Pocket Edge as a Telephone

stevesr0 · 10-13-2011, 05:04 PM

I have seen different posts from 2010 and 2011 mentioning different ways of using the Pocket Edge to make telephone calls.

These have included using skype, Fring, Google Voice and other programs.

I would like to hear from people using any of these programs (or others) to make calls, especially from those who feel they are getting useful calling from the device.

Thanks.

Steve

mokel22 · 10-13-2011, 06:38 PM

Hi stevesr0,
I had the same inquiry just a little while back and found a solution which I stated in this thread: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...ght=phone+voip

Just a few more things more things though:
Since there's no 3g on the edges you'll only get to talk when your in a wifi area.
No free international calling and no international callers.
If there is echo, try using headphones.

tarvoke · 10-13-2011, 07:03 PM

some very sketchy notes about what has always worked for me on any android device...

nb: I'm lucky enough to have a couple SIP accounts tied to actual North America phone#s (advantage is they can be registered in google voice account, both to receive calls as well as to make them) - but sipgate and others stopped allowing new signups for free accounts, so that part is a little harder if you don't have one already.

so, using my favorite client, csipsimple, register those accounts in the app. and then use the gvoice web interface to kick off calls, or using the "google voice callback free" app make calls right from the dialer on the Edge. not to mention whenever someone calls my google voice #, csipsimple will ring.

call quality is not the greatest (using exactly the same setup on gt540 or vm670, quality is a bit better) and once in a while you are behind a particularly foolish NAT such that even using STUN you get one way audio or consistently dropped calls.

once it's all working, it's pretty foolproof. but there are a hundred tiny annoying steps I didn't really mention.

people wanting to go that same route may do better with trying the sipdroid app and having it do the auto-signup to pbxes.org that it does, which doesn't require a phone# because it uses xmpp/jingle feature of gchat. (I think this is what you were mentioning in the other thread, stevesr0 - it's mostly automated, but last time I tried to get it working had no luck (plus I don't like the sipdroid client very much). but tons of others have had success with it, so may be worth a try for some)

tarvoke · 10-13-2011, 07:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tarvoke

make calls right from the dialer on the Edge

actually this part is a little weird...

even though we all seem to have the telephony apk installed, there does not appear to be any dialer app or shortcut or widget or anything!

to get around this, I made sure "integrate with android" settings were turned on in csipsimple, and then from the dialpad in csipsimple, click on my active SIP account at the top-right, then in the resulting dropdown click on "mobile" instead of the sip account, and then dial. (EDIT: the reason this works is because of the gvoice callback app - it has to be set to always intercept outgoing calls, so even though using "mobile" from the cipsimple dialpad would normally result in failure on the Edge, in this case it triggers gvcallback to do its thing /EDIT)

brilliant, right? but it does work.

stevesr0 · 10-14-2011, 12:22 PM

To Mokel22 - my apologies. I originally crafted a long message asking about telephony functions in another thread responding to a post by ptsenter; I took so long that I was autologged off and my post was lost. This then happened again, so in frustration, I started a new thread quickly and posted it without any acknowledging you or cheyennedonna or tarvoke or anyone else.

Parenthetically, I am only interested in the wifi usage, so the PE would be just fine for me that way.

Thanks for responses.

When I first looked through the cheyennedonna (6/2011) and guyjack (3/2011) threads in the archive, I was overwhelmed by the number of programs which I am not used to. When I saw Mokel22's post, I was impressed by the relative simplicity for a chronic nooby such as myself. Tarvoke, your post is very sophisticated by my standards (sigh).

I am motivated to discover those fundamental uses a humble enduser can successfully implement and ENJOY using on the PE.

So, I wanted to find out how USEFUL people have found the edge to be as a telephone.

If it seems that some people (even if they are only sophisticated Edgers) find it to be an easy, reliable and satisfying function, I would be motivated to plow through the setup in my slow laborious hesitant fashion.

