We've all waited for the day to enter the Jetson age. I've had Skype for about a year and only a hand full of friends and family like to video chat. I may go months without using it. I would think this would be standard now.

One problem is that folks don't want to be seen on camera sometimes. It's almost like they need to put on make-up and look nice to talk.

Do you use this technology a lot or as needed??

Yahoo has voice and webcam and it's free.

I'm not too keen on skype.

Skype is free, and a lot better quality than Yahoo provides. I love it, and use it a lot.

sometimes with skype I find video distracting

I'm not that crazy about talking on the phone as it is, so I feel similarly with skype. I make an exception now and then if it's someone I don't get to see much. Talking in real life is waaaaay better, skyping/webcam doesn't even come close.

I webcam with my family overseas

Not at all. It never even occurs to me.

I skype about every other day with a group of people. We usually just do voice chat, but since skype doesn't allow for group videoconferencing we sometimes go on tokbox or tinychat if we want to get on cam. For me that's too much of a hassle sometimes because I have to make myself look presentable (never know when someone is snapping a screenshot) and move my laptop to an appropriate angle/position if I'm laying down. It's weird that I hate talking on the phone but I can handle skype. My mother just got a new laptop with a webcam so now I skype with her and she enjoys seeing my face now whenever -- more often than every few months or so when I get to go home.

ooVoo seems to be getting more popular as well, but I don't use it.

[Edited 8/16/10 2:13am]

No one will webcam with me. I've even bought cameras and microphones for family and they haven't even bothered to take the shit out the box. Family...

[Edited 8/16/10 2:20am]

Skype is absolutely amazing for those of us who have friends in other countries. I've been using it for the better part of a decade now and I'm still amazed that I can talk with someone on the other side of the planet for as long as I want with perfect sound quality completely for free.

If it weren't for Skype (and services like it), I don't think I could even maintain most of these friendships. So I'd say it's the one (and maybe only) piece of new technology that I think is 100% positive.

Yep - I use Skype every day.

I even buy Skype credit, because it allows me to call international numbers at stupidly low rates. £10 of Skype credit lasts me over a month, usually.

Militant said:

Yep - I use Skype every day.

I even buy Skype credit, because it allows me to call international numbers at stupidly low rates. £10 of Skype credit lasts me over a month, usually.

Yeah, in some countries you can even call cell phones at the same stupidly low rates as they offer for the landlines. It boggles my mind that I pay a lot more calling a cell phone locally without Skype than I do calling a cell phone in friggin Canada thousands of miles away using Skype.

I downloaded Skype a long time ago,but I rarely use it.

retina said:

Militant said:

Yep - I use Skype every day.

I even buy Skype credit, because it allows me to call international numbers at stupidly low rates. £10 of Skype credit lasts me over a month, usually.

Yeah, in some countries you can even call cell phones at the same stupidly low rates as they offer for the landlines. It boggles my mind that I pay a lot more calling a cell phone locally without Skype than I do calling a cell phone in friggin Canada thousands of miles away using Skype.

Yup. I call cell phones in the US almost every day, for next-to-nothing.

I can even use the Skype app on my Android smartphone and call international cell numbers for those same ridiculously low prices.

Yep. I use my cam and skype, everyday.

Militant said:

Yep - I use Skype every day.

I even buy Skype credit, because it allows me to call international numbers at stupidly low rates. £10 of Skype credit lasts me over a month, usually.

The rates for oversee calls with skype are not that low, at least when you call from Europe. I was told they are and payed about 100 Euro in 2 weeks and then found out I could have talked much cheaper if I would have used another company which I use now .

These days I cannot use it for calling phones at all as it always just closes in teh middle of calll and tells me a problem has occurred .

But if I use it for talking from one computer to another it's perfect.

Serious said:

Militant said:

Yep - I use Skype every day.

I even buy Skype credit, because it allows me to call international numbers at stupidly low rates. £10 of Skype credit lasts me over a month, usually.

The rates for oversee calls with skype are not that low, at least when you call from Europe. I was told they are and payed about 100 Euro in 2 weeks and then found out I could have talked much cheaper if I would have used another company which I use now .

These days I cannot use it for calling phones at all as it always just closes in teh middle of calll and tells me a problem has occurred .

But if I use it for talking from one computer to another it's perfect.

I don't know how much you talk but I talk to people in the US quite literally every day for sometimes up to 2 hours, and £10 GBP lasts me usually a month.

Apparently though, if you get a subscription it's even cheaper. On their site it says you can get unlimited minutes to to the US for £3.99 a month if you buy a subscription.

Militant said:

Serious said:

The rates for oversee calls with skype are not that low, at least when you call from Europe. I was told they are and payed about 100 Euro in 2 weeks and then found out I could have talked much cheaper if I would have used another company which I use now .

