iCall4Service Web-based Softphone

Kung Hei Fat Choi to everyone! Whoever found their way to my blog that is...that's Happy New Year in Chinese. If anyone is "interested" to know its already officially the Year of the Rat in the Chinese Zodiac...if you are that "astrological", you also might well know, that the Rat was the first one to reach the Emperor in Heaven amongst the 12 zodiac animals...making this year (which in itself is considered lucky cause its a leap year and also it ends with an "8") re-cycle of the zodiac...a very auspicious time, or so I'm told to "restart" once life, love and luck too ;-)
Anyways, I digress, what I really need to start is this blog which I "promised" to update every Friday...well, I'm going to try to begin (and keep it brief too! ;-) yeah, right!

Last blog, I discussed the advantages of having our T2Free USB Softphone to carry around when one goes around traveling all over (which I hope to do like a rat this year) wherever but still wants to keep in touch with everyone else (colleagues, friends, relatives..mommy...and that special someone --- hey, gotta throw this in coz Valentines day is coming..) in a very easy and inexpensive, even free way of making unlimited long distance calls across the miles...Since the softphone can easily be carried around (duh! its a dongle), already complete with its own
soundcard, earphones and mic, plus no installation and configuration is required (just plug and call) it really becomes very convenient. However, what if people (say, customers) who don't know how to contact you (or knows how but doesn't want to make a long distance call ) wants to reach you? (or maybe they don't know you're online...) Well, the nice thing, and sometimes most often forgotten thing about VoIP softphones (especially, SIP, short for Session Initiation Protocol) is that it is very very flexible yet also very SImPle...especially when its in a softphone "mode". Ok, let me just simplify this a bit...SIP for VoIP (softphone) is kinda like HTTP for URL (browser)...when you want to "find" someone or something online you simply open your web browser and type in the URL (say google.com) and you get links...and click...voila! you get the person or info you're looking for (ok, too simplified) Well, when someone is on SIP...they can also be contacted or "called" just by opening a browser, type in the URL (in this case, http://www.t2free.com/ - coz that's we're linked at this time), look for the Call4Service floating applet thingie (it looks like a Web Softphone)..and voila! again choose and click on a "link" --say Customer Service, Technical, Accounting etc. (it could just as easily be people's names) and then instead of taking you to a webpage...an actual call is being made as it rings (you can even see the person on the other end with video-streaming webcam---well sometimes, the Chinese lady is kinda shy)...(oh I forgot, you the caller should have working speakers and a microphone (webcam, optional). Thereby, saving you - the caller/customer "airtime rates"...just think of it like calling a 1800 or 1900 ;-) number...toll-free! Ok, now you think..well, what if the other party (with the SIP softphone) is not "online" when you initiated the Click-to-Call (this incidentally, is used in http://www.ebay.com/)??? Again, SImPle...our T2Free softphones (when unplugged, basically not online) has the capability to forward calls to mobile phones, landlines, voicemail, and even voice-emailed..and well, maybe later on..via SMS (texting). Like I said, SIP is so flexible..especially when its on a softphone....

Anyways, I'll be discussing these in more detail and with more pictures next time...I "smell a rat" ;-) our iCall4Service still hasn't re-appeared on our website: icallanywhere.com