NEW YORK – It’s a top feature of Internet phone service that few bother with: the ability to use it anywhere, making and taking calls from the same number at the same low price, even if you’re halfway around the world.
The buzzkill to this dreamy capability is that you usually need to either haul along an adapter to hook up a regular phone to the Internet or install software on any computer you want to call from, a requirement that usually limits you to your own laptop.
Removing that hurdle is the premise behind the V-Phone, Vonage Holdings Corp.’s key-chain device that plugs into any USB port on any Windows-based computer to provide instant Internet calling to and from your number.
The $40 stick – really just a USB drive pre-loaded with Vonage software and your account ID – couldn’t be much easier to use. Upon inserting the V-Phone into the USB port, the software boots automatically in most cases, displaying a small orange window with a number pad. Depending on the computer, it took from 30 seconds to 90 seconds to complete this setup, which includes online authentication between the device and Vonage’s servers.
If the dialing window failed to appear, usually all that was needed was a click on the orange “V” icon in the system tray or a quick trip to “My Computer” to click the drive with the V-Phone. In one instance, on my office computer, the application encountered a conflict with the Windows operating system that required a slightly unnerving fix that involved renaming drives.
Since nothing is loaded on the computer’s hard drive during setup, there’s no need to gum up a friend’s machine with extra software, making it less likely you’ll get that look of dismay when you’re messing with someone else’s very personal computer. Just disconnect the device, and all the icons and any other trace of your doings vanish.
The device comes with its own jack for standard cell-phone earphones, a set of which Vonage includes in the package. This jack is a big plus, as it means you don’t need to find the separate sound and audio ports on a computer, and in the case of a desktop machine, you needn’t unplug the speakers to plug in your earphones.
One word of caution about the Vonage headset: Curiously, the sound quality on several calls seemed much clearer on my end than for the person speaking with me. The problem eased some when I held the dangling microphone closer to my mouth.
That said, the sound was certainly on par with many wireless calls, and when indoors, I often found myself using the V-Phone, my laptop and a Wi-Fi connection instead of my cell.
Associated Press
The Vonage key-chain V-Phone retails for $40.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
