eating 22,784K according to Windows XP. Gizmo.exe is using 16,292K. Gizmo wins for size, at least initially.
As for other features, with Gizmo, there’s some unique things. For example, there doesn’t seem to be as easy a way to get multiple people into one call, but you’re also technically not capped by anything other than bandwidth. You pick and dial a random-ish conference call number, then distribute it to other people and have them connect. It seems a little goofy. I don’t know anyone else on Gizmo yet, so I’ve yet to see it in practice. If a bunch of you sign up for Gizmo, we might have to give it a shot. Although Gizmo’s conference call system seems a bit odd, it says that if you have people mute themselves when they’re not talking, you’ll have much greater success with large numbers of people. They say that they’ve had 28 people in 11 countries talking at once without much degradation of call quality. They say once you break past four people who aren’t muting, call quality slips a bit. Skype caps out at five people in a call, no matter what.
You also get the ability to have people call you directly from a land line for free, by using the SIP phone number that Gizmo provides. I can’t easily find this number in any member area of Gizmo, but you get it in the welcome email, so be sure to hang onto that when you sign up. So, for example, you can visit http://www.gizmoproject.com/access-numbers.html and pick an access number, dial it up, then press 1 for the SIPphone network, then punch in my SIP number (which I won’t post here, ask if you want to try it) and bam, that’s me, from a land line, without me having to put out any money at all. Of course, you as the caller have to pay whatever long distance charges may apply, but it works well, and when I tested it on myself, it was a near instant connection. It actually stunned me how fast it went from me punching in my SIP number on my handset to the call showing up on my screen.
I called myself to test it out. After getting that call and pushing it to voicemail (as I didn’t feel like talking to myself), Gizmo is up to 21,672K, which is higher than it was earier, but still lower than Skype at idle. Just for grins, I used my SkypeIn number that I signed up for and called myself in a similar such manner, and Skype went up to 30,513K, and when I hung up, it dropped to 29,536K. The Skype connection didn’t show up as fast as Gizmo did, but was still quick enough that had I answered it right away, the caller wouldn’t have waited for more than a ring or two. It makes me want to sign up for a Gizmo CallIn number, but there are none local to 505 yet. That’s one big win for Skype: The SkypeIn numbers seem to be much more extensive over the US, where Gizmo’s CallIn numbers are still only in large markets. I’m sure that Gizmo will expand, but for now, if that’s a big priority for you, then Skype is really your only choice unless you live in a large market. Free inbound calls rock, if you don’t mind only having access numbers in major cities and having people dial 20+ digits to reach you, but considering the ubiquity of free long distance on cell phones these days, long distance calls aren’t such an issue.
I should also note that voicemail is a paid service on Skype, but is free on Gizmo. However, each program handles voicemail rather differently. With Skype, you can either pay for voicemail as an independent service, or it comes free with a SkypeIn number. All voicemail information is managed in the client. You listen to and delete voicemails from within Skype. With Gizmo, each voicemail is sent as a .wav attachment to the email address that you provide. I gave it my gmail address (as I’m thinking of hopping ship to gmail for all of my email), so email size isn’t such a concern, but if you have a small inbox, this sort of system could be dangerous. Overall, the voicemail quality seemed better on Skype, but I’ve received a few there and only my one test on Gizmo, so it might not be that big of a difference. I didn’t do extensive testing on this aspect. I like managing voicemail through the program itself rather than email, but having it come in through email could be a real benefit in that you could listen to it from any PC, even if you can’t install the application, such as at a web cafe or something.
One odd thing I discovered, is that with your SIP phone number, you can go to http://www.sipphone.com/ and log in using your number and Gizmo password, and set up things like SMS notification of missed calls, which isn’t something Skype seems to offer yet. I don’t think I’d mess around much at SIPphone though, because I don’t know what sort of odd effects that’d have on Gizmo. It’s just neat to be able to turn on SMS notification, so I did, but I haven’t done any other account adjustments there. If I want to in the future, I think I’ll be doing it directly at GizmoProject.com.
As for client stability, Skype wins overall. Gizmo is still in beta, and it’s shown in one or two screens. I like the overall interface of Gizmo a bit more, but I did have one really weird issue where I had clicked on a small banner on one screen in Gizmo (not an ad, just a banner talking about something), and it linked me to another site, but when I came back, the dialog with the banner was stuck to my mouse, and I had to close that window using the keyboard, because when I moved my mouse, the dialog moved with it. It didn’t crash or anything, but there’s been one or two odd little things like that. They haven’t hampered usage, but it does show that it’s in beta still, whereas Skype is pretty much rock solid, and has been for months.
Since the initial question I was asked was about application memory usage, I’ve been staring at that during this whole testing phase. Overall, it seems like Gizmo is going to be lower in memory usage, usually by about 7-9MB. Even after a call, Gizmo was smaller in size than Skype at idle.
