Followups on parade: Gizmo Project
Well, may as well continue my posting for continuity. A while ago, I commented on the early version of Gizmo Project.
More good:
- Fixed the SIP buddies thing. You can also makes a quick-dial of a SIP destination. Since I have a magic IVR system on my VoIP system, this makes for easy access.
- Conferencing. Gizmo added a function with freeconferencecall.com. Now I can make conference calls where the VoIP-supported legs into the conference are free, but still have quality service for the rest of the folks calling in on normal phones. Before this, such conference calls involved the VoIP legs terminating to POTS first, introducing more lag, if nothing else. Would, of course, still be nice if Gizmo had built-in quick conferencing, like Skype has had since the beginning. I'm sure they're working on this.
- Fixed the Mac sleep/resume issue.
- IM Support, though a little poorly integrated at this point.
- SIP URL can be used from any SIP device to call a Gizmo phone.
Bad:
- No keyboard access to DTMF.
- DTMF still appears to be sent inbound.
- DTMF doesn't work unless you're on a really fast connection, and Gizmo detects as such. If Gizmo detects a lesser quality connection, it'll choose a lesser codec (usually iLBC or GSM in my experience draining calls into Asterisk), which, of course, can't transmit DTMF inband. Geeze, guys, support one (both! All!) of the out-of-band DTMF techniques already.
- The Windows version is seemingly broken. I guess they list it as a bug, but on both my work machine and my home machine, I get the dreaded “timeout” condition on login. My home machine has only the default Windows firewall, and is otherwise on an open network. This should be easy/simple guys. The Mac version continues to work, reliably, everywhere, both behind a finicky UDP-denying corporate firewall and at home, always with a software firewall enabled.
Bottom line, as I said last time (and they picked up for their testimonials): Gizmo could be a Skype killer.... eventually. Right now, they've got some issues to work out. I'd like to see them fix all of the problems, above, in some way. Until then, Skype is slicker, more well-integrated, more reliable. But Gizmo opens the door to the walled garden, which makes it far more attractive in the long run. The only way into Skype's walled garden costs money each time, and that makes the cost of an integrated solution too high. The point of VoIP-enabling/replacing technologies is to drastically reduce the cost of the communications.