For those who like to use VoIP anywhere, like me, but have to log on at a hotspot, like a T-Mobile one at Starbucks which requires a user name and password, making calls just got easier via the combination of the new and very cool 2006 operating system on the Nokia 770 Tablet and GizmoProject.
While I've had the beta version for about a month of the GizmoProject Nokia 770 application, yesterday was my day to begin doing all kinds of VoIP related "geek day" projects to get things up and running.
First I updated the operating system on the Nokia 770 Tablet that I purchased during VON in Stockholm and another for my fiance, Helene, who is as much a girl geek gadget freakette as I am a gadget guy. So after updating both to OS 2006 and downloading Gizmo for the 770 directly from their web site, I configured the first one and then immediately called Ken Rutkowski of KenRadio followed immediately with a call to Om who had reported on the Gizmo of all Gizmo's earlier in the day.
Both calls were clear as a bell and I did them, as Om points out, I was using only the built in speaker and mic, so I'm hoping that at some point in the future Nokia makes it possible to us a Bluetooth headset with it. Regardless of input source, the calls were as clear or clearer than a cell phone, but I would expect nothing less from Nokia.
Now what makes this software and hardware combination so great is both the quality of the audio, the form factor of the device and the ability to Nokia connection manager to log onto any hot spot. What's equally cool is you can BlueTooth to a cell phone, so for those outside the USA with UMTS and data plans, VoIP over the cell carrier's data network just got easier.
The Gizmo client is also so downright impressive. I say that because the Nokia 770 version does almost all of what the real versions do on the Mac and PC, though it still has a rough edge or two in how you navigate around the smaller screen. About the only thing I can't do is the dual service log in that lets me double up with PhoneGnome and my second line number at the home office which can now simultaneously be used via Gizmo as the dedicated softclient, providing me one more way to have less numbers. But that's the only thing I found that I couldn't do on the 770 version of Gizmo.
There's a lot more to the Nokia Tablet including Gtalk from Google, but I couldn't get it to work, receiving a message saying the server certificate has expired on the Google end. In may book it's Gizmo Won, Google zero.
This Nokia/Gizmo link up is a killer, killer combo...and while some may think of it as a pricy walkie talkie, it is something to really think about in the disruptive world of VoIP.