These days I cannot use it for calling phones at all as it always just closes in teh middle of calll and tells me a problem has occurred .

But if I use it for talking from one computer to another it's perfect.

I don't know how much you talk but I talk to people in the US quite literally every day for sometimes up to 2 hours, and £10 GBP lasts me usually a month.

Apparently though, if you get a subscription it's even cheaper. On their site it says you can get unlimited minutes to to the US for £3.99 a month if you buy a subscription.

I talk to a mobile phone in Trinidad/Tobago for maybe 4 or 5 hours a week. Skype charges 28.9 Eurocent a minute which isn't really cheap. The company I use is much cheaper.

Serious said:

Militant said:

I don't know how much you talk but I talk to people in the US quite literally every day for sometimes up to 2 hours, and £10 GBP lasts me usually a month.

Apparently though, if you get a subscription it's even cheaper. On their site it says you can get unlimited minutes to to the US for £3.99 a month if you buy a subscription.

I talk to a mobile phone in Trinidad/Tobago for maybe 4 or 5 hours a week. Skype charges 28.9 Eurocent a minute which isn't really cheap. The company I use is much cheaper.

That is way more than what I pay. It's around 1p a minute from the UK to the US.

Militant said:

Serious said:

I talk to a mobile phone in Trinidad/Tobago for maybe 4 or 5 hours a week. Skype charges 28.9 Eurocent a minute which isn't really cheap. The company I use is much cheaper.

That is way more than what I pay. It's around 1p a minute from the UK to the US.

Serious said:

Militant said:

That is way more than what I pay. It's around 1p a minute from the UK to the US.

Ask your boyfriend to get a landline. It will save you a bundle in the long run, even with the added cost of having it installed. If it's impossible for him to get a landline, ask him to borrow someone else's.

retina said:

Serious said:

Ask your boyfriend to get a landline. It will save you a bundle in the long run, even with the added cost of having it installed. If it's impossible for him to get a landline, ask him to borrow someone else's.

Both is pretty much impossible .

Serious said:

retina said:

Ask your boyfriend to get a landline. It will save you a bundle in the long run, even with the added cost of having it installed. If it's impossible for him to get a landline, ask him to borrow someone else's.

Both is pretty much impossible .

I'm guessing where he lives is so remote, no one in the area has a landline, right?

I've had a few people send me invites to this and haven't gotten around to signing up yet.

sextonseven said:

Serious said:

Both is pretty much impossible .

I'm guessing where he lives is so remote, no one in the area has a landline, right?

yeah, not even electricity at the house, it's a BIG ask

No Skype. I'd rather pick up the fucking phone so I can walk around and do shit as I'm talking. I'm willing to pay a few bucks to be able to do that. I don't IM much either. It fucking annoys me when I have multiple people talking to me and some of these fuckers are impatient too. They start buzzing you and shit if you don't answer in less than 3 seconds. And what's up with people just saying "hi" when you get on and then not answer back when you say "hey, how are ya?". Leave me the fuck alone if you're not going to talk anyway.

A cam is only interesting because when you turn on your cam women are willing to show you some T&A. Not right away, but eventually they will. Anyway, that's all so 1998. Been there, done that. Had my first FaceTime call today. Over 3G it could be somewhat interesting (already installed Fring, just haven't use it yet), but only to show someone some crazy funny shit real quick. I'm using my head set so I don't have to hold my fucking phone, but that shit doesn't work if you're using the cam(s).

Interesting comments, especially from JowiiCoco....

I agree with a lot of these. I think its more trouble than its worth. Most of the time you need to pre-plan your video with the person you'd like to see. It's cool on occasion, and great if your friends are in another state or country.

It will never replace the traditional phone, but it's good to know its there.

sextonseven said:

Serious said:

Both is pretty much impossible .

I'm guessing where he lives is so remote, no one in the area has a landline, right?

I could imagine the hotels do .

ZombieKitten said:

sextonseven said:

I'm guessing where he lives is so remote, no one in the area has a landline, right?

yeah, not even electricity at the house, it's a BIG ask

He usually is in his shop and not in his house when I call and there he had electricity for a couple of weeks, but the hotel owner who offered it to him took it away again some day ago .

JowiiCoco said:

No Skype. I'd rather pick up the fucking phone so I can walk around and do shit as I'm talking.

I do that by using the Skype app on my phone. So that I can call internationally for cheap.

SoulAlive said:

I downloaded Skype a long time ago,but I rarely use it.

Yeah, me too, but I have plan too really.

It's free as long as your speaking with someone who has Skype too, right? If not you pay?