MAKE Magazine: VoIP

Experimental High-resolution Skype for Mac and PC

Fri, 09 Feb 2007 05:47:03 -0800

Jason has a sweet Skype hack...

Jaanus Kase posted instructions over on Skype's developer site for enabling higher quality 640x480 video. You need to upgrade to the latest Skype release (2.5.0.85 or later for mac and 3.0.0.216 for PC), quit Skype, and then edit the config.xml file in your settings directory ("~/Library/Application Support/Skype/[skypeusername]/" in OS X).
You should see an entry that looks similar to:
Built-in iSight

Modify that to read:
640 480 Built-in iSight

When you've finished, your contacts will be seeing you in glorious 640x480 instead of the standard 320x240. There are some tweaks and hardware requirements that might be required for the PC version, so check up on the links below for the nitty-gritty details.

HOW TO - Skype headset adapter (2.5mm to 3.5mm jack, mobile phone to PC adapter)

Mon, 13 Nov 2006 20:42:05 -0800

MAKE reader Cuthbert writes - "If you don't like carrying two headsets with you (one for using Skype on your laptop and another for your cell phone) then here is a small adapter that will convert a cell phone headset with a 2.5mm jack plug to the 2x 3.5mm jack plugs used by PCs." - Link & cached.

Related:

DIY Skype VoIP Phone Adapter - Link.

HOW TO - Make a USB phone

Wed, 06 Sep 2006 11:27:16 -0800

Noelix writes - "Want to talk to people through your computer but are sick of using those cheap headsets out there? Do you want that unique, styled, classic look in a USB phone? The standard Singapore-slung mic/line input knockoffs are so unsexy. Look no futher, this how-to guide will show you how to make a Western Electric 2600 headset telephone work with your computer using USB." [via] - Link.

Related:
USB / phone projects - Link.

Use regular phones with Skype

Sat, 12 Aug 2006 00:27:59 -0800

The VIVOphone VoiceKey lets you plug in a regular phone / cordless phone to your computer and use Skype (or VIVOphone) [via] - Link.

At the Skype site they have other ones, but post up what you're using for VoIP too in the comments too - Link.

HOW TO - Dial out using an ATA and SkypeOut

Mon, 31 Jul 2006 06:40:21 -0800

Kurced @ Oldskoolphreak has a how-to I'm going to if I can get working with Asterisk - "As most of you know SkypeOut is free until the end of 2006, and using headsets is all nice and fun, but I know I'd rather use a real phone. Cordless or otherwise, here's a way to use your ATA to dial out for the time being." [via] - Link.

Pictured here, Skype payphone...

Zasterisk - Play Zork over the phone!

Mon, 05 Jun 2006 15:27:33 -0800

Wow! Here's voice recognition and speech synthesis for playing Infocom games (like Zork) over the phone, this might be the coolest VoIP project ever - [via] - Link.

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Make secure phone calls with the Secure-Phone-Miser

Wed, 24 May 2006 20:20:55 -0800

If you want make secure phone calls, these phone Misers look pretty good. A little pricey, but can you really put a cost on privacy? Yes, $295 for one, and a second for $195 (you need 2).

For absolute secure phone calls, The Secure-Phone-Miser is a secure telephone unit that utilizes multiple unique encryption algorithms with 1 million user programmable codes to secure voice communication links and provide maximum security. The Secure-Phone-Miser provides privacy for confidential conversations even if a line is electronically tapped. Eavesdroppers will not be able to decipher the contents of the secure phone communication link. The Secure-Phone-Miser can secure multiple phone links for conference calling. A maximum of ten (10) links may be secured simultaneously. Connects between handset and your phone base.

The Secure-Phone-Miser - [via] - Link.

And in other secure phone call news - here's a free way to encrypt your VoIP calls, now for Windows. You can use this with Project Gizmo.

Portable Skype Phone v2

Sat, 20 May 2006 05:34:42 -0800

Matt writes - "Heres an easy way to make your own cordless phone skype ready, Dont need to open your phone, and you can dial from it as well! All for about $5." - Link.

Related:

Portable Skype phone (version 1) - Link.
Tons of Skype and VoIP projects - Link.

Portable Skype phone

Mon, 15 May 2006 12:23:45 -0800

This is a good use for those old cordless phone, mod them and hook them up to Skype (it's free now!) - "Here's how to make a portable skype phone from an old cordless phone. You need an old cordless phone. (one that you dont care about.. because you might break it) try and get one that has an "intercom" because they are much easier..." - Link.

Free phone calls with Skype

Mon, 15 May 2006 11:10:24 -0800

Remember when you had to make a redbox to get free phone calls? Well, Skype now has free phone calls to any landline and mobile phone in the USA & Canada until 2007. Just install Skype and that's it - There are going to be a ton of phone projects with this soon! (Pictured here, Skype Payphone) - Link.

Related:
Tons of Skype projects - Link.

