VIDEO PHONE CALLS

Most people who want to make video phone calls use Skype. You just plug in a webcam into your computer, download the free Skype software, and follow the easy instructions to make free calls to other Skype users, or cheap calls to regular phones.

We’ve been testing a new system that lets you make Internet phone calls to any kind of landline, cell phone or Internet phone. The phone includes a video screen…

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PING ME AGAIN

You can leave a spoken message for one person or a hundred using a free service called Pinger, available from Pinger.com.

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THE SKYPE HOOK

Making free international phone calls through the Internet is even more fun than we hoped. We were talking to a new contact in India through the free phone service called Skype when she suggested we talk to another Skype user she called “Peter of England.”

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SKYPE AND VONAGE

Skype, our favorite service for making Internet phone calls, just came up with a $30 calling plan that allows you to make unlimited calls to people who use regular phones and don’t have Skype. That’s $30 for the year, not a month!

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NEARLY FREE CONFERENCE CALLS

There’s a new service at ConferenceCalls.com that lets you connect group phone calls anywhere in the world for charges ranging from 2.7 to 16 cents a minute. We tried it, and the sound quality was excellent.

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THREE ON A CELL PHONE

We tried out a device called the “Spracht Aura Mobile BT.” (Spracht? Where’s my German dictionary?) This lets several people talk into a cell phone at once; no crowding.

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