This was sent in by a reader who claims to be a beta tester of the product. It was not created/verified by a TamsPalm analyst, but looks trustable to me!!!
Voice over Your Palm (abbreviated as VOYP) is a communications application that uses voice over internet protocol (abbreviated as VOIP) technology for free/low cost Internet calls using your Palm handheld. VOYP is developed by ToySoft Inc. a popular Palm applications developer. VOYP gives you the freedom of choice for VOIP provider to conveniently call from your Palm handheld. VOYP is a standard compliant SIP client and provides you with a choice of codec like G.711 and GSM 6.10 allowing you to select the one that suits your bandwidth. VOYP is also compatible with other applications like TAKEphONE allowing you to dial a selected number directly using VOYP.
VOYP is available for purchase from PalmVoip.ca for $29.95, the user manual details configuration details of many free and professional VoIP providers. VOYP comes with 14 days free trial which is sufficient enough to test it before purchase. As common with all VoIP software – using headphones is a must with VOYP for better voice quality.
Features of VOYP:
* Supports wide range of networks including WiFi, Bluetooth, EVDO and GPRS
* Standards Compliant SIP client
* Supports many VOIP service providers like Vonage, FreeWorld Dialup (FWD), IPTel and many more. See configuration details for popular free and premium VoIP service providers
Supported Devices:
* Treo® 650/700p
* PalmOne® E2, T3, T5, TX, LifeDrive, Zire 71/Z72 (E2, T5, TX needs a Mic mod, I used PocketPCTech’s mic for TX)
Though it is not the first solution to Palm platform, this seems to be the best solution at present. Unlike the previous vaporware like Gphone (from VLI, was pulled down without any notice and connects to their own server) and mobivoip (from Mantra group, connected to its own poor performance server which remains inaccessible all times and ended up refunding my subscriptions), VOYP allows users to connect to the servers of their choice. This implies that if you already own a VoIP account from providers like Vonage, SIPPhone, InPhonex or others you can use the same to configure and use from your Palmtop. Users can choose to make IP calls for free to talk to friends using free SIP providers like IPTel.org, Free World Dialup (FWD) or InPhonex.
Due to these differences VOYP stand out from the rest as a shining star. Also the developer is updating the software frequently to accommodate features. In last week there were two feature updates.
I used VOYP on WiFi using a TX with PocketPCTech’s mic mod and a headphone, to call PSTN (standard land line telephone) using my Vonage account. The call worked just great – the other end could not differentiate that I was calling from PDA and was using a mic mod. I was able to use GSM codec and with no call quality change and with lesser bandwidth (G711 codec consume more bandwidth). Also with the ability to turn my display off from preference I was able to save battery. Though my WiFi drained it, it would have drain still faster had the display remained on itself. I had same results with my LifeDrive mobile manager also at my friend’s place. With availability of WiFi hotspots and free WiFi access at public places like Hotels, airport – VOYP will come helpful.
In other test I chose to use Cingular Treo 650 with a headphone, though promised that VOYP works over GPRS, I could not succeed with it. So I configured to connect to internet using Bluetooth, this time I decided to use a free account from IPTel to call a friend running software client on his desktop. The call worked proper; I was also able to receive incoming call on my Treo 650. The FWD account allowed me to call toll-free numbers (using a * prefix) for free and I was able to use touch tones to select options in the call. From preface I was also able to redirect sound to the speaker phone but this introduced disturbance in voice quality, with no mic and when hearing sound on Phone speaker in the front – I heard echo, but they were gone when I used the headphones.
VOYP seems to be a promising application for Palm OS and priced perfect – some suggestions for future versions are tones for calls, visual indicator for call progress; report on data-transferred during the call and background operation that I can accept incoming calls when using other applications also.
More details from http://palmvoip.ca
Related posts:
Did you ever tried Articulation?
http://www.hamptonsoftware.co.uk/articulation/
It is also a SIP client but looks more feature rich. A comparison between the two programs would also be insightful.
I tried both, to me VOYP looks good as I use some products from Toysoft like PAR and Lightwav, where Hampton does not have any flagship products. Considering Toysoft’s experience in Palm – I would vote for VOYP. Also the features are also good.
I like the battery saving feature in VOYP. Also as the article reads there are future plans for it where as Articulation doesnot have any such thing.
I was worst bit by the mobivoip bug – which ate my whole $15 and gave nothing back claiming that I had reported late and their support is very bad.
Costwise and features-wise VOYP is Good for now let us wait to see more surprises.
- Steve.
Tam:
You mentioned that you used your Vonage account. Was that the same account that you use for your home phone or was it an additional Vonage “softphone” account.
I have Vonage at home but can’t figure out how to leverage it for use with my Palm.
Any ideas?
For Vonage you need to call them and ask to active a SoftPhone account. they will give the userid and password. you then use that info and configure VOYP. You should also need the server name and port. these are listed in the voyp manaul.
I already used Vonage softphone on my desktop. So was able to use the same on my LD over WiFi.
Hope this works.
Lost 45 dollars with MOBIVOIP (got enthusiastic when I read the news here – stoopid me) plus they made a fool out of me. To top it, they charged an extra 10 $ the day after I canceled, just because they have your card information and they can. Fighting for the 10 bucks is more time spent and not worth it and they know.
CAPITAL crooks.
toysoft is a reputable soft company. Hope they’ll make it right
Tried MobiVOIP (scam) 3/2007 – same issues – no support, just take your money. I’ll get it back via the credit card company – not that hard.
I bought VOYP v1.4 and at the current state, it’s got a couple of annoying bugs (one of which might make it unusable for some people):
1) when I call someone, the person doesn’t take the call and I hang up again, the ringing tone continues until I do a soft reset of my T|X. If I try any more calls before resetting the device, it gets unstable and either freezes or reboots.
2) The SIP stack is very minimalistic. When a phone call cannot be routed immediately (e.g. upon calling a cell phone) and the gateway returns “100 Trying”, these messages are discarded and VOYP interpretes the timeout on the “200 OK” message as a separation from the gateway, terminating the call (without notice to the gateway). Thereafter, the cell phone continues ringing, but even if the call is accepted, no communication is established. In my case, this causes all mobile phones to be unreachable.
The latter bug can be circumvented, if you set up your own asterisk server and use DISA (which connects directly) – but this, of course, is hackish and awkward.
So people who don’t mind these bugs can buy the software… for the rest, I’d recommend waiting until the bugs are fixed in (hopefully) upcoming versions.
(I contacted the Support/Developer about these issues over 1 month ago, but didn’t get any reaction but a short “We will look into your suggestions.” yet)