I want to have my sister in my pocket!
August 30, 2010 2:14 PM   Subscribe

Need help with the logistics of best communicating with my sister in Europe.

Sister living permanently in Slovakia, I'm living in the US.

Would like to communicate the most natural way possible, preferably using something like skype, on a mobile phone. We're both willing to buy new equipment, get new phone plans, etc, but the most budget friendly options will be appreciated. We're both smartphone illiterate.

what phone should we get? (iphone?, droid? something else?)
What payments should we reallistically expect?

I'm posting this from a comp in best buy, they just told us there is absolutely no way we can face-chat in the universe. Is this true? HAs any of you actually done it? We are thinking of facechatting using internet, so we don't have to pay phone-minutes. I have not a clue about this sorcery.

Otherwise, if facechatting is not an option, what do you use when communicating with family abroad?
'

Thanks!
posted by Tarumba to Technology (14 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
I use Skype and a Microsoft Lifecam on my home computer.
The webcam cost me less than $30.
It's easy and free.

As for Skype (or other applications) mobile face to face chatting, I know it cannot be done on a Droid - the camera is on the backside. I've never heard of anyone using their smart phone to do this.
I know Skype offers unlimited calling and instant messaging on smart phones

I'm not sure about any other phone.
posted by KogeLiz at 2:21 PM on August 30, 2010


I use Skype and google chat to talk to my brother - he lives in Germany, I'm in US - we both just uses macbooks with webcams and it works really well and is free (other than cost of internet and owning machines that is). Have never used mobile phones to do this so can't help you there. We do both video chatting and audio - more often audio.
posted by leslies at 2:23 PM on August 30, 2010


Honestly, I think your best bet is to just have a computer with a webcam each. Most laptops come with them now, and you can buy them cheaply for desktops. Then just use Skype to Skype to chat for free.

For phones, either both have a plan including email or a plan that doesn't kill you for sending texts internationally. Because of the time zone difference, you'll normally just end up sending an email or text saying "Skype now?". The other will then either text/email back with a reply or alternative time, or hop on Skype then. That's how I do it with my family spread through disparate time zones.
posted by djgh at 2:33 PM on August 30, 2010


Like the others poster I use a webcam with a standard computer (typically my wife's mac laptop). I would recommend that over trying to use a phone. There is something about it that feels a lot more natural and relaxed and makes the distance seem a lot less. We notice this when talking with my wife's parents on the other coast. One uses Skype while the other uses a mobile phone. It always seems as if we have seen the one using Skype a lot more recently (which in a sense we have since we do actually see them) than the one using the phone. The odd thing is this also applies even if we don't use the webcam. One of the things I noticed when my wife and I were still on different continents was that we didn't feel the same time pressures we did as when we were using a phone to to talk — sometimes we would even leave it on in the room and go about our everyday business.
posted by tallus at 2:34 PM on August 30, 2010


Two computers, two webcams and Skype, and I video-chat with my sister in N Ireland for free. Not as convenient as a cell-to-cell call, but nothing replaces seeing a friendly face.

Skype for iPhone allows free app-to-app calls, but with the time difference, it usually takes a little coordinating to make a call complete. iPhone-to-iPhone with FaceTime might work if you both have wifi--and a provider that doesn't put the bandwidth squeeze on video upstream.
posted by fishpatrol at 2:34 PM on August 30, 2010


My bestie of 20+ years standing lives in the UK and we use Skype on our Macs - it's great and dirt cheap. (The stickiest wicket is the time-zone difference - one or the other of us winds up staying up late or getting up early because of it, but that's very doable).
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 2:37 PM on August 30, 2010


I was using Skype to talk with my family in Canada while I was in Japan. Totally free, aside from needing to get the webcam and microphone.
posted by lizbunny at 2:42 PM on August 30, 2010


If you want to chat via mobile phone, you should ask your sister to shop around at the various wireless carriers in her country and see what's most affordable and reliable for her. Then, you could get a similar phone/plan.

The iPhone 4 with iChat is a good option. Great quality and easy to use. But it will be expensive!

In the U.S., the iPhone itself is $199 for the 16 GB version. You will need to lock into your contract for two years. Voice plans start at $39.99. Data plan (25 MB) starts at $15. Total monthly cost could be high depending on your needs (minutes, texting, etcetera). You may or may not have 3G in your area. You may or may not have ATT coverage in your area.