Also, I can’t seem to pick a truly personal avatar for Gizmo like I can with Skype. That stinks, but it’s not such a big deal.
My username is brianarn on both systems, if you want to do any testing or such things. If you want my SIP number, email me. Keep in mind that I may be at work, and so I might not talk much (if at all), but I’m sure we could say Hi or something.
Overall, I think I like Gizmo a bit more now. It uses less RAM, has more in the way of free features, and lets a ton more people than five get together at once. However, I know more people on Skype. I’ll stick to running both for now, but I’d recommend that people check out Gizmo and see what they think.
73 Comments
Hi Brian, interesting article, I’ve been playing with Gizmo in the last days and I really like it is SIP based, so it can connect with other SIP networks.
I also tried the usual tests, calling to my voicemail, the conference call (again, with myself), outgoing calls to regular landlines (using the free US$ 0.25 they gave me when signing up), and so far everything works right. I agree the client could be improved (I miss having my own avatar and maybe text chat ability) but it’s just beta, a couple of days ago they updated the software and I’m sure they will get to version 1.0 soon.
I already have a VOIP provider with numbers in the US but I’m thinking about getting a UK based number with Gizmo, it would be nice to know if anybody has tried Gizmo CallIn.
Regards!
SkypeOut is cheaper than CallOut. The Gizmo Project website looks like a copy of Skype’s in many ways, but it is not as well written or designed. But competition does not hurt.
Hello there,
i hope one can help me here. i am planning to use one of these free or cheap phone connections
calling to and from remote areas in Africa. Could you let me know is required?
1- Internet connections are very expensive there and not very stable: Is there a way I could
expand or enhance the connection by purchasing a small but smart satellite?
2- Would providing my correspondents with cheap laptops/sound cards/microphones help
3- What is SIP
Thank you all.
Hey there Charles - here’d be my replies. They may not be useful, but it’s what I know.
1: If you don’t have a good stable connection, it probably won’t work well. You could look into satellites, but that’s probably going to be just as expensive.
2: They’ll need something like a cheap machine with a sound card, a microphone, and some way to hear things like speakers or headphones. You can pick up a headset that is both headphones and a microphone for $20 in a number of places, so that’s a pretty viable option.
3: I’m not sure of the exact details. I’d hit up sipphone.com and see what they’ve got to say.
What’s the concern with RAM usage? I haven’t heard anyone using that as a comparison point in many years.
I have used Skype for some time and was interested in Gizmo primarily for free voicemail. Both Skype and Gizmo have internet type voicemail which is ok, but both of these programs should ship with a default on board voicemail system. I have had great success with SAM voicemail for Skype, very simple program that takes a message and saves as an mp3 i believe on my computer.
I am clueless as to why both of these are without this feature? Is it simply the case with Skype because they want you to sign up for paid service?
I am also a Palm user and would LOVE to see one of these provide software for the Palm platform! Just wishing, Gphone was meant to provide this back in 2003/2004 but they sadly dissapeared from the sceen. If Gizmo wants to compete, getting a good Palm client out would help a little!
Adam
You can find your SIP number at any time by dialing ** from Gizmo.
MrRoper, I didn’t really have much of a concern with RAM usage, but my friend was asking about that, because he did. I just wanted to give him as much detail as I could in that regard, since that was the core of his question. :)
Adam, I’ve heard that Skype is working on it. They’ve got a PocketPC version already. A Palm version would be awfully nice though.
John, that’s really useful to know! Thanks!
I haven’t used Gizmo so I cannot compare. But I can mention two features of Skype that most reviews and comparisons appear to always miss:
1. In Skype all communication is encrypted. I work in a major bank (no, I don’t use Skype from work) and telephone banking used to be one of my product. A big issue with that was how easy it was for people to listen in on the call (open any man hole and voala). I take comfort in the knowledge that my conversations are totally private and no one that I have not given permission can be in on the conversations I am having.
2. This one has already been mentioned. Skype comes pre-installed on a number of Pocket PC PDAs. I have the PDA2K PocketPC phone and it has completly changed the way I view a phone. When I am at home, all long distance calls (whether skype to skype or skype to phone) are done using skype, through the wireless broadband network many households now have… and it is all done on the same device that I used to communications at work, on the road, etc. I’ve even noticed that my wife (who is a techno-phob) uses my mobile phone for all her long distance calls because she can do them from free through skype, while wandering about the house or garden within the range of our WiFi network. (note: the iMate PDA2k mobile phone has WiFi capability built in)
The above 2 points are often overlooked by people evaluating Skype, yet they are two things that have propelled me to use skype even more than I would have had I had to go to the study each time I wanted to make a phone call and had to think of all the people between myself and timbuktu who could be listening in on my conversation.
You make a good point. Skype does encrypt the calls themselves, whereas Gizmo currently does not. They plan to upon leaving beta, which is an understandable concession for now. It’s nice to know it’s planned. It just makes me wonder at what stage they’ll introduce the encryption.
http://support.gizmoproject.com/index.php?_a=knowledgebase&_j=questiondetails&_i=65 is my source of info on Gizmo’s security plans.
SIP defined at .
Why use any of the 2? get VoIP Buster then you can call any phone in the US and some other places for FREE and with clear and crisp sound. Link is on the frontpage of my webpage.
I am excited that Skype finally has some competition, because now we should see these two skyrocket in their development. It seemed Skype trudged along and has grown very slowly.
Gizmo’s disadvantage is that these free VoIP services require other users of the same software, and Skype has a huge headstart. I will try out Gizmo also (but I will likely wait until another release or two.
http://www.telecommer.com has tons of telecom-related information, with an entire category for VoIP news and information.
I am fed up of Skype under Linux. It is so unstable and rarely works properly. I can’t wait for Gizmo to be ported and really hope it works. Skype’s port to Linux is so poor done it’s short of an insult.
If its going to be done so half-heartedly, devs should bothered porting an app to Linux.
It does not help at all, having something buggy - when the Windows version seems to work better.
It only brings bad name to Linux as a buggy platform which is hardly the case.
Hi; I have not tried Gizmo but LOVE Skype. It has awesome audio and the BEST VIDEO I’ve seen so far on all the VoIP programs I’ve tried.
Video? How are you getting video via Skype?
Video for Skype…try a search ’spontania4skype’ This plugin works with Skype well + other apps.
R
Has anyone tried using SJPhone for PocketPC with Gizmo? I recently read an article on how to use SJPhone with Vonage Softphone but I would prefer to set up with Gizmo since my VoIP usage will be light and occasional. Thank!
Skype in Linux works great for me. Computer to computer and computer to phone function very well. Just download the latest version and run it without artsd (the KDE sound dameon). Skype is very laggy when sound is piped through artsd but perfect when it is not. BTW, artsd can be restarted once the Skype client is loaded…the new version of artsd allows control of the sound to be given to apps that don’t use it.
Scott
Well I dont know how people can praise Gizmo so much. My group swapped from Skype to Gizmo. Well… I wont say that Gizmo is terrible because its not. But we have had a string of problems that really grate on our patience and our nerves:
1. One of our users gets an error message whenever she does *anything* in Gizmo.
2. Another user has Gizmo crash whenever she calls one of our group members.
3. All of us find that Gizmo erratically shows whether other users are online or not.
4. Most annoying of all, though, is that we find only about 1 in 3 times our calls are never seen by the recipient; we dial, it rings and rings but the person at the other end never even sees the call coming through. Then there is the random crashes and error messages.
Make no mistake, Gizmo is very much in beta at the moment. We dearly hope that the developers will improve it quickly because we would not hestitate to swap back to skype at present.
I could not make Gizmo connect from work computer. Skype connected right away. Maybe firewall issue? Does anyone know how it can be fixed?
Why Skype can never win in the long run: It is based on proprietary protocols
Why Gizmo and similar clients will succeed: They are based on open standards (SIP)
Skype has shown that VoIP can be made to work very well, but Skype has no future if they do not open up for communication with other clients that are SIP-based.
I’m excited by Gizmo, but so far have opened a couple of trouble-tickets, one last Saturday, the other last Monday at the gizmoproject.com site with no response. It’s now late Wednesday night. The site claims an average reponse time of 48 hours, it’s been a bit longer than that. My main annoyances now is that I’ve yet to receive any Voicemails through email, and the lack of reponse to trouble-tickets. I did get a call-in number and am pretty happy with the quality of the calls, but would love to have VM working. I know, it’s beta software, just updated to v54 today.
The biggest complaints I have seen with Skype revolve around Skype’s poor handling of online credit payment, and overly long process times for SkypeOut. This is especially true of folks located outside the US and Europe. I was wondering if anyone experienced the same sort of payment problems with Gizmo Call Out?
To be honest, I haven’t tried out CallOut on Gizmo. I have 25 cents of it to use, but that doesn’t work for testing out the handling of online credit. I didn’t have much issue in that regard with SkypeOut (although I admit it isn’t perfect), but I’m also in the US, so it’s hard to say.
Well, Gizmo released an update but it hasnt corrected any of our problems. In fact, when we first installed the update, our users werent seeng *any* calls that were made to them. Members of our group made a few jokes about this amazing new feature of gizmo: “It hides your incoming calls, giving you more time to sit quietly and meditate”. Gizmo has since started working again but some of our users remain unable to see whether other users are online. So, despite the update, Gizmo continues to have a frustrating and erratic “sometimes I work, sometimes I dont” feel.
I was just testing Gizmo today. It worked great. The only major problem I had was that people on the other end (a cell phone) complained of bad background noise. I tested Call Out, Voice Mail, and calling in via the access numbers. (I’m in New Zealand, they were in the U.S.) With a proper mic, (I was using the built in one on my iBook), I’m sure that will fix the background noise issue.
One more difference: your unused Gizmo credit expires after 6 months, on Skype it doesn’t expire. Quite unfair, I’d say.
Actually, that’s not true. I lost over $9 USD to Skype. Credit expires if not used for six months. Check out this FAQ on Skype’s site. If you don’t use SkypeOut for six months, your credit goes away.
Hi, you were wrong in two things, thereare not only two out there, there are 4 now, and the 3 others much morebetter then skype. There is Voipbuster, who is very good, callouts for 21 countries are completely for free, 0 euro cents a minute, you pay only one time fee 1Euro, and thats it, and you have your 21 country`s for to call for completely free, 0 cents. The other country`s are about 1 cent a minute, some of them a bit more. Skype costs 1.7 cents and they round up so it comes out 2 ents. I stoped skype. When I was talking with 3-4 people on skype the same time, 1 disapeared completey we couldn`t hear each others. Echo lots on skype.
then the newest is; ineen, voice video and chat, but not yet for callout to landline phones.
So when you want to save money, Voipbuster is the best, and when you use voipbuster with X-Pro or X-Lite, you have a perfect voice quality, better then from landline to landline, when you have a handset phone its more better.
Nico: I’d expect the crashes to be fixed sometime in the future, but some of those other problems sound a little more general than just Gizmo.
My thoughts in the same order you listed:
1. What Operating System is the user who keeps getting crashes using, What other software is running? Have they applied all available updates to critical software? Is their computer spyware/adware/virus/worm/trojan free (If using windows, I’d bet no)? Try these steps (WARNING: DO NOT TRY IF YOU DON’T HAVE AN OPERATING SYSTEM INSTALLATION BOOTABLE CD OR DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING!!!!!!!!!): back up your important data (AND ONLY YOUR IMPORTANT DATA - THE MORE YOU BACK UP, THE MORE YOU RISK BACKING UP MALWARE), delete all partitions on the hard disk, and recreate them, ensuring you have a fresh boot sector, format the partitions, install the operating system, install a firewall, antivirus software, and antispyware software, install all the latest patches for the OS and other critical software, then restore your data from the backup.
2. Check the firewall settings on both computers in question - if both are blocking incoming connections it may cause this. NAT routers (many broadband modems use this) and proxies can have a similar effect to a firewall. If either computer is behind a firewall/NAT/proxy, try setting it to allow/forward incomming connections on ports 5060 and 5004.
3 and 4: This sound like network trouble to me. How recent is all the network hardware in use? What kind of Internet connection is each of the computers using? What countrie(s) are you located in? How far are you from your ISP? Are you in a city, small town, or other rural area? Are any of you running other bandwidth-intensive applications in the background (eg. Bulk downloads)? How reliable is your Internet connection normally? How is the weather (No, this is serious - bad weather affects the telephone network, which can drastically affect dialup quality)? Roughly what connection speed do you usually get when you connect to the Internet? Does the connection drop out randomly? Do you have software compression enabled? Are you using a winmodem or a hardware modem (Only if dialup)? What speed is the port that the modem is attached to set to?
Unfortunately, if it is the network connection that is at fault, Gizmo fixes won’t help that much - unreliable connections are never good for realtime, bandwidth intensive applications.
It’s a bit pathetic, how everybody is so flipped out over Skype. VoIP has been around WAAAY before Skype and if all goes well, will be still around way after you’ve all forgot about the last year’s fad.
Skype is locking in it’s users into a proprietary system from where the only way out is paying them, with no real VoIP interconnection.
This is like a web-based messaging system specific to one website compared to e-mail in general. SIP is an open protocol, with lots of providers all over the world and a large selection of clients (including a wide range of hardware SIP phones) available to almost anybody. Gizmo is just one service and one client, but still with a powerful backing to it.
Comparing SIP to Skype is a lot worse than comparing apples to oranges. It’s like comparing cats to mammals …
Um, VOIPbuster is Windows-only, which makes it a non-starter for a lot of smart computer users. It would also shove it into the proprietary-technology category. No competition for anybody!
just for information, this project is worth checking out
http://www.openwengo.com
dial-in / dial-out feature
full SIP
client is GPL licenced
ewqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqq
BONJOURE
SIP number is displayed in the Profile window (Accounts - My Profile) as a non-editable field.