HOW TO - Palm TX external headset mic mod

Thu, 16 Mar 2006 19:58:34 -0800

PalmInfocenter member twrock has posted images and details about his external headset mod for the Palm TX. He added a smaller 2.5 mm headphone/mic port to his TX in an external adapter that connects to the athena hotsync port. He intends to use it for voice recording and for future Palm OS VoIP applications. Link.

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HOW TO: Portable Skype - Run Skype from your iPod

Thu, 16 Mar 2006 07:18:22 -0800

Ablaka writes - "There has been quite a bit of buzz recently surrounding so-called "portable apps". Portable storage devices such as USB flash sticks (and to a lesser extend, micro HD drives) are dropping rapidly in price/GB, so why just store stuff on them? There's even an industry consortium to promote a standard to facilitate running apps off portable storage devices. Turns out, you don't actually need a "U3 smart drive" to do this.

There are a number of reasons for not wanting to install a particular piece of software directly onto your computer's hard disk (be it privacy, portability etc), but instead carry it around with you wherever you go and have it ready when you need it. Enter the "Skyppod" (sort of)." - Link.

Related:
Skype Payphone - Link.
More Skype projects, hacks, mods and news - Link.

Hacking the FON router

Mon, 06 Mar 2006 03:57:24 -0800

Steve writes - "I've just received my $25 Linksys WRT54GL from FON, as part of their promotion, and have gone through the code to find out how it phones home to let FON know it's connected. The article I've linked to here is what I've found out - mainly that the router they supply sends a heartbeat with its MAC address to a URL at fon.com." - Link.

Skype 5-way calling limit cracked

Sat, 04 Mar 2006 09:51:56 -0800

Maxxuss of Apple Mac OS X on Intel fame is freeing more hardware and applications for all of us - Thanks to his patch Skype on AMD processors can now do 10-way calling. You see, there's a limit to the number of participants you can if (5) unless you have an Intel processor (10) - it's scary that the app looks for the processor ID and then decides to cripple itself, but Maxxus has a patched version of Skype that allows 10-way calling regardless of the processor installed - [via] Link.

Related: Intel and Skype deal - Link.

Pictured here: The Skype payphone (now able to do 10 way calling).

Rip, mix, burn - your phone calls

Mon, 27 Feb 2006 06:36:35 -0800

$900 is crazy expensive, but this is a really neat idea - "The FeaturePhone 175 can be used as an ordinary recorder at any time. It can be used as a dictating device and to record meetings by using the internal microphone, but it can also be connected to a special conference microphone, available as an option, or for that matter to any other microphone or audio source...Think of a FeaturePhone 175 CD as a database. Both the actual telephone and your PC can search the CD quickly using a range of criteria such as telephone number, date, time and duration of a call." You can also encrypt the phone call recordings - [via] Link.]]> Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Gadgets | Digg this!

Have your Mac call you

Sat, 18 Feb 2006 10:32:11 -0800

Here's a clever hack - Use Skype, Applescript, and iTunes to make phone calls and play audio files automatically. Link. Pictured here, the Skype payphone.

VoIP for free with the Sipura

Thu, 09 Feb 2006 14:00:09 -0800

"I've been a regular user of Skype for about a year now and have been using my own solutions to try to make this as user friendly as possible. But it was never perfect and I've always been the only one in my house using it as it hasn't been user friendly. Then I heard about the Sipura and started looking around on how to use it, and then I heard about VoIPBuster which provided free VoIP calls to land lines all over the world. In this how-to I will explain why I made the choices I made and show you how easy it can be to have this up running in your own house. Calling nationally and internationally for free to regular telephones." Link.]]> Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in DIY Projects | Digg this!

Distributing the Future Podcast: ETel

Thu, 09 Feb 2006 05:17:20 -0800

Link. MP3.]]> Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in MAKE Podcast | Digg this!

Skype payphone...

Sun, 05 Feb 2006 02:20:03 -0800

"My dream has come true. Ever since last summer when I saw the Skype Video Payphone, I wanted to have a payphone hooked up to VOIP. Not long after I saw that article on Makezine, I put a "wanted" ad on Craigslist Sacramento for a Payphone. I said I wanted it for a project, didn't have a lot of money I can spend on it, and it didn't have to be working. I left it alone, never thinking I'd get a response from anyone." Link. Hopefully, I'll have time to accept real money in the MAKE payphone soon and have that converted to Skype credits...]]> Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in DIY Projects | Digg this!

What is Asterisk? SYSTM video!

Mon, 30 Jan 2006 04:06:31 -0800

"What is Asterisk? Asterisk is an insanely powerful, yet easy to use, open source voip telephony toolkit (server software) that runs on virtually any platform. It allows anyone to manage VoIP services in their own home in more powerful ways than the most expensive PBX (public branch exchange). For example, it can serve as a gateway from a VoIP service to your copper phone lines, forward calls to your mobile device from wherever you are, allow you to create VoIP connections to anyone on the Internet, manage voicemail, prompts ... a virtually limitless capability depending on how far you want to take it." [via] Link.]]> Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Telecommunications | Digg this!