Best of luck!
posted by camcol at 2:50 PM on August 30, 2010


Best answer: I use Skype to talk to my family in Sweden. Usually it's direct over the internet from my PC with audio and/or webcams, just like most people said up thread. If you have a smartphone that can run Skype, that works great there too, from what I gather.

But I only have a plain old cell phone, so I also pay a small fee for 1) a Skype-to-go number and 2) an Online number in Sweden. That way, I can call anyone in Sweden on the cheap from my cell phone if I want, and they can call me. It works like this:

If I want to call them when I'm not at my computer, I use my cell phone to call my Skype-to-go number - a local call. Then I select one of my speed dial contacts or dial a number. The call is routed through the internet to a normal phone or to a cell phone in Sweden.

When they want to call me and they are not at their computer, they dial a local Swedish number - the "online number" I'm paying for. If I'm at my computer, I can answer their call on the normal Skype client. If I'm not at my desk, Skype will forward their call to my cell phone.

It works great, even though the quality of the connection is way better on the direct Skype client. The other day, I called my mom's mobile from the top of a hill in a national park. She answered from the woods of northern Sweden, where she was picking blueberries. We talked for a long while, for about 2 dollars total of Skype credit. Absolutely worth it, and so much cheaper than paying for international calling on my cell phone.
posted by gemmy at 3:03 PM on August 30, 2010 [1 favorite]


My current set-up:

my girlfriend connects to her American university’s VPN and then calls me from her macbook in Europe on my iPhone in Cleveland using the new Call feature in google chat (which only works if you are in the US or Canada, hence the VPN). It is free and the call quality is remarkable. We also talk face-to-face using iChat. Skype is OK, but it frequently disconnects, which is ironic because she is in Luxembourg, where it is headquartered.
posted by vkxmai at 3:52 PM on August 30, 2010


We avoid Skype since it disconnects when we are talking on her university’s network (very fast) and my home network, which has a 15Mb/3Mb connection. Given the ideal network conditions/connections that we both possess, that is why I said it is ironic.
posted by vkxmai at 3:54 PM on August 30, 2010


You could try an app on iPhone (and I think Android) called Knocking Live Video that you might want to look into. It's got a weird name, but looks cool.
posted by reddot at 5:13 PM on August 30, 2010


Best answer: The easiest and most budget friendly and convenient system that I've come up with is to buy a cheap pay-as-you-go SIM Card and use Skype Forwarding.

I have a cheap quad-band unlocked cellphone that cost me $20 bucks, and when I arrive in the foreign country, my first stop is to buy a pay-as-you-go SIM card. The pre-paid SIM gives me a local number in the country, which is always useful. Then I set up Skype to forward all my calls to my new local number (which is a free service, and then I don't have to deal with a Skype number), and it automatically sets my status to "online" even when my computer is off. Then my family members can go online and Skype me whenever they feel like (which is a free call for them), and then Skype automatically forwards their call to my cellphone. This step in the proces costs a little money--you'll need to buy some Skype credit, because Skype will charge you money for making a phone call, but I usually buy $10 worth of Skype credit and that tends to last me for a month, and with pay-as-you-go SIM cards, the incoming calls are free. That way I can use my cellphone to call local numbers and receive international phone calls that don't cost my family anything, and cost me just pennies. The call quality is pretty good, and it's nice to not have intensely schedule a time for both parties to be in front of a computer.

Also, before I left the country, I setup a google voice number that forwards text messages to my email, so family and friends can still text me (they send a text to a local US number) and that text shows up in my email inbox. Then I can respond with an email that Google Voice then turns into an SMS, and sends back to my friends. All for FREE!

So that's my set-up. Memail me if you have any more questions.
posted by geryon at 7:09 PM on August 30, 2010 [2 favorites]


Best answer: I just used apple's FaceTime to talk with my sister (I'm in Alaska, she's in Illinois, 3 hour time difference), and it was great! Far better than video chatting on the computer (which I do regularly with my parents and my grandmother, now that there are grandchildren to watch, using iChat). More immediate, somehow, and you can get up and walk around, and flip between showing the person your face and showing them what you're looking at. It was really, really cool.

Not cheap, though, since you each have to have an iPhone 4 and a wifi connection. But totally the way of the future. It's really incredible --- we are now living in science fiction!

Oh, and it's as easy as making a phone call.
posted by leahwrenn at 9:55 PM on August 30, 2010


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