I don’t know how long they’ll keep it free, but www.hullo.com has released a beta of their foray into the VOIP arena. You can give it all of your phone numbers (I’m just waiting to see if they start spamming me with marketing calls or something), and you can dial out to land lines for free (for now, at least).
The UI isn’t TOO attrocious, either:
One major difference in the way it works though:
BOTH parties are phoned by the system when you place a call.
So, if I’m calling you from Hullo, I punch in your number in the program and hit connect.
My phone rings. I answer.
Your phone rings. You answer.
See what’s different?
The computer doesn’t handle the VOIP traffic – it only deals with the call management. We BOTH get to use our “real” phones.
It also does neat things like let you switch from a call at your desk to a cel without having to do the “let me call you right back” thing.
Very cool. Free, for now.
No more wearing those goofy-looking headsets.
Oh, and the Caller-ID comes from Quebec, so this might not work in all areas, but it is pretty neat for now.
September 14th, 2006 at 2:54 am
Pretty simple stuff to set up! Let me know if you want to learn how to steal conference bridges…I mean use..er.
November 19th, 2006 at 12:28 am
[…] We’ve got programs that makes phones call other phones, taxidermied robotic owls, optical mice and turntables *do* mix, iPods minus the iTunes, awesome bluetooth iPod remote headphones that crack in half three weeks after you get ‘em, elderteapots and yell-controlled blenders (both in one post, too!), sites you don’t click on, network drive mapping problems (my MOST popular post ever, sadly), video/audio fragmentation performances, wicked-looking games that never actually get launched ever, me writing about DNS and Active Directory the way some blogs write about food, Google putting yoni in my bible pocket, going on an absolute TEAR regarding LG’s marketing video made in 2001, commenting on Boogaloo Shrimp (from Breakin’ and Breakin2 – Electric Boogaloo) and then having HIM SHOW UP in the comments on my very own blog, hassling the guy who put Princess Leia in the GoldBikini (it’s okay, I work with him), finding secret messages regarding a certain digital audio format in my can of Edwards coffee, our cat smuggling LEDs in her ocular cavities, guys playing a cover of “Total Eclipse of the Heart” while ruining a number of kitchen appliances, fighting with a whole bunch of people online over who gets to spell what with fridge letters, insane robofish, the Rohypnol version of “Who’s On First?”, carrying a midget around as a cryptographic tool, and who could forget “Why a deep focus in my temporal lobe makes me hate Kirk Cameron in specific, and religious zealots in general.” […]