Phoning It In From ETel - Radio Handi Makes Its Debut

Wed, 25 Jan 2006 13:41:44 -0800

Etel blog writes "Radio Handi enables people to create voice communities around any subject, place of interest or peer group, and to telecast live audio from MP3 feeds or conference phones. You can create a message board and party line for your club, for people who share an interest, or for your friends. With it, you can create an open party line that people can dial into from all over the world (30+ countries and 1 VoIP network to start with, much more to come). It's also a great platform for ad hoc broadcasting. Just hook a microphone up to a Mac running Gizmo, and you can beam a live audio feed into a conference room that people can then dial into from all over the world (watch for a series of how-tos on ad hoc telecasting and other topics later this week)." [via] Link.]]> Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Computers | Digg this!

"Call out" with Google Talk with the JabPhone

Tue, 24 Jan 2006 11:30:23 -0800

I'm going to try and get to ETel to check out this new JabPhone. Nat writes - "The Poly9 hackers who were at Where 2.0 in 2005, showed up at Emerging Telephony today with Jabphone, a service built on libjingle, Jabber, and Asterisk that lets you call out to regular telephone numbers from Google Talk. This is the power of open standards and open source, folks--they've been able to add the Skype Out feature to Google Talk without any assistance from Google." [via] Link.

HOW TO - The Internet Dog Feeder

Mon, 09 Jan 2006 09:33:23 -0800

"After setting up two webcams and the new Skype beta to watch my dog while I'm out, I decided to give him some incentive to obey my commands over the internet. So I built an internet powered dog feeder with a Basic Stamp kit and two servos (one to drop the food, one to knock the funnel if it gets stuck). Full source included." Link.]]> Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in DIY Projects | Digg this!

New Skype for Mac OS X

Thu, 05 Jan 2006 21:00:27 -0800

"Call forwarding and call auto-answer, Fast call set-up - drag and drop contacts to add them to chats and calls, Self-expression - users can now broadcast their mood along with their online presence through emoticons, Auto-pause/auto-resume iTunes for in-bound and out-bound voice calls, Notifications - Skype notifies users of new messages and when users come on- and off-line, along with an overview of available Skype services, The Mac OS X version is now available in Japanese." Link.]]> Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in VoIP | Digg this!

VOIP Phreaking...

Thu, 05 Jan 2006 14:04:01 -0800

"Within the last year VoIP devices and applications flooded the market. SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) became the industry standard although it's still under constant development. VoIP networks converge with the PSTN and thus offer ways and means for new (and old) attacks. The talk gives a brief introduction on how various components in the VoIP universe interact. The main part deals with implementation problems within SIP in both end user as well as ISP site devices and applications." [via] Link.]]> Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Telecommunications | Digg this!

Homemade Skype Phone Receiver...

Wed, 28 Dec 2005 01:36:54 -0800

"Here's a simple mod I did to an old telephone reciever to make it compatible with my laptop- for use with Skype. I tried using the original coiled telephone cord, but for some reason I couldn't get adequate microphone volume through it. Funny, because telephones are made for talking..." Link.]]> Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in DIY Projects | Digg this!

Emerging Telephony...

Wed, 14 Dec 2005 03:40:26 -0800

"...covering VoIP, Asterisk, voice and mobile applications, as well as the policy and regulatory issues that impact these important technologies. In addition to daily blogging and the exclusive in-depth articles you'll find here, we'll be spotlighting the new related O'Reilly books, like Switching to VoIP and Asterisk: The Future of Telephony and Skype Hacks. We'll have these authors chiming in on the blog from time to time, too." Link.]]> Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Announcements | Digg this!

Vonage WiFi phone...

Tue, 13 Dec 2005 07:37:02 -0800

"Vonage just released a VoIP WiFi phone... you can use your Vonage VoIP account on any public WiFi access point (but not at places that charge, such as the airport, Starbucks, etc). I'd love to see this phone modded/hacked to be used with other providers (I use Voicepulse)." Link. If you use EVDO, you could at least make a mobile hotspot (see how to) but I'm not sure what settings you can change in the phone for providers (if any).]]> Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Cellphones | Digg this!

HOW TO - Make a robot deliver your messages

Sun, 04 Dec 2005 09:36:31 -0800

"Using some base code from PlasticBug's DittyBot, I created VoxCaller, an Automator workflow that lets people send computerized voice messages to other people via e-mail. People might think they should just call the person, but I personally think that Zarvox delivers messages in a more... exciting way." This is a lot of fun. Link.]]> Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Computers | Digg this!

HOW TO - Distribute VoIP throughout your home

Sat, 03 Dec 2005 11:58:25 -0800

MAKE 03 we also have a guide "One obstacle to replacing traditional phone service with Voice over IP is that for your existing home phone jacks to work, it's necessary to make a change to your inside telephone wiring. Fortunately, this change is very easy to make. In some cases it's as simple as removing a plug from a jack. Still, a basic understanding of how telephone wiring works is useful before attempting to make such a switch." Link.]]> Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in DIY Projects | Digg this!