Talk with your iPod Touch

If, like me, you're an iPod Touch owner you may find yourself suffering from iPhone Envy. That is the feeling of mild irritation that you can't make phone calls. However, there are a couple of applications for the Touch that allow you to use it as a phone. Both apps require WiFi and both are free, although you will need to shell out for microphone.

Skype
The daddy of Internet phone calls comes to the iPod. If you're an existing Skype user then you can sign in after having installed the app, import your contacts and away you go. The usual services are on offer, that is free Skype-To-Skype calls plus chargeable calls to other networks.

Truphone
Launched in 2008, Truphone started off as a service dedicated to the iPod Touch and iPhone. However, it has since extended to Blackberrys, Nokia and G1 phones. Basically it offers that same service as Truphone although you can make free calls to Skype users in addition to Truphone.

Delboydare and I both have an iPod Touch. Del's is the 16gig. Mine is the 32gig. We found that Skype was better in that it worked. Derek's Truphone kept dropping out every time he got pop ups about his battery and it took a number of times for us to establish a connection and on a couple of occasion only one of us could hear the other. We were testing both apps using our own wireless networks in our respective homes. If they were that flaky under those circumstances, how they would perform using a network in a busy coffee shop?

A common irritant is that you can't have concurrent applications open. This means that I can't use any other app in case the phone rings. I've heard of hanging on the telephone but this is ridiculous.

Both services offer a range of packages to subscribe to for landline and mobile while offering free calls within their own network users. On the surface, this seems like an excellent way of getting over iPhone Envy. And relative cheaply as well. What's missing of course is 3G. Neither service allows for it which is just as well because the iPod Touch doesn't have it. However, it does mean that you're constrained by the presence of WiFi in your location. As more free hotspots become available this may alleviate the problem and you could always subscribe to a paid for WiFi service such as The Cloud. However, at present mobile WiFi phone calling could probably be compared with telephone boxes, in that you can only make calls in specific locations (although WiFi hotpsots don't usually get vandalised).

Having said that, there are ways of hooking yourself up to WiFi without having to pay extra or restrict your movements to visiting coffee chains and Wetherspoons pubs. We plan to post a guide to finding free hotspots and mobile phone 3G tethering later in the week.

In summary, voice call using WiFi has a way to go but it's early days and we look forward to seeing what its like in the future. We'd definitely like to see an app developed so they could run in the background so we can still play Galaxy On Fire while waiting for a call.