Hi there Brian, nice article, I found it listed on Gizmo’s website.
I am a Skype user from Scotland, mainly, but I downloaded Gizmo a few days ago, it works well, very well in fact, I got myself a call-in number for my own local area here in Scotland, UK and the voicemail is great too, especially when used with VM Rover, But though it’s SIP based and has features that Skype doesn’t have, I still keep both programs running at the same time, as on Skype its really easy to meet new people, easy to search for people who want “Skyped” and want people to talk or chat with, Gizmo doesn’t have this feature yet, only a yellow pages of names to look up, nobody to call and talk with, and Gizmo doesn’t have chat yet either.. I think if they added most or all the missing features Skype has, I would switch over… as a phone though its great.. just wish it was all as above. VoIP Buster softphone is great for making free calls.. very good voice quality using the Cyberphone-k USB, but I can’t see that lasting forever (the free calls) and the Ineen softphone looks great, but they have no directory and therefore no way to meet other online users and talk or test it out, Ineen looks great, but its a waste of time really unless you have other friends that you know of using it. So Skype wins for its features as a VoIP phone and a good IM. A good way to meet other people around the world… again I will say it though, if Gizmo added this search feature for finding friends in different places around the world using Gizmo or a Gizmo “Skype-me feature”, and a chat IM too… then it would be much more than just a good quality SIP phone.. it would be better than Skype, but until they improve alot of stuff, I will just continue to use them both.
Skype for my friends on chat and phone, Skype-in and out etc.. and Gizmo just for my local Call-in number, as I can’t do much else with it at present.
Thanks.
Regards,
Jason.
—
Nice topic you got here guys.
I am not really in to the techno world but I think I should share my modest experience with Skype and VOIPbuster.
I had tried both the Skype in and out; well I can lest my points like that.
Pros.
1) SkypeIn switch works perfectly I could say that within the last week I mad around 185 times and in all the times the Skype number rings , and when I mentions around 185 around 370 because I divided my calls to both my numbers in UK and USA with two different accounts.
2)SkypeOut is functioning perfectly as well, yet the quality of voice is farther more better than SkypeIn
3)Skype voice mail never miss any VM. It keeps it and you can check it any time. Till now I have got 38 voice mails and I am wondering how long it is going to be there ï?Š
4)Skype conference works with no complications. And up to 5 users I tried and no one was disconnected involuntary.
Now as fare as we are heading for the moment of truth let me mention the cons.
1) as fare as we are interested of voice calls much more than other things I could say that in all the cases we tried Skype (SkypeIn,SkypeOut, and Skype conference) the voice quality is completely a matter of bandwidth ,computer configuration and connection configuration.
2) So I could say that with my old DSL 128/64Kbps it was doing ok but not like my new 256/128Kbps connection, you should also put in consideration that the better your PC is the better voice quality you are going to experience, I am not going to dive in to details about that, yet 500 MHz wont have the same quality as 3 GHz and I tried that.
3) If you are welling to enjoy the best of your Skype voice then you have to give it a try,, “you should miss up with your Windows services if you are newbie� in other term reconfigure it, so to stop all un needed uploads and downloads.
4) Yet talking about the payment is another story,, once you use your credit to purchase the first time it goes ok, but after that you have to go through moneybooker , paypal or other services, in a clear scope of forcing you to pay extra money to some one you don’t need, any way they find a nice way to explain it, they say to increase your security HU, HU,HU. Any way it does not talk much. Just remember if you go once through moneybooker don’t forget your password otherwise you will hate all the banks like I do now �
Facts and advices:
• Skype is heavy meal for your PC to digest, so use it when you need it only.
• Skype is not SIP softphone so you can use it only if you have your PC on and online.
• If you want to help others to have better voice quality leave your Skype account online all the time if you have high connection speed.
• http://www.iskoot.com can make deference if you are welling to have roaming with Skype or other services.
• Skype Forwarder from http://www.twilightutilities.com can be nice check it yourself.
I wont say much about VOIPBUSTER till I finish my work with it.
Useful thread. Haven’t tried Gizmo yet, but probably will switch to whoever gets local numbers in my area (Victoria, Canada) first. I would prefer a system that was not so heavy on resources - the longer I use Skype, the more computer resources it seems to tie up. After 30 minutes or so of talking on the phone, I can’t run ANYTHING else on my PC (P4, 2.4G, 768M, ADSL) except Skype. I would happily switch to something that wasn’t P2P to keep other people off my computer.
Just checked Gizmo more thoroughly, and it is more expensive than Skype for calls outside the US (certainly to Colombia, where I call).
