Comments

• • Mary Pringle@maryp

  

  Mary Pringle May 10, 2011 - 9:00am

  I feel that way, too, but I'm not sure how justified my feelings are. I'm starting to think that Microsoft and Google may be like Republican and Democrat--just a good-cop/bad-cop shtik.

• • Nazim Rahman@nrahman

  

  Nazim Rahman May 10, 2011 - 11:45am

  Oh no! I don't want Microsoft to get access to all my usage data, message, calls, etc. that I have made over the years.

  On a different note, any company worth more than a billion dollars should not be allowed to purchase other companies. It just makes them too powerful and monopolistic.

• • sarah beth@sarahma108

  

  sarah beth May 10, 2011 - 10:27pm

  A friend has suggested using vbuzzer, as a Canadian-owned alternative to Skype, for international calls. I'm not sure if they do video or just voice, though.

• • Jon Dron@jond

  

  Jon Dron May 10, 2011 - 11:18pm

  I'd be interested to hear of any vbuzzer stories. I've tried a few VOIP alternatives and been unimpressed - Skype quality and reliability is hard to beat. My big problem is that I make a lot of use of SkypeIn. SkypeOut is useful but is actually costlier than many alternative Canadian voice plans for most countries so it's not a compelling selling point. I really like having a UK number from my own home town that people there can call me on. On the other hand, although Skype did have a phase of having Canadian numbers in pre-eBay years, they don't have them now so it's a good time to seek an alternative. I'm tempted by the Magic Jack, sold in London Drugs, which is a VOIP solution, $50 for a year including the dongle which can take a standard landline phone, provides lots of Canadian codes (including Edmonton!), gives cheap calls, has a computer-only client for travel abroad and appears to be popular. Awful used-car website though. Anyone know anything about it?