I applied for a grandcentral account probably six months ago or so now and never heard a word.

gizmo works just fine and prices are (IMO) fairly reasonable.

Can someone who runs both skype and gizmo on their NIT give us a comparison?

>> I use GrandCentral too. But the underlying service that is
>> actually calling out (including to landlines) is Gizmo. And it
>> costs money unless you are an "active" user.

If you use the GrandCentral web interface to do your calling out (by going to the address book and clicking "call" next to one of the entries there, or using the GrandCentral dialer application, see http://www.internettablettalk.com/fo...ad.php?t=18802), then GrandCentral calls your Gizmo account, then calls the landline, then connects the two. So as far as Gizmo is concerned, it's totally free. I've been using it for months and I've never paid a cent.

>> Can someone who runs both skype and gizmo on their NIT give us a comparison?

I've used both, but I don't have much interesting to report. As far as call quality is concerned, they're both quite good for me. Skype seems to be a little less resource intensive for me, that's really the only difference. Since I realized that you can use Gizmo with the regular built-in Internet Call application, though, I don't run either Gizmo or Skype, I just let the build-in application log in to Gizmo for me and receive my calls that way.

Sounds good. Is VideoChat still possible?

>>So as far as Gizmo is concerned, it's totally free.<<

Don't think so. It is only free if the "active" status is granted (by frequent use). BTW, I do use GrandCentral. When I check Gizmo after a call starting from the GrandCentral end, I notice change of amount of $ left.

I have experimented with Skype, Gizmo, and GrandCentral. The quality of each was essentially perfect as long as I had a good data rate on the WiFi connection. Once I called the United States with GrandCentral from overseas with an extremely low data and the conversation was "choppy", but we were still able to communicate.

For calls to the United States, GrandCentral is a GREAT service if you can get it. EVERYTHING is free when calling to the United States and when receiving calls (from anywhere) on your own free phone number. I made calls to the United States from the Greek Islands and everyone said that it sounded like I was "just next door". You cannot call to locations outside of the United States with GrandCentral (although that may be changing).

I bought $10 worth of time on Skype so that I could call any place in the world. I tested it with calls to several countries, and it worked perfectly. Of course, you alway have to figure out the country code etc. when calling another country. Skype minutes expire unless you use them at least once every six months. It's probably just a matter of time before I lose my $10 because I always use GrandCentral.

I have found that I can get free WiFi in any city in the world that has broadband. I simply walk through a residential neighborhood and it usually doesn't take more than a few minutes to find an unprotected WiFi connection that works. It works great for a quick email exchange and a GrandCentral phone call.

Then you're doing something wrong. I defiantly do NOT have All Calls Free status on Gizmo, but I regularly make calls using GrandCentral. The point of being able to hook up GrandCentral to Gizmo is to not have to pay for Gizmo service.

Did you buy a call in number for Gizmo? Did you put THAT into your GrandCentral account, or did you put in your Gizmo SIP number as a Gizmo number?

My GrandCentral calls (sending and receiving) are ALWAYS 100% free. The trick is that my outgoing calls must be initiated from the GrandCentral screen or from the GrandCentral Dialer. I am only charged if I initiate a call from Skype or Gizmo.

They are fairly similar in quality. When I was evaluating them, on average, I was having more choppiness issues with Skype than Gizmo so now I use Gizmo predominantly.

I have found that with some public networks one is blocked while the other works fine. It is not one that is consistently blocked though. Either way, the blocking APs are in the vast minority. But if you run into one, download the other client and try it out. The beauty is that you don't have to use one *or* the other.

The good thing about Gizmo is that it uses the standard SIP protocol so the recent software built into the tablet (rtcomm), which has SIP support, operates with it just fine and you don't have to install anything.

With the proprietary Skype protocol, you must use their client.

Sorry for posting twice... I think it´s not possible?!