Skype to Colombia landline/mobile: 9.5c/9.9c
Gizmo to Colombia landline/mobile: 10.1c/11.4c
However, there is a bigger difference because Skype offers discounted rates to certain cities. So, if you call Cali or Bogota in Colombia:
Skype to Cali/Bogota, Colombia landline: 5.1c
Gizmo to Colombia landline: 10.1c
In addition, a Skype phone number is USD$36/year, versus Gizmo at $5/month ($60/year).
That said, I hope that Gizmo catches on, because the competition can only help the market at this point, I think.
I am in the midst of trying out a number of VOIP services, and so this is an interesting topic for me. I agree with what most people have said here:
Skype is a proprietory system, NOT an open one.
Skype currently has a larger user base.
Skype calls are encoded.
Skype Out/Skype In works very well.
Skype voice quality is harsh!
Gizmo is an open standards system.
Gizmo call quality is better (softer) than Skype.
Gizmo allows you to record the conversation.
Gizmo allows you to map the call.
Skype & Gizmo - The better quality audio system you use, the better the experience will be. I use, and recomend Sennheiser headphones (PC155-USB)
I personally run both systems at the current time (plus Google Talk), and do have SKype Out/Skyp In/Skype Voicemail. However, because of the closed standards, I will be switching from Skype when I have used my credit. Open standards win, with more support. I guess Skype is a little bit like AOL used to be - you could only email people on AOL. AOL learnt that they had to change. If Skype do not change, then they will ultimately lose out.
Interesting discussion. Readers might like to now consider the WiPhone issue, where Skype is virtually out of the picture because of its proprietary and increasingly arrogant Bill Gates-like stance. WiPhones are the next hot product, and the initial design and marketing concept is SIP-compliant. Which I fully go along with. However, with 180 million downloading Skype free software, there appears to be a constituency that will need to be satisfied. My view on this is that consumers should call Skype’s bluff. SIP’s the way to go, and Gizmo is a good path to try. Our Wiphone won’t work with Skype, but it connected immediately with Gizmo.
Brian Mackie at inter@ction.co.nz
There is another skype/gizmo competitor - damaka (http://www.damaka.com), still in early (beta) stages. It lacks the feature set of both skype/gizmo, but it looks interesting and promising.
They are P2P and SIP based. They already connect to other sip networks like FWD. So far the audio quality has been excellent (thanks to good ol GIPS). Their IM features are nice.
Their UI is also clean, communication is end to end encrypted and provide free voicemail. But lack the important feature - CallOut/SkypeOut - PC-to-Phone.
They are only 9 months old, but they are already making news. Check out this PODCAST (http://www.damaka.com/news.htm).
It only has a windows version at this time, but I am sure versions for other platforms will follow soon.
Check out their website @ http://www.damaka.com and give it a try.
(And if you want to IM/Call/SMS or send a voicemail/offline message to me, my damaka id is ’swankyvoiper’)
Freedigits is unique with unlimited inbound calling, so I think it is better than Gizmo or Skype. Plus it works with Linux, Mac and Windows. So what more can more ask for?
Oh yeah, forgot to put in the URL, http://www.freedigits.com and it will ask you for the usual stuff to sign up. But remember it is definately better than Gizmo or Skype!
I see Skype and Gizmo don´t support Windows 98. Maybe you know how I can run Gizmo Project in this operating system. Other simple project, ExpressTalk do it without any problem. You can see more in: http://nch.com.au/talk/index.html
Finally, if you give me any suggestion to run Gizmo Project on Windows 98, I ‘ll appreciate your help.
I’ve used Skype for a while now, both for basic PC-toPC voice chat, and as a production tool for our podcast. We’ve been delighted with the sound quality, but since our podcast frequently features collaborative bits such as interviews, conversations, and a dramatic serial, we’ve had to work around Skype’s lack of a recording function by using a separate recording app such as Audacity, Goldwave, Sound Forge, etc. Trouble is, unless you have the right kind of sound card you can only record your side of the conversation. A large part of our editor’s job consists of recombining multiple tracks into one, and trying to make them sound like a natural conversation!
I have yet to try Gizmo, but for me, the biggest attraction so far would be the fact that it not only records, it captures all voices in the call. We’ve been looking for a tool like that, and I’d welcome any comments from folks who have some experience recording calls in Gizmo.
I just got the Skype 2.0 beta and it does video… haven’t actually tried it, but it does it… After all the reading I’ve done, on this blog and others, I’m more inclined to go the SIP route on principle - open standard…
That said, I want VIDEO!
Anyone know of a SIP client that does video?
Hello Brian;
great forum on the Skype vs Gizmo topic, and beyond. Stumbled upon it from the Gizmo site: they must like your analysis.
I have set up both services but used them with limited success; but then I’m struggling with this whole VoIP thing from top to bottom.
