If you asked me what I missed the most about my iPhone, I would have said Truphone, because it was the cheapest and easiest way to call my mom in India. Well, today you can add Nimbuzz to that list. The company just announced a super communication client for the iPhone that allows you to communicate in a many different ways. For instance, you can make free calls over Wi-Fi to your IM buddies. You can now also call folks on their landlines and mobile phones with Skype Out using any one of Nimbuzz’s 10 VoIP partners including Gizmo5, Vyke, sipgate and A1 and of course Skype. This is a new feature in the service, and makes Skype In/Out Services more valuable.
These services also work over 3G and are described as “Nimbuzz Dial-Up VoIP” which essentially makes it possible to call others by dialing a local access number which then connects to anywhere in the world via Nimbuzz VoIP servers. Nimbuzz already allowed you to do social networking via its client. These services also work over iPod touch, but I haven’t yet tried that, and will do that later today. The new Nimbuzz user interface is much improved and easier to use. I think we have a new VoIP winner on the iPhone.
I wonder how this compares to Fring which I’ve used for the skype out calls on the iPhone over WIFI.
hopefully i shall find out sometime today after i have some friends try it out and i try it out on ipod touch.
It doesn’t. I just tried it. Whereas Fring is a little clunky (too many button presses to get a call out, and a nasty delay in actual conversation), it, at least works. I just tried Nimbuzz. For starters, you’ll have to go into your address book and manually add the country code to any contact that doesn’t have it built into their number. Although the country code is necessary for Fring too, Fring lets you into the number field to enter it on the fly, if its not there. Nimbuzz just tells you it can’t dial out. That – coupled with the fact that I waited over a minute while my phone said it was calling without so much as a ring tone – I say Nimbuzz is a bust.
works fine for me, especially Skype Out. I quite like the interface, its fun
I’ve tried both Fring and Nimbuzz to make calls to India and Japan. Call quality leaves a lot to be desired.
I’ve now switched to Jajah. The interface is crappy (it’s a web-app), but it runs on 3G/EDGE without need for Wifi and the call quality is superb. And the prices are a fraction of Skype call out.
Give it a try!
My favorite app for the international calls on iPhone is Voxofon. It is a web app (just open Voxofon.com in Safari and add a link to the home screen).
No IM support, but GREAT rates and it has both call-through and callback modes.
Their G1 app is even more interesting.
Using Nimbuzz and Vopium.com from last 4 months on Nokia and these VoIP services cut down my mobile billing expenses up to 80% i think it’s time to switch on to iPhone now.
Yeah, the call quality has been an issue for me. There is still work to be done with these apps, but they are getting closer!
I’m using Nimbuzz, with Skype Out. I like it except for a pretty annoying delay and, apparently, on the other side of the phone, they’re hearing a pretty bad echo. Anyone else experiencing that? Doesn’t happen when I use Skype off my laptop.
However, if the data transfer process can be as soon as blackberry?
I have Nimbuzz on my iPhone but haven’t ever actually used it as it got lost in the pages and pages of apps that I have.
May have to crack it open and see how it is.
Seems to have plenty of features that could come in handy
Thanks