My new Android phone does video. So I installed the Skype app. I could only think of one possible reason to do that, and that was to be able to go all Dick Tracy on someone. So I added a contact, and notwithstanding that it takes one more press than it should to get to that contact from the sign-in screen, once I did, the app had no video call option. WTF? (Yes, video calls are enabled.) On a whim I pressed the voice call thing, but the app complained that the number didn't have a country code. I get that Skype is a British thing, but surely a call made within the U.S doesn't need the '+1' prepended. Even so, I poked around for a means to edit said contact and add the missing country code. No dice. Couldn't do it. Yes, it was imported from my phone's contact list. But so what? After that, I should be able to edit a Skype-only version. I do not want to add country codes to my Google contacts.
So basically my message is: Skype, for all the hype, is worthless, if you don't talk an inordinate amount and use up all your minutes, which, nts, I do not.
I did all this after chatting with a work-friend, who had just come back from testing a customer's sample phone product (not the phones announced at
CES, but newer) to see that it passed all the 3G, 4G, and Wi-fi requirements, and showed him my new toy, and he said, cool, we should test it out with Skype video. Ha.
Good news is there are other video call apps available, I just can't be arsed looking into them today. I'll keep myself from tossing
sabots into the works meanwhile.
p.s. -- Yes, I make quick discard decisions. If a simple app doesn't have a simple interface for simple people, then fuck 'em.
5 comments:
I'm pretty excited because I used Shazam in the noisy cafe and it still grabbed the song (took an extra couple seconds).
I have 2 VC proggies on my laptop, but they're kinda fuckered. Staples dude says my videocard might be bad, do I want the free tune-up to see if I need a new motherboard for $379?
Um, no. I'll just CALL PEOPLE ON THE FUCKING PHONE.
-Paula
I don't think it does any harm to add country codes to your Google contacts. Your phone will just ignore the parts it doesn't need for making a domestic call. That's the way it works here, at least.
True enough. But since I never have occasion to call overseas, all those extra +1's would annoy me. It should be evident that when it comes to technology, I'm easily annoyed.
My understanding of Skype is that the developers have to hand tune it to each new platform, each new Android OS version, and even then it's quirky. I have it running readily on mine, but I don't like using it on the phone because I have to hold the damned thing up in front of my face. And it's slower, with a grainier image than when I use the webcam on the computer.
Using it on the tablet is worse! Holding that bulky thing up? And propping it up means that to see me I have to be an awkward angle.
So, yeah, it's kind of limited.
My daughter and I skyped each other on our android phones no prob. But then, we didn't use the phone calling option, we both have skype accounts.
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