Can someone help me with an issue involving SIPphone? I have a SIPphone account and additionally purchased a custom SIP number from them (a 10-digit number with an L.A. area code). Is there a way to use this SIP number with Gizmo? In fact, is there a way to use this number if I sign up for monthly service with a Vonnage-type company?
I only paid ten bucks for the custom number, but in anticipation of using it with SOME service, I printed it on my last batch of business cards; so now I feel stuck with it.
Any ideas? Thanks.
Have Skype and use it to call daughter teaching in Bosnia.
Really saves on the phone bill. Voicemail in Skype is
expiring (only have SkypeOUT as extra) so looking at
Gizmo since it offers free voicemail and can record
both sides of call for podcast or for playback or forwarding
to other family members. Thanks for your blog.
Seems that VOIP will have to be free around the world someday
including call in and call out to PTSN
since we pay for the broadband connection in the first place.
you can choose your own avatar in gizmo - just copy your avatar file (in my case a jpg) to the follwoing directory - it should now show up when you try to browse for one
C:\Program Files\Gizmo Project\avatars
good luck!
Michael
Try Openwengo… Its free, Open as open source and is based on SIP too…
Plus it supports Video on Windows and Linux as well.
User base is small, but thats because its a new project.
Greatest thing is it will soon launch (under development now) a Wengo Phone extension for Firefox browser - so you can use the whole Openwengo software from your broweser itself - no need to download and install a app.
As for now the App is still beta - and kinks are there and are being ironed out each day.
Call our rates are cheaper tahn Skype (and certainly Gizmo).
As somebody mentioned back in August, a major issue for many Skype users has been the problem of how to buy more credits. People from certain blacklisted countries find they are unable to use a credit card because they are automatically flagged as potential fraudsters. Gizmo has had similar problems. If your billing address is in one country and you live or travel in another country, you will most likely have your credit card rejected.
It’s easy to understand the merchant’s perspective here. But (to me, at least) it seems that ultimately policies that don’t focus on the need to offer a broader range of payment methods to that big chunk of the world where credit cards are less common will prove to be based on poor business decisions.
I’m a senior at SUNY Geneseo, and my friend at SUNY Albany spent hours last semester trying to get a decent VoIP program to work. Skype gave us nothing but aggravation the whole time: it wouldn’t connect; he could hear me but I could not hear him. We spent hours trying to figure out how his system was flawed; we could find nothing.
We both downloaded Gizmo Project, and *POOF*, very nice sound quality on both ends. Now that Gizmo Project has one-cent-a-minute calls, I am tempted to plunk down the ten bucks and give it a shot. Has anyone out there used both Skype-Out and Gizmo Project’s call-out and compared the two? Please post if you have!
User base is small, but thats because its a new project.
Greatest thing is it will soon launch (under development now) a Wengo Phone extension for Firefox browser - so you can use the whole Openwengo software from your broweser itself - no need to download and install a app.
I am very excited about this whole open source voip movemnt. I am traveling to austalia for 6 months to study and I would love to talk with my parents at home in the us. I am curious though can you use a bluetooth enabled cell phone as a handset with any of these services. It would be nice to have both local and global calls on one device.
Hello again folks,
After my posts a few months ago I thought I would post again and let you know that Gizmo is much better to use these days. After several updates it is in fact our preferred option over Skype.
Guys,
Skype is harsh and is not as good as it used to be… and Gizmo is so NERDY and GEEKY ;-) I don’t wanna sound un-cool…
Check out damaka
They have really cool features… I have been using damaka and converting my friends from Skype, Yahoo and MSN… we all love the quality and fun we can have with damaka. Its a very neat and easy to use collaboration tool… perfect for non-techy people like myself…
You can get damaka from here…
jackie
Just a quck note Skype is not all together cheaper i pay one penny a minute for my Gizmo Project calls …..Thats for all Us And Canada minutes ….the
other international rates are a bit higher …So if ya live in the United States Or Canada Gizmo is the way to go
Gizmo projects expire a year after purchase date….
Your Skype Credit will remain active for 180 days after your last SkypeOut call. So if you use your skype at least once every 6 mos it dont run out.
Also on both Gizmo and Skype you can purchase your minutes as they are used… So if your a person that doesn’t talk on the phone but once every six months to a year you don’t need either service.
There’s been some very interesting facts here (e.g. about some of the other FREE VOIP services) but I haven’t seen a comparison to the ‘grand-daddy’ of this FWD - Free World Dialup! FWD is SIP based and I believe it has been for a long time.
Which brings up a related question; has anyone experiences with SIP hard
phones connected to any of these services (not Skype) or SIP ATA’s (analog telephone adaptors like the Grandstream Handytone 286 at ~ 50 USD!!)
this is a really great conversation. thanks to everyone for the extra tips!
