VOIP on iPhone?

[NemoMac]

So, this may be touched on with other threads, but I figured I would try to get the opinions of some of you people more knowledgeable than me.

What are the possibilities of getting VOIP on the iPhone, such as Skype? It looks like Skype has a $30 per year, unlimited US & Canada calling. Unless I'm missing something here, that means I can dial any US or Canadian number and talk as much as I want.

So my question is, what would it take for a Web 2.0 app to let me make outgoing phone calls with my iPhone? Would current iPhone capabilities let me use my handset, my earbuds and/or my bluetooth headset to talk to someone? Bottom line: Is it possible to develop and who might do it?

I really don't care about being able to receive the calls on my phone - I could just have that Skype Voicemail email me the messages anyone might leave me. But being able to not use AT&T minutes when I have a WiFi connection would be well worth the $30 a year!

 

[Cybergypsy]

So, this may be touched on with other threads, but I figured I would try to get the opinions of some of you people more knowledgeable than me.

What are the possibilities of getting VOIP on the iPhone, such as Skype? It looks like Skype has a $30 per year, unlimited US & Canada calling. Unless I'm missing something here, that means I can dial any US or Canadian number and talk as much as I want.

So my question is, what would it take for a Web 2.0 app to let me make outgoing phone calls with my iPhone? Would current iPhone capabilities let me use my handset, my earbuds and/or my bluetooth headset to talk to someone? Bottom line: Is it possible to develop and who might do it?

I really don't care about being able to receive the calls on my phone - I could just have that Skype Voicemail email me the messages anyone might leave me. But being able to not use AT&T minutes when I have a WiFi connection would be well worth the $30 a year!

I had Sunrocket VOIP hooked to phones in the house the closed the door and disconnected 220K people last week I an using skype for calls thru my laptop and call quility has been great would love to see it on the iphone

 

[dr_lha]

So my question is, what would it take for a Web 2.0 app to let me make outgoing phone calls with my iPhone?

Basically impossible using Web 2.0 apps. You need to be able to record and play sounds from a web page, as of right now this is not possible on the iPhone. If flash was ported to the iPhone it might be possible to write a Flash version of Skype (although if this possible, I'm surprised Skype haven't done it yet), assuming that the Flash implementation was allowed access to the iPhone's microphone.

For VOIP I see 2 possibilities:

1) Hacked app to allow VOIP
2) AT&T VOIP app for a monthly fee (like the T-Mobile WiFi VOIP plan)

 

[sJv]

What are the possibilities of getting VOIP on the iPhone, such as Skype?
So my question is, what would it take for a Web 2.0 app to let me make outgoing phone calls with my iPhone?

Someone has come up with a gross hack of a workaround to make this work, but it's pretty ugly. Details can be found here:

http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/skype/skype-on-iphone.asp

The gist is that you use the iphone to control a server on the internet running Skype. When you want to call someone, the iPhone gets the server to call your contact as well as your cell phone, and connects the two together in a conference.

-steve

 

[dr_lha]

Someone has come up with a gross hack of a workaround to make this work, but it's pretty ugly. Details can be found here:

http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/skype/skype-on-iphone.asp

The gist is that you use the iphone to control a server on the internet running Skype. When you want to call someone, the iPhone gets the server to call your contact as well as your cell phone, and connects the two together in a conference.

-steve

Seems fairly pointless when you have to pay for incoming calls.

 

[NemoMac]

Seems fairly pointless when you have to pay for incoming calls.

Right. I have seen that some other VOIP company called JahJah (was it on this site?) is bragging about offering VOIP for iPhone where they call your number and then call the other party. Great for International calling - but what I care about it is a call that won't use my AT&T minutes.

I did find this site advertising a "Skype beta" program that would allow you to use SkypeOut with the iPhone: http://www.shapeservices.com/en/products/details.php?product=skype&platform=iphone

However, they are sufficiently vague about how it works that I'm afraid it's the old 2-dial trick that JahJah and others are using.