Who Says You Can't VoIP on Aircell, I just Did It

This post is dedicated to my father, the late Master Sergeant Bernard Abramson, who in the USMC fashion taught me that "the impossible we do right away, but miracles take a little longer."

He would be proud.

Tonight I got an email from Laptop Magazine's new News Editor (recently promoted) Joanna Stern, asking me to get on SightSpeed while she was flying on an Aircell equipped American Airlines flight to New York.

We actually saw each other for about ten seconds on SightSpeed, before the voice and real time video sensing technology cut the connection off. Bummer as that was the supposed "impossible."

Then I thought what Dad had always taught me, about "miracles." So, faster than I could figure out my HOSTEL TAKEOVER Ambush Wedding at a hotel that shall remain nameless, that many of the VoIP crowd witnessed last year, I realized how to have a VoIP call with Joanna. It took about 10 seconds to suggest we try Flash Audio. And guess what? It worked.

Phweet. Yup, the unfunded brainchild of pals Stuart Henshall and Mr. Blog David Beckemeyer (who I consider one of the true great minds in VoIP) made it happen.

I invited Joanna, she replied and once I figured out how to get Phweet to answer (I had to use Safari, not Firefox) Joanna and I were having a lovely conversation while she was on an Aircell flight. I don't mean a five second hi, hello. I mean, a real conversation, as she held her Lenovo UMPC up to her face. I even heard the announcement from the flight attendants as she was about to land.

Here's the logic. Flash audio is embedded inside Flash. Unless Aircell wants to block all Flash traffic, this is the way to talk.

So, if you want to talk in the air, just Phweet.