Skype Review

Category: Travel
Cost/Platforms: Free on Apple, Android and (Verizon) BlackBerry devices.

Overall Rating:
Multiplatform:
Lots of function for nothing:
Fun and easy to use:
Solves travel need or challenge:


Free (or cheap) calls over Wi-Fi, with your smartphone.

Why we like it -- Instead of swallowing exorbitant charges for international cell-phone calls, just download Skype and point yourself to a Wi-Fi hot spot. While there, you can make free Skype-to-Skype calls or calls to landlines at Skype's greatly discounted rates. (You can also make and receive calls outside of a hot spot, but 3G data charges will apply.) And iPhone 4 users can now make video calls to other Skype users who have the app.

If someone calls your Skype ID, your phone will ring wherever you are, even if you're using other apps at the moment.

Improvements we'd like to see -- Only BlackBerry users who happen to have a Verizon contract, or own one of 9 specific BlackBerry models, can use the service. Given how many business travelers in particular use BlackBerrys, this leaves a major gap in Skype's potential usefulness.

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