I wonder how many people cancelled their Skype subscriptions today. I know mine is gone. After hearing about Google’s announcement of free calls to US numbers straight from Gmail I finally had an excuse to cancel it.
There have been a few reasons why I have been annoyed with Skype over the past few months.
First, I purchased a phone number through them and was under the impression that it was a subscription but then I found out that they cancelled my phone number. It seems that I received some sort of random email from them about it but since I assumed it was automatically deducted from my Paypal account so I ignored it. OK, I’ll admit this one is sort of my fault. Anyways on to the second reason!
Second, the other day (2 weeks ago or so) I opened up my Fring application, on my Nexus One, to find that Skype was mysteriously removed from it. As it turns out there was some sort of law suit, or something, that stopped Fring from using Skype in their application.
This brings me to my third and final gripe. Since I could no longer use Skype on Fring I figured ok well I can at least get the Skype application. Because why would they stop Fring from using their services if there was no alternative. I searched around and found that there is a Skype Android application. I go to the Skype website to download it and it says my phone is not supported. After that I looked at the supported phones and I was shocked to find out that only Verizon Android phones are allowed to download the Skype app. I was so pissed off.
I had no other real option though, Google bought Gizmo5 in November of last year so I couldn’t use that. So I was forced to just stuck with skype and figured I would use it on my netbook (Asus 1005HA) when I am in Asia in the fall. But then Google came to my rescue with this new FREE feature in Gmail. So I said F*** to you Skype and cancelled my subscription.
Now just so you don’t get the wrong idea, this is an experimental phase for the service. Google has promised that the feature will remain free until the end of the year while they evaluate whether they are able to profit on the long distance calls made with this service. So it is possible that this may not be free forever. But I was willing to pay for Skype, so I am also willing to pay for this new Gmail VOIP service.
I know that this still does not solve my problem of not being able to use Skype on my cell phone. But since Skype has become such an annoyance I have decided to stop using it and use the Gmail VOIP. A lot of the reason, other than the fact that is is currently free, is that all I need to do is open up my Gmail account instead of downloading some annoying application that turns every string of 7 numbers in my browser into a god damn clickable phone number. So the Gmail VOIP is much more convenient, also I used it twice today and found that it actually seems to work with less lag than Skype, but we shall see if that is still true when I am on a slower internet connection.
Anyways, it is time for me to pass out. I’ll have another post soon hopefully, I’ve been kind of busy moving out of my apartment and with other projects. But nobody reads this blog anyways so I guess it doesn’t really matter haha.
Peace out ya’ll!