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Skype, iSkoot, Truphone and VOIP

There are a limited number of technologies that have made a fundamentally positive impact in my life and Skype is certainly one of the chosen few.

In the past, phoning my family in Turkey from the US was an expensive ordeal. The options were limited and expensive:

Dialing direct

Positives:

• Good sound quality and limited numbers to dial

Negatives:

• Very expensive with connection fees (unless you have a monthly international calling plan) and exorbitant per minute rates.
• From a mobile phone it’s so expensive I shouldn’t even mention this as an “option,” but here goes (these rates my have changed since I wrote the initial post a while back): 2.29/minute to landline 2.38/minute to cellular and as a bonus the cell phone receiving the call get’s charged double for some unfathomable reason.
• I should also mention that in the early days, you had to ACTIVATE your phone to dial international numbers. So, in an emergency for instance, reassuring loved ones that you’re OK was a romantic notion at best.
• If you signed up for the “save-you-a-bundle-not” monthly plan at 3.99/month, your rates would be .36/minute for landline and .45/minute for mobile

Calling Cards

Positives:

• Lower rates than dialing direct

Negatives:

• The numerous numbers dialed seem to take as long as the calls
• Terrible sound quality with unpleasant echoing and other noise as well as frequently dropped calls
• Calling card companies seem to be like last seasons shoes, you use them, get used to them and when you want another pair they’re no longer available. They seem to go out of business like there’s no tomorrow. So, in the long term you can’t expect to stick with one company and it’s lengthy access code you painstakingly memorized.

As I grappled with these non-options in the early 2000’s, the clouds broke and we were all introduced to the wonderful world of Skype. All in all, it’s not a surprise that this model worked, Skype’s success is based on the fact that it’s founders could easily answer these three fundamental questions with a resounding “YES,” in it’s early days:

1. Is my product something that will satisfy a need for a large enough user base (or target market)?
2. Are these users meeting these needs in any other way right now?
3. Will my product provide better and more immediate relief to their need/s than what they are currently using?

Their call options were introduced in this order:

• Computer to Computer
• Computer to Phone (and vice versa)
• Mobile Skype to Computer
• Mobile Skype to Landline or Mobile

When Skype was first made available the only option was the first one I mentioned, Computer to Computer. We may not think twice about it today but it certainly took us a while to wrap our minds around the concept. We all kept thinking there was a catch and that it was too good to be true and that surely, we would be charged insane sums through our ISPs. None of this turned out to be true, this WAS the real deal.

After the first option was adopted, slowly the second option was introduced. Purchasing SkypeOut minutes allowed users to call landlines from their Computers. This was the moment I had been waiting for, I heartily kissed my international phone plan goodbye and sent it packing forever. In fact, today, I do not have a land line any longer. For local calls, I use my mobile for international calls, I use Skype. Our total telecommunications bills have been more than halved.

With the third and fourth options Skype presented, my life changed. I no longer ended up tethered to my home timing the appropriate 10 hour difference in order to phone my parents in Turkey. I could be having brunch on a Sunday at Le Pichet in downtown Seattle and still call my parents via iSkoot (an intermediary application that connects my mobile device with SKype) or Truphone (via my iPhone where a wifi connection is available) on their home phone. I can do this with a peace of mind, that I will not receive an insanely high phone bill from my cellular carrier.

iSkoot usese air minutes (but still ONLY air minutes not 2.29/minute) to connect me with Skype and considering the alternative, I can live with that. Truphone is very similar to iSkoot however, a separate Truphone credit must be purchased to make calls. The rates are negligible. Calling landlines in Turkey is $.075 and mobile phones is $.352. Of course Truphone to Truphone is free. This may not seem like a terribly useful application to some but if you are sitting in a cafe, anywhere in the world and you have access to wifi, it becomes much easier to make that phone call to loved ones. I used Truphone a bunch of times while in South Africa this past December, updating everyone of our whereabouts. The whole time roaming was turned off on iPhone but wifi was on for any free connections where I could make a call.

For true VOIP, those of us who own a PocketPC or Mobile PC, using Skype via your data line is a possibility. Drum roll- you can use your mobile to speak with others and only be charged the monthly fee for your data package. I’ve noticed in message board and blog posts there are those already out there looking for carriers that offer ONLY data packages.

Of course, it is imperceptible that carriers would willingly want to embrace such a technology that would take billions of dollars out of their pockets but it is conceivable that in the future with blanket wi-fi in major cities, phones like the NetGear Skype WiFi phone will be adopted more widely.

By Gülay Birand
Published: February 20, 2009
2 Comments

Welcome, Kindle 2

Amazon released it’s much slimmer and sleeker looking Kindle 2 for pre-ordering. I always thought the hardware packaging needed a “cool” factor and it finally got some. In addition, it looks like the angled chiclet keys are replaced by round keys placed on a straight grid which fit much better with established keypad patterns and the edges of the device now have more room to hold the Kindle easily without inadvertently turning pages. These two issues were pet peeves of mine and I’m glad to see improvements were made.