Needless to say, thank you both very much for your comments. They might encourage people who have not tried the telephone functions to do so and hopefully report back.

tarvoke · 10-14-2011, 03:05 PM

here's the detailed step by step that I was too lazy to write:
http://iiordanov.blogspot.com/2009/0...-gv-guava.html

in my case, it's sipgate + csipsimple. since sipgate stopped giving out free accounts recently, the alternative is using the ipkall alternative (which has some extra, annoying steps)

the alternative to that, is install sipdroid and use its wizard that does all the GV/pbxes setup for you (I think) and shouldn't require much in the way of manual intervention. if no one else does, I'll give it a try this weekend and report back how easy or not it is, and if it works any better than last time I tried.

tarvoke · 10-14-2011, 03:18 PM

also, stevesr0, thank you for starting the new thread ^_^
it seems like lately all the popular threads sort of go off topic and information is lost and repeated and lost and repeated - it would be nice to have things collected in one place as reference. (I wouldn't mind taking a little time and building up the mobileread/edge wiki...)

(sorry for the off-topic post ;-)

10-13-2011, 05:04 PM	#1
stevesr0 Connoisseur Posts: 71 Karma: 1050 Join Date: Jul 2011 Device: Entourage Pocket Edge	Pocket Edge as a Telephone I have seen different posts from 2010 and 2011 mentioning different ways of using the Pocket Edge to make telephone calls. These have included using skype, Fring, Google Voice and other programs. I would like to hear from people using any of these programs (or others) to make calls, especially from those who feel they are getting useful calling from the device. Thanks. Steve

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10-13-2011, 06:38 PM	#2
mokel22 Zealot Posts: 147 Karma: 22 Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: USA (Poconos, PA) Device: Entourage Edge	Hi stevesr0, I had the same inquiry just a little while back and found a solution which I stated in this thread: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...ght=phone+voip Just a few more things more things though: Since there's no 3g on the edges you'll only get to talk when your in a wifi area. No free international calling and no international callers. If there is echo, try using headphones.

10-13-2011, 07:03 PM	#3
tarvoke Dog Dentist Posts: 108 Karma: 18 Join Date: Sep 2011 Device: PE, GT540, VM670, GOGHVMU, Qualcomm 1600	some very sketchy notes about what has always worked for me on any android device... nb: I'm lucky enough to have a couple SIP accounts tied to actual North America phone#s (advantage is they can be registered in google voice account, both to receive calls as well as to make them) - but sipgate and others stopped allowing new signups for free accounts, so that part is a little harder if you don't have one already. so, using my favorite client, csipsimple, register those accounts in the app. and then use the gvoice web interface to kick off calls, or using the "google voice callback free" app make calls right from the dialer on the Edge. not to mention whenever someone calls my google voice #, csipsimple will ring. call quality is not the greatest (using exactly the same setup on gt540 or vm670, quality is a bit better) and once in a while you are behind a particularly foolish NAT such that even using STUN you get one way audio or consistently dropped calls. once it's all working, it's pretty foolproof. but there are a hundred tiny annoying steps I didn't really mention. people wanting to go that same route may do better with trying the sipdroid app and having it do the auto-signup to pbxes.org that it does, which doesn't require a phone# because it uses xmpp/jingle feature of gchat. (I think this is what you were mentioning in the other thread, stevesr0 - it's mostly automated, but last time I tried to get it working had no luck (plus I don't like the sipdroid client very much). but tons of others have had success with it, so may be worth a try for some)

10-14-2011, 12:22 PM	#5
stevesr0 Connoisseur Posts: 71 Karma: 1050 Join Date: Jul 2011 Device: Entourage Pocket Edge	To Mokel22 - my apologies. I originally crafted a long message asking about telephony functions in another thread responding to a post by ptsenter; I took so long that I was autologged off and my post was lost. This then happened again, so in frustration, I started a new thread quickly and posted it without any acknowledging you or cheyennedonna or tarvoke or anyone else. Parenthetically, I am only interested in the wifi usage, so the PE would be just fine for me that way. Thanks for responses. When I first looked through the cheyennedonna (6/2011) and guyjack (3/2011) threads in the archive, I was overwhelmed by the number of programs which I am not used to. When I saw Mokel22's post, I was impressed by the relative simplicity for a chronic nooby such as myself. Tarvoke, your post is very sