Sunday, June 24, 2007

How to call in for free (for now)

I mentioned in the first post that there are two ways to call into TalkShoe without paying the long distance charges. The first is by having free nights and weekends on your cell phone plan (or some other long distance bundle or whatever). The other is to use a SIP-capable VoIP client, of which there are a few. Skype is, at present, not one of them. Access to TalkShoe via SIP is free for now, but everything I hear suggests it won't stay that way.

Anyway, I wanted to explain briefly how to use Gizmo Project to call in for free.

Step one is to download, install and run the Gizmo Project client from the link above.

You'll then need to type the following into the address bar to the left of the call button (the green button with the handset): 123@66.212.134.192

Then you proceed as with a regular phone call, by first entering the TalkCast ID (38665) and then your 10-digit PIN.

It's really quite simple, but the info can be tough to find on the TalkShoe site.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

My take? A lot of effort for one podcast, and I really didn't want to download software that would tie me to my computer for even more time every week. I don't mean your idea isn't great... or couldn't build critical mass... it was just my first reaction.

Greg Schwartz said...

You actually don't need a computer at all to participate in the live show. It's a phone bridge, so just a phone call. The host needs the app and you would need it to see the text chat. You do need the TalkShoe account to establish a PIN though, although I set up one guest PIN for someone who I need to get in who doesn't have time or desire to register.

I recognize that it's high on the barrier to participation side, but honestly, it's the best game in town for what I want to do. I want a forum where anyone who feels like joining the conversation can, yet it's easy to share that recorded conversation with others easily. Not many tools allow for that. I've done ample testing with Skypecasts to know that the there is always one person with major connection issues. Plus, I'd have to record independently and do all the production and hosting myself. Blogtalkradio would be a good alternative, but I don't have a way to call in for free, so that's kind of a dealbreaker for me at the moment.

Thanks for taking a look.