I’m however, still waiting for the day when it becomes feasible to make Kindle wireless, world-wide. I could be vacationing in Bodrum, Turkey and order books and newspapers from a sailboat out in the middle of the Agean. My dream project for Kindle, if this ever happens, “One Kindle Per Child” might just become reality. The possibilities become endless.

Here are the specs for the new Kindle:

Slim: Just over 1/3 of an inch, as thin as most magazines

Lightweight: At 10.2 ounces, lighter than a typical paperback

Wireless: 3G wireless lets you download books right from your Kindle, anytime, anywhere; no monthly fees, service plans, or hunting for Wi-Fi hotspots

Books in Under 60 Seconds: Get books delivered in less than 60 seconds; no PC required

Improved Display: Reads like real paper; now boasts 16 shades of gray for clear text and even crisper images

Longer Battery Life: 25% longer battery life; read for days without recharging

More Storage: Take your library with you; holds over 1,500 books

Faster Page Turns: 20% faster page turns

Read-to-Me: With the new Text-to-Speech feature, Kindle can read every book, blog, magazine, and newspaper out loud to you

Large Selection: Over 230,000 books plus U.S. and international newspapers, magazines, and blogs available

Low Book Prices: New York Times Best Sellers and New Releases $9.99, unless marked otherwise

By Gülay Birand
Published: February 11, 2009
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Facebook is my new inbox

I’m finding more and more that I no longer use my Yahoo account to communicate and stay in touch with friends. There’s something about having my entire address book in one place. Each with their active profiles and ever changing profile photos. There is a quality of Facebook which makes it feel more alive and responsive than my silent and for whatever reason distant feeling Yahoo inbox. It just seems so far away and isolated from everyone and everything. It’s as if there is proximity to other people on Facebook that just cannot be achieved elsewhere.

I’m also finding that people tend to reply much quicker to my messages on Facebook than they do via email. I do think it is the proximity factor in Facebook that sets the appropriate response time. Via email responding within a few days may be acceptable however via Facebook it’s a bit more frowned upon. After all, there is so much visibility. Presumably, if one has time to update their status, surely they can respond to a message they received. Also, there is the ease with which one can send and respond to messages. I never have to think of what my friend’s email addresses are or which one I need to send it to. It’s simply a name I need to remember and Facebook takes care of the rest.

I am also fascinated by how people censor their content on Facebook more and more as their friend circle grows. With time, work colleagues, every day friends, close friends and acquaintances all join this circle and blur the lines. But that’s for another post…

By Gülay Birand
Published: February 8, 2009
2 Comments

gulayb.com Concept Theme

This is an attempt at a second theme for my site. It’s a low color contrast version with a different image appearing on the homepage header each time someone reloads the page. The thought is to make the site more enjoyable and interesting for repeat visits.

By Gülay Birand
Published: February 8, 2009
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Scout Media

This network of sites had not been updated in nearly 10 years. A lot of work is going into this. When asked to improve the navigation and redesign various index pages within the Scout network, I first conducted low and high fidelity usability studies, a card sorting study followed by simple wireframes to confirm features and functionality internally. Next I conducted an informal usability studies and began working on the visual design. Finally, we were able to release these pages to live.

There is still a very long way to go, including a complete redo of the e-commerce and registration flow, the homepage, all of the data tables and more. A rolling realignment is in progress.

By Gülay Birand
Published: February 8, 2009
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Scout Concept Mobile Site

I put together a very quick concept of what I thought the flow and screens could be based on our end-user needs and simplified representation of content on our network. The screens were designed with many different user-agents and a 240×320 minimum screen resolution in mind based on our current data.

By Gülay Birand
Published: February 8, 2009
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MySpace Sports

MySpace (also a FOX company) and Scout Media collaborated to create a MySpace Sports section. For this I worked with product management at MySpace and project coordinated within Scout. The biggest challenge was staying within MySpace’s signature UI, which at the time was quite a bit more cluttered than it is today, and yet still create a clean and usable experience for the end-user.

In addition, I made some suggestions to improve the MySpace navigation by concepting a new header. The new header highlighted where the user was within the layers of a complex IA. While MySpace did no immediately take on my suggestions, they have since then redesigned their header to be slightly more usable and simple.

By Gülay Birand
Published: February 8, 2009
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Amazon Kindle

Perhaps this is one of the most enjoyable projects I’ve worked on yet. The fact that patterns had not been established for this brand new device made it all the more interesting.

My responsibility was to design the visuals and user flow for Kindle periodicals. I had the pleasure of adapting WSJ, NY Times, Boing Boing, Le Monde, Atlantic Journal and countless other periodicals to create a great experience on the Kindle.

By Gülay Birand
Published: February 7, 2009
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Piglet Wireframe

I’ve started to watercolor again in my free time which is immensely enjoyable to me. I get to have a creative outlet from the rigid and structured confines of my day to day work. I have the freedom to do whatever it is I want to do with an art project and it is liberating.

I’ve always had an affection for piglets so I decided to finally sketch one. Layering on to it with watercolor to bring it to life will be the best part. All the right kinds of pastel, peachy pinks are in order for this little guy. Oink oink!

By Gülay Birand
Published: February 4, 2009
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Global Poverty Action

By Gülay Birand
Published: February 4, 2009
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