Just want to make the following comments:
- Patrick Cole: Gizmo is out for Linux
- I’ve had no issues using PayPal for SkypeOut credit. It’s worked like a charm and gotten my minutes almost immediately (knock on wood)
- I wholeheartedly agree a Palm client is definitely missing (ex-Palm user)
- I wouldn’t say the 1-222-xxx-xxxx method for conference calling is “goofy” but rather a clever way to start a conference call if security is not your primary concern (ie. *anyone* can join the call). It would be nice to have a toggle to prevent others from joining the call.
You are comparing closed programs which are hardcoded to use only one network. That way you get the impression that you must enroll with them to make calls to regular phones.
You don’t really have to be limited by that. You can get a SIPPhone account and a FWD account and a Wengo account, any account that best fits your needs (except of course Skype), and simultaneously register (go online) to them in a single configurable SIP client, or a few of them in one ATA.
For example, I deposited 10 USD in a “pay as you go” plan with teliax, simply because they offer the cheapest rates to Mexico (USD 0.02 to major cities in Mexico is really cheap). On top of that they don’t charge full minutes if you use a few seconds after the first minute. I also have a free FWD account with an ipkall DID which got me a free US incoming number, which is very handy to get calls from cell phones in the US. There are also many local numbers listed in http://www.sipbroker.com which can be used to reach that FWD number.
While I get an adaptor (if I ever), I am using Twinkle, an open source Linux SIP client which registers to both teliax and FWD, so I don’t need to switch programs to call and receive calls using the two different providers. Twinkle might not be very pretty, but it works.
There is a nicer looking interesting project: Ekiga, supporting video. Xten’s X-lite is another easy to install softphone, although not open source.
I used Skype for the mac for about 6 weeks. The Sound sucks on both ends. I thought it might be me firewall so I turend off my firewall on the mac and the router. It still sounds like crap. I am visting out of state and have tried it on a diffrent mac. Sound is still bad. I got Gizmo and it works great! I will not be useing Skype. Gizmo sound is better then my cell phone and Skype is like talking in a tin can.
Gizmo rocks!!!
Dan K
Is it posible to use skype through a cell phone?
I just want to add this: the Gizmo Project technology is open source and relies on SIP communications and XMPP. It can benefit from constant developments of other open source project as Jabber, OpenWengo (Wengo’s sister project), Jabbin for example. Maybe it could also peer-to-peer SIP technologies.
On the other hand, Skype with its proprietary code needs to do every thing on its own. From the version 1.0 to 2.0, no many functionalities appeared besides the video feature. I guess they will need to harmonize with the SIP protocol, which tends to emerge as the VoIP standard.
you state Gizmo is a P2P VOIP client, it isn’t. It is SIP. SIP based P2P isn’t ready yet
i think skype has a great price on callin but gizmo offers free callin if u use the gateway. call a gateway near you then dial your pals sip number and voila!!. fo business its a bitcruel ans skypes one numver at 30 a yr is ok but free gizmo callin is great for most folks. Also from europe call out to the states is half price at gizmo…I think the onl thing missing is a local number to callvia cell to get into ones callout or net to net calls.one big problem is calout via cellwith no wifi.I suffested to boh setting up a national or loccl number thats a gateway to sktpe or gizmo…….
Heh, have anyone here heard about iParty? I used that in the late 90’s. Not for land/cell calls — only a p2p voice caller, which works much like a walk-talk (you press ctrl to buffer your message). It was done exclusively for masses talking (based on conference with both written and spoken chat.
Btw, I use gizmo to call my father on my home city. I can spend a two 30-minute long distance call each day. Kinda great. for free. (despite the work my father had to set it up in his computer). I’ll give a try to that voip buster.
i have bith and price rules. GP is half skype. skype has the extras but cost is alot…thr call fwding is abig future drawas many folk wanna fwd to their cells all incoming skype or GP calls.This still is in the hands of telefon companies.but if GP or skype gets the cost down itll bethe winner as most people are answering voip at thepc when home but don have wifi everywhere nor have wifi cells. a cheap fwd is a plus. As well a cheapway to use a nonwifi cell toget into ones voip beit GP or skype..I use my own skype in number as a gateway..but to receive calls?a big problem
Regarding your last comment ” lets a ton more people than five get together at once.” You can have up to 50 people free conference using Skype at http://www.highspeedconferencing.com/. All calls form Skype are free and you can also have people calling from the landlines join.
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[...] I think a Google/SIPphone combination is going to be a pretty serious competitor for Skype since their approach is based on a non-proprietary standard. I found a post with some good comparsion information between the two services at randomthink.net. tags: gizmoproject googletalk sip sipphone skye gizmo [...]
[...] And to make it even better, Gizmo is less resource-intense on your system than Skype is. [...]
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