After all of the buzz from last week the rumors are settling down and the aftermath is starting to kick in. At the 2008 Lets Rock event Steve Jobs took the stage and announced many new things. Some of the overlooked things were the new headphone coming out next moth.
If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch and you like to make calls for free over a Wi-Fi connection and need a fresh new look and some simplicity, try out Fring. It allows you to use skype to connect with any other Skype member and does so in an attractive manor.
Controversy over at Touchmods.net, our favourite iPod Touch VoIP hack site. Marian and the team promised an “XXXL” software announcement at the end of January, stoking the fires of expectation, and this week announced that, following a donated iPhone from French ADSL provider Free.fr, they’ve coded an iPhone VoIP application locked to that ISP’s service. Called Siphon, the app is included as a part of Free’s ADSL package, which of course means you have to live in France to be able to order it. Unsurprisingly, many Touchmods readers are frustrated that a) this is an app for the iPhone, not the iPod Touch and b) the potential userbase is very small; Touchmods promise to release an open version, compatible with iPhones and the Touch and unchained from Free, but that will apparently be “time-limited”.
Looks like the SIP-VoIP team over at touchmods.net have been busy. Last we heard, v.1 of the software that allows the iPod Touch to be used as a VoIP phone via its WiFi connection had launched, and the guys were busy putting together microphone schematics and parts lists. Now, there’s a pretty healthy list of 25 compatible SIP-based VoIP services - including the popular Gizmo Project and Asterisk - and they’ve just sold out of their first batch of 1200 microphone adaptors, priced at $45 a pop.
In a little over ten days, you’ll be able to download the first public release of the SIP-VoIP software for the iPod Touch, giving access to any SIP-compliant internet telephony provider. If you’re stuck for something to do until the New Year, there’s always the instructions for building your own microphone attachment; we’ve covered the parts list before, but now there’s a handy pictorial guide (part 1 & part 2) to building your own.
If you’ve been keeping up with the VoIP and audio-recording developments for the iPod Touch, you might be wondering how to get your hands on a microphone-blessed adaptor. The original plan was that those interested would send the widget’s creators the necessary parts (and perhaps a small beer donation) and have their completed microphone posted back; unfortunately it looks like demand far exceeded their supply potential and so plan B has been hatched: making the schematic and parts-list available so that you can build your own.
Nikotalkie is a Push-To-Talk (PTT) app originally for the iPhone, which took advantage of the persistent, unlimited data connection to bypass SMS message costs and instead send instant voice notes between handsets or direct to an email address. There’s also a Windows desktop version and even low-cost VoIP functionality (although the basic PTT service is free), but up until now no version for the iPod Touch. With Marian’s work on a plug-in microphone accessory, however, the team behind Nikotalkie has steamed ahead porting it to the PMP.
Edit: There are now screenshots of the app in action; not exactly pretty, perhaps, but great functionality!
We’ve been following the development of Marian’s discrete iPod Touch microphone accessory for a while now, crossing our fingers that as the hardware becomes available so will a VoIP client to make the most of it, and the latest is that a port of the Nintendo DS app SvSIP has been suitably fettled for the Apple PMP. So far there’s no screenshot or compilation, but both are supposed to be on their way from coder eok who is responsible for the port.
Earlier in the month we looked at hacking together a basic microphone input for the iPod Touch; now, arch modder Marian has gone one stage further and crafted a microphone pre-amp for the PMP that fits inside a standard iPod dock connector. Right now he’s bypassed surface-mount or printed circuit boards and merely soldered components directly to each other, but the hope is that a small SMD board could be developed leaving space to move the microphone inside the casing.
Clever as the iPhone/iPod Touch hackers are, they can’t exactly code up a cellular radio for the Touch and slap it on via a quick Jailbreak; if you want to make calls on your PMP, you’ll need to shell out for the more expensive iPhone option and, probably, shackle yourself to AT&T. However, if you’re content to make calls near your iPod Touch, then IM+ for Skype have just the answer with their software.
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