Magicjack
 

Just came across this magicjack on the BBC website.

Anyone used or has knowledge of it?

Looks like an intersting approach to IP telephony. Of course, if they run like Packet8 and then go out of business you're in trouble. I'd consider moving my Vonage over to this and just leaving it plugged in to my server in the closet.

If you don't have a computer that you leave on then this is a bad idea. If you have a small handset that you travel with and would rather use that than a softphone this isn't a terrible idea, though I can't imagine traveling with a handset.

Nifty technology though.

Packet8 never went out of business, perhaps you are thinking of Sunrocket?

I have MJ and think its great. The price is $40 for the first year $20 each additional. I suggest everyone purchase one.

Gomike, do you use it for local or international calls? Is the reception very good?

I think I'll give this a try, definately worth the $40.

magicjack
 

magicjack has been around long enough, a lot of the sunrocket refugees went to magicjack after the shutdown of sunrocket.

I went with the free net2phone offer, it has been solid since the switch over. I might try the magicjack just for travel though.

I picked up one the first day that they went on sale and at the time you could only pick from a few area codes, one of them was 206.

They have since started offering 415 numbers, and they don't have a way to change your current one, so it was just easier to buy another one, so I actually have two.

I wouldn't say they are completely bulletproof, but 95% of the time they work great and work behind most standard home firewalls without problem.

All domestic calls are free and incoming is free, unlimited. Free voice mail, too.

It is basically a small (size of a zippo) that plugs into your USB and looks like a USB stick to your computer and runs a little app on the stick to control it.

A very cool thing is that the unit has an RJ11 jack on it, so you can plug in your regular home phone to it and just use it with your existing home phone if you aren't into goofy headsets.

If you are on the road you can toggle to use a USB headset instead of the RJ11 jack. In hotels I've used the hotel's phone on it as well as a nice Plantronics USB wireless headset, both work great.

Overall, a total bargain for $40, not sure how long the company is going to be around, but even for six months, it works good enough to be worth it.

The manager application has a phone book that you can put in all your common numbers and it follows the unit, so you don't have to keep a separate phone directory. Bummer that you can't import phone numbers into it from a comma-delimited file or something.

Another note - they ship fast, when you order one on Monday, you will have it by the end of the week. It comes in one of those hang-packs you would see at Walmart or something that are nearly hermetically sealed in plastic and require the sharpest of scissors to open.

It looks designed to be sold at a retail store because it is bought then registered and configured online, you don't get your number until after you install it on your computer.

A little late to the thread, but I took Magicjack for a spin and posted my review on the blog.

I am amazed how well magicJack works. Per ScottC's review I pulled the trigger and ordered it last Friday and received it yesterday. It works perfectly except for an occasional echo, I love it. I tried using it to fax a few Excel spreadsheets and they came out perfect. I don't have a land line so this gadget has got to be one of the best purchases I have made. I highly recommend it as well. ^

Just noticed that Magicjack has included Irish 076 numbers in its mobile category. 076 prefixes are non-geographic and are classed as a local call so the cost should be 0.02.
It is probable some other countries number sets are also misclassified.

That's a very helpful and complete review, Scott. I've also pulled the plug and ordered one today.

Thanks!

In Japan right now and have been using one all week, sometimes with a headset, sometimes plugging in the RJ11 jack from the hotel phone into it just so you have a "normal" phone to use.

So, I've had one (now two) since the beginning. I find that the outbound calls work almost all the time, about the 95% I mentioned earlier in the thread.

Inbound, however, is total hit-or-miss for me. My local phone number one has only worked a few times since I've had it, right now it isn't working, for example. I can make outbound calls fine, but inbound just go to the voice mail.

I contacted support before and they said that it is probably a firewall issue, which I suppose could be true, I haven't tested it to know for sure and since I use it pretty much for just outgoing calls, no big deal.

Another thing about the MJ is that when calling the US you have a nice US looking caller-id number that people can recognize, unlike Skype.

Not only that; you also get good inbound caller ID, include CID on the phone jack port of the adapter.

I'm guessing that the inbound issue might be related to firewalls, or even latency issues.

We've had one for about six months. Sound quality is good, and it works well when travelling. ^