Skype Mobile for Blackberry Storm; Fun but Impractical

Trying out the new Skype Mobile for Blackberry Storm was an OK experience. Since I’m mainly on Skype chatting with people, it allowed me to communicate with them while I’m on the road.

Skype Mobile gives you all the barebone essentials. It practically puts the Sony’s PSP Skype version to shame. It allows you to write status messages, communicate through it’s IM service, add people to your conversations and the most important of all, you can talk to them through your phone.

Skype on Blackberry

Does Skype for Blackberry use up your minutes?

Skype essentially places all calls through your data plan. So no, you don’t get charged for using minutes in your carrier’s plan. However be sure that you are on an unlimited data plan. For the most part, data is unlimited and included in major phone carriers like Verizon, AT&T.

How is the call quality?

Being that I have the original Blackberry Storm that has no WiFi access, the call quality isn’t so great. Though you can hear the person on the line very clearly, the voice sounds digitized. Depending on your network speed, the person on the other end may have to wait extra time for you to respond. So my experience wasn’t that great since I don’t live in a 3G area and have to resort with EDGE speeds.  If you do have WiFi, I would give this a try though.

Memory Usage on Blackberry Storm

Blackberry Storm (the original) has very limited application memory capacity. I have to plan my activities around using this application alone. So after extended usage with it,  I most likely have to pull my battery out or use the QuickPull application to restore memory.

Software stability.

Skype Mobile for Blackberry

I only encountered two bugs as shown in this screenshot above. The bug was encountered when trying to view a profile of someone while the network speed dropped from 1XEV to 1xev, which usually means I’m cut out from network data. If data is restored, the application continually hangs on “Please wait…” as it continually tries to pull up profile information. It could use a simple timeout script if it’s searching for information not available.

Do You Get Charged for using AIM Mobile?

With the Aim help forums down, we tackle a question thats been asked on other help sites. We’ll tackle the American carriers and see how much it would cost to use AIM. Let’s take a look into some definitions first.

What’s the difference?

SMS Text: SMS messages are quite commonly known as texts. If your AIM Mobile application uses text messages, you will get charged one text for signing on, one for retrieving your buddy list, and one for updating your buddy list.

Additionally you will be charged for sending an IM and charged for receiving an IM. If you take this route it should take you at least 4 text messages to sign on and off. If your a heavy AIM user, you might want to consider asking for unlimited texting plan.

Data: Data messages are sent over your mobile phone’s data stream. This is commonly known as 3G, Edge, or Wi-Fi. 3G and Edge is provided by your cellphone carrier. More likely than not if you use 3G or Edge, you probably have an unlimited data plan, but you should still check with your carrier to make sure.

If you use Wi-Fi, it’s for the most part free if you have your own coverage at home. However in public facilities companies may charge Wi-Fi access, luckily they require a password before you connect, meaning that you won’t get charged until you supply credit card info.

In Plain English Please?

Texting: You will get charged per text, unless you have unlimited text messages.

Data: You will get charged per kilobyte or megabyte, unless you have unlimited data plan.

Sending Text Messages from the Computer?

If your on the computer, AIM allows you to send text messages to cellphones for free. The person who sends text messages on the computer will not be charged. 

The person who recieves the text message will get charged. Before texting anyone, please make sure to ask them before hand if they have a texting plan.

Any differences between phones?

• What about the Blackberry?
  • Blackberry for the most part uses a data plan. However T-Mobile’s built in application will use text messages. You can however download different IM applications for blackberry. Read here for more info.

• What about Windows Mobile?
  • Windows mobile phones use data. AOL has provided a beta for AIM for Windows Mobile.

• What about the iPhone?
  • The iPhone uses data through Edge, 3G, or Wi-Fi. The iPhone has an unlimited data plan so feel free to use AIM anytime.

• What about my Cellphone?
  • The regular run of the mill cell phone will most likely use texting. However there are some crafty ways around this. You can sign onto Aim without using any text messages.