Symbian in Motion

iSkoot

by Zach at 12:14 pm | February 09th, 2007 | Category: Application Reviews, Freeware, VoIP & IM

I’ve come to realize over the past few days that there are still a lot of people who aren’t familiar with all of the different options with regards to using Skype services on s60 3rd devices. Well I’m going to do my part to remedy that. I’ve already told you about fring which is a great app that I use all the time, and it’s great for users with 3G coverage and/or access to WLANs. iSkoot on the other hand is an app that approaches Skype in a completely different way and allows you to make high quality calls to your Skype contacts (and SkypeOut calls) over your GSM voice network. Best of all, it’s freeware (for the time being). Users with an X-Series phone from 3 UK have been using iSkoot for quite some time and most of them probably didn’t even know it because of the branding.

iSkoot provides users with Skype voice calling only and does not support IM via Skype. Once you install iSkoot (you can download it here and install using your PC or receive a link via WAP) you are asked to enter your Skype username/password and then you are logged in. Future log ins are done automatically when iSkoot is opened as long as the relevant option is enabled. Your Skype contacts are displayed on the main iSkoot screen along with their status (note: the status takes a LONG time to update so if you want to call someone, best to give it a try rather than waiting to see the ‘online’ icon appear). iSkoot uses GPRS to load your contact information and updates the info via GPRS every so often.

To initiate a call to one of your contacts, simply highlight the contact and press your green Send key. iSkoot then places a call to a server in your region (you pick your country before downloading the app) via your GSM voice network. The iSkoot server quickly connects you to your Skype contact via VoIP and the call quality is very impressive although I’m sure it will vary at times if there is high iSkoot traffic in your region.

Placing a SkypeOut call is also very simple. Just press [Options] and scroll to Dial. Enter the phone number (including country code) that you would like to call and then press [Dial].

Within the Options menu you can also check your Skype credit to ensure that you have a SkypeOut balance on your account and toggle your Skype status between online/invisible/etc.

Receiving calls is also possible in theory but I have yet to successfully receive a call. In order to enable this function you must select “Set to receive calls” from the options menu and enter your mobile number.

In the end, iSkoot is a good app on its way to being great. I can already see that it’s well on its way to becoming a subscription-based service so it will be interesting to see what that will do to iSkoot’s market share with the various other Skype solutions available. I must say though that once a few minor bugs are ironed out this will likely become one of my most used apps.

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