READ CAREFULLY! This downloads Globe 7 phone software (why it is labled as Best Phone 2.0 is a mystery)... To be clear- you can not make calls from this software to a landline or mobile phone without racking up a charge! I also could not find any way at all to get a phone number assigned to me so land lines and mobiles could call me directly AS IS STATED IN THE LINK THAT TOOK ME TO THIS SOFTWARE PLAINLY ADVERTISED! W.T.F!!! So it is not at all what is advertised!!! Here is my impression of what I ended up with: Lots of other creepy junk (probably spyware/adware posing as 'cool stuff') is downloaded with the phone... 'The Globe 7 suite'. The TV viewer is sort of cool though there are many other programs like it that are 'stand alone' apps that do not require you to download a bunch of other crap along with it. The sound quality was just marginal (which could totally be related to issues outside of the program...ie; net congestion, limitations set by the originating station, etc). I ONLY wanted the phone software as advertised so I'll most likely end up removing this software (all of it). As an aside: I have been looking for phone software and services and as of 10/1/08, I haven't found any solution that is totally free that has enough features to replace paid phone service. I am going to try the 'Magic Jack' www.magicjack.com as at least the costs are fixed at $47.00 for the jack/shipping/first year of service, after the first year service runs $20.00... -AND THE FEATURE THAT I FEEL WILL SET THE MAGIC JACK APART and AHEAD is the fact that you plug any standard or wireless house phone into the 'Magic Jack'--- a phone THAT WILL RING ON IT'S OWN (without being drowned out by any media players etc, and without having to keep your speaker system powered just to hear the ring). My fingers are crossed that it will work good and my only worry is that it might have long latency (delay time between what I say and when the callee hears it) AND the bad echo effect that seems to plague every software phone that I have used. The Magic Jack has a 30 day trial period so I figure WHAT THE HECK! BTW; If you choose to try Magic Jack on the 30 day trial, be aware that the website will try to encourage you to sign up for a longer service period than what is included with the price of just the 'jack/first year of service/shipping'... Doing so would seem to blow the 'FREE 30 day trial' idea down the tubes as you would have agreed to and pre-paid for a 2 or 5 year service plan. Overall- this Glode 7 software is SHIT! just for the fact that it is not at all what it is advertised to be (on the Softplatz site). I'm pretty convinced that this site is like many others I have seen... software with a few good ideas behind it that somehow got all f'd up by others who had to add in totally stupid ideas or very bad attempts at marketing schemes. So BEWARE of what you download here, it may be a waste of your time (as in my case). Good luck on YOUR quest! -Alan |
