Another great travel app for the iPod Touch: Skype

When is an iPod Touch a phone?  When Skype is installed!

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Install the Skype app on your 2nd or 3rd gen iPod Touch, and you can make domestic and international calls whenever you’re in a WiFi hotspot.  Calls to Skype users are free, and domestic and international calls to cell phones and landlines are inexpensive.

How’s it work?

Fire up the app, select a contact from your contact list or dial a number directly from the dialpad, and complete your call.  Apple earbuds with the integrated volume control and mic are required, of course; they’re standard with the two iPod models mentioned above.

What’s the biggest benefit?

Call home when traveling internationally for pennies. No worries about buying local SIM cards, roaming charges, and other hassles. Over the weekend I made quick calls (from the U.S.) to Sorrento, Italy, Dublin, and Tokyo.  Call quality was outstanding…

(I do have 10MB cable modem service), the nominal charge was $ .021 per minute, and dialing was a snap.

What’s it cost?

The app itself is free.   Once you set up an account (it takes seconds), you buy credit – in $10 increments – from Skype, using a credit card or PayPal.  Then you can start making calls. 

The nominal charge for most calls is 2.1 cents per minute; when calling internationally, connection charges and VAT fees may apply.  In actual use, my calls to Ireland and Italy cost 6 cents per minute; Japan was 10 cents per minute.

You can also send SMS messages using the Skype app; charges do apply here, as well.

Note that your Skype credit expires after 180 days, so if you’re going to use the app sparingly, don’t buy a lot of credit.

Are calling plans available?

If you don’t want to bother buying Skype credit, calling plans are available.  Note that the charges are a bit higher for EU residents, due to the VAT (Value Added Tax).

Personally, given that your options for receiving calls with the Touch are limited, I wouldn’t bother.  You can buy additional credit as you need it in seconds, using a PayPal account or credit card.

What if you encounter a automated answering system??

Simple.  There’s a “Display Dialpad” option within the Skype app; just click on it and you can navigate through automated systems:

What if I just want to retrieve my voicemail messages?

Easy: you don’t even need to have the earbuds plugged in.  Make your call, display the numerical keypad, and listen to (using the built in speaker), save, or delete your messages.  Simple.

What’s the downside?

You need to be in a WiFi hotspot to use the app.  You can’t make 911 calls using Skype, of course.  And, minor detail, you can’t receive calls unless you buy an Online Skype number, which costs $18 for 3 months.

If someone in the country you’re visiting needs a LOCAL phone number at which you can be contacted, you won’t be able to provide one. (This is the most attractive aspect of getting a local SIM card for your cell phone.)

Certainly not a local number, but if I give someone my home number (keep in mind we’re using ooma) and they leave a message on our ooma voicemail, I’ll receive an email notifying me that I have a voicemail, along with the message to playback.  I can listen to those messages on my iPod Touch and call the person back.  Again, and this is a significant limitation, I have to visit a hotspot in order to retrieve those messages (and make the return calls).

How to find WiFi hotspots

I’ve used a couple of apps to locate hotspots:  Wi-Fi Finder, which is free, and Spots, which costs $1.99   In side by side testing, not only is Wi-Fi Finder easier to use, it returns more locations.  You can search by country and city.  When searching for hotspots in Sorrento, Spots returned 3 results; Wi-Fi Finder, about 30.

Learn more…

You can read about the Skype app for the iPod Touch (and iPhone, of course) here:  iPhone app for Skype

If you’d like to read the description at the iTunes store, click here:  Skype at the App Store

Finally, if this has pushed you over the edge, see the 32B and 64GB at Amazon:   32GB 3rd Generation iPod Touch; 64GB 3rd Generation iPod Touch Note: I am an Amazon affiliate

I’ve really only scratched the surface with this app thus far, but it’s been great to this point.  If you’ve used Skype on the Touch or iPhone, please join in by commenting!