VOIP Information in the UK

SPARVOIP is part of the growing list of VoIP free calls providers associated with the German company Finera (Switzerland) they also own VOIPSTUNT, VOIPBUSTER and VOIPCHEAP.
SPARVOIP are offering free VoIP-In numbers from a selection of 9 countries.

Very similar client to the others VOIP sites owned by Finera they are offering free calls to 34 countries sadly the UK isn't listed in the free calls list, but there is still the ones from above to choose from for free UK landlines.

TunesUp
Tunesup lets you listen to music, internet radio shows and podcasts whilst talking to your friends, It runs in the background and you can set the sound level so that it doesnt drown your conversation out. I have used it a few times when friends have been on work assignments and away from home, just listening to my latest mix cd and chatting away the evening can be great fun, Well worth a download!

Iclock
iclock plugin which sadly is only for the apple mac, enables you to see the time of the country your calling, comes in handy for those international calls. iClock uses a centrally located time hub that also controls many time related functions.

MorphVOX
Morphvox is a voice changing plugin for skype, you can download the voice packs and play them during conversations, You can also create your own voices and sound effects. This plugin has a feature that learns your voice which helps when you require it change your voice from a man to woman or vice versa if the situation arises. I tried this out on the free trial all the functions are available to use.

Skype2date
A friend asked me if there was a portal to meet people using skype and now there is, Its free to join. I havn't tried this service out but seems like a good idea below is a bit of gumph from the site:

Skype matchmaking and dating system. Register with us to find your perfect match and start free phone dating immediately. Our system includes dozens of powerful search options, advanced profiles, and a live forum.

SkyAway
Skyaway basic is free and allows to connect to a remote computer and control the desktop.It's a great little plugin which i have used many times when friends and family have computer problems.

Yesterday, Tesco announced that it had teamed up with Australian Voip provider Freshtel to launch a VoIP service in the UK.

They will be offering a pay-as-you-go service costing £19.97, which includes a handset and £5 of free calls.

Once you purchase the PAYG package, Tesco VoIP users are free, but landline calls within the UK and many International countries like the US, Canada and Australia cost 2p a minute. Calls to mobiles cost 10p a minute.

Homebrew VoIP application for Nintendo DS!
This nice little application called hellods is the first voip application for the nintendo DS. Setup the wifi connection and internet settings and your up and running, the DS has a built in microphone for those who were unaware of this.
I have downloaded HelloDS and will test it on my nintendo DS and give a full review in a couple of days, you can download from the link below.
hellods

Let me first welcome new readers to my blog, i recently posted a advert on popbitch and i have noticed increased traffic, so for you new readers here is a list of VOIP providers offering Free calls to UK Landlines. At the moment i use voipcheap and it seems to be working out quite well my mobile phone bills have halved.

www.voipstunt.com
www.voipcheap.co.uk

There is also another VOIP provider offering Free Landline calls to other countries
www.voipbuster.com

skypito
Skypito is a nice looking easy to use interface which bolts on top of Skype, It has been designed for kids but anyone can use it. Parents will be happy with the control they can have over who there kids talk and text on skype, there is an approved white list which you can put safe contacts in and they can only talk to people in that list.

Kids can play games with the new interface like chess and battleships whilst talking, the only problem is the kids might call you at work asking for more pocket money!

Skype released version 1.4 for Mac OS X there is also a bonus skype widget, a small addon which lets you dial calls, look up country codes and check calling rates.

Skype 1.4 offers Mac users new call forwarding and auto answer features, Another nice feature is the software will automatically pause iTunes when a Skype call is answered. The Mac OS X version is available in Japanese for the first time.

Below is a list of features in this new version

* Forward calls to other Skype Names or regular phones.
* Pause iTunes automatically when you get a call.
* Express yourself with mood messages.
* Simply drag and drop contacts to add them to chats and calls.
* Support for enhanced notifications with Growl.

www.voipstunt.com
After downloading the software, i installed it onto my laptop which went through painlessly, it came up with version "Voipstunt 2.08 build 256".

The interface is the same as voipbuster and voipcheap but different colour,
i didn't like the banner at the bottom of the screen flashing voipstunt in pink and yellow, very garish!

I signed up and it requested a username, i tried to enter my company name but it had already been taken, maybe they are using the same database as there sister compnay voipbuster but it didn't accept the credentials i entered, So i just setup a new one.

Once logged in its very simple to use, for UK calls add +44 etc, So down to testing this thing and see if the free calls are worth joining the service for. I spent 10 Euros roughly £7.50 on credits

Without buying credits you can only call the countries on there list for free, for 1 minute it then cuts you off, but if you have credit in your account you can call for as long as you want. I called a friends mobile phone in the states
which wasn't very good quality not sure i the problem was my end or theirs. I called a UK landline and it was fine my end but the caller said they couldn't hear me too well, I hung up and dialled again marginally better, people always think i'm call from a mobile phone when i use voip services.

I called a friend who has a skypein number, the call started off perfect but deteriorated after about 15 mins, it started cutting out and eventually
the call just ended. Not sure why, but we connected again and everything was fine we got the odd voice breakups and the other person voice sounding robotish.

Its very similar to Voipcheap and its good to call the UK for FREE but you tend to make the calls short as the quality starts to get irritating after a while.

I would recommend using this as a backup service to your regular line but Free calls is just too good to miss and if you dont care about the quality you could chat for days.

www.voipstunt.com

VOIPSTUNT Is from the company VOIPBUSTER they are offering free calls to UK landlines and 38 other ccountries around the globe. You can download the program and start calling straight away.

The application is easy to use and is very similar to voipbuster. you have to buy credits of 10 euros to keep free calls going longer than 1 minute, but you dont get charged after the that. I will be downloading and testing this service tomorrow look out for a full review.