I don't want this to be very technical, a phone is a phone, we don't talk about how it works, a man plugs it in and we pay for it! The same is jst not true of the internet there are things to configure and 80 year old grand parents can suffer with their sons getting frustrated at their lack of tech savvy!
You must have broadband, unfortunately it is a little hit and miss in NZ and very very slow. Its important to remember if you are thinking of a home business. It is also the most expensive internet in the world comparatively and that sucks.
We use our computer to message, to call and to web cam. We also use our computer to Blog! We have a wireless connection and can chat or web cam from anywhere in the house. Its great to give people guided tours or to follow tottering tott as they take their first steps.
We have apple computers and all or most of our friends are PC. We need software that is cross platform. It needs to work and be simple enough for Granny and Grandma to use.
We use an apple extreme base station and a D Link ADSL2 modem. NB Do not buy Belkin I know they have some cool ipod stuff.
We make regular use of the below which are all totally free apart I guess from ichat although AIMis free.
Skype - audio only is usually great but the video feed is small and the audio becomes a problem because of the echo, the kids love to hear their own voices and conversation becomes impossible
iChat - as long as PC users have AIM installed it works very well Mac to Mac is is perfect.
MSM Messenger - great for text but the video won't work mac to PC
Google Talk - Again great chat but no video mac to PC.
ooVoo - a new cross platform video, chat and messenger that has a few sync issues but seems to work very well and it is only in beta. I was targeted as a beta tester!
We have tried others and they either don't work or open you up to spam attacks. All the above have filters etc that allow you control over your account and who sees you details.
Face Book is our community network of choice and Linkedin my business network of choice with plaxo as my contact updating and online organizer.
I blog using Blogger and Self hosted Wordpress, my hosing site is go daddy in the USA, it is the best service and the very best price. www.thevideosnack.com and www.videorevu.com are my two sites I use adsense to pay for all this (stifled laughter) I get well over 0.07 cents a day at the moment!
Thats it everything is linked do have alook and see for your self. Keeping in touch is very important!!
5 comments:
Hi Jonathan,
Moving to NZ must be a new experience but I understand how communication can be a problem when your family is far away. I had a similar experience as well, I have moved to Mauritius and my whole family is in South-Africa – the distance does have an impact. I see that you are using ooVoo to communicate with your family. It sounds like it is working for you despite the fact that the broadband can be unreliable. It so happens that I’m currently doing some work for ooVoo at the moment so if you have any issues or problems with the Mac Version please let me know and I’d be happy to lend a hand. Here is my email add: ryunus@abrahamharrisom.com. And I share the same opinion with you when you say keeping in touch is very important. :)
Its a shame you dont like Skype too much. We absolutely love it. We have it rigged up so that we can ever have it on our TV where the display is massive. We do get the odd sound problem etc but for free software its a lifeline to us.
Hi Marrisa
Hey nothing against skype really, it just doesn't seem to work for us when we web cam. The kids love their own voices so they just start saying stuff to hear it back at them, it is all down hill from there!
We use skype a lot at work to some very far flung places. Even Everest base camp so it must be good, and free!!!
Hey JG and Marissa,
I just read your comment and wanted to pop in a few lines on this. I was using Skype but the sound problem really got to me, I mean the echo caused a problem, the communication was not clear. Now I’m using ooVoo which is also free and so far it is working fine and its really easy to use.. :)
iChat is just brilliant. It was the main driver for my parents to purchase an iMac, so they can have full screen video conferencing with their overseas grandchildren. No other software can compare with the quality of the video and voice on iChat.
We tried Skype but found the whole Peer2Peer network not something I wanted (performance and bandwidth waste) plus it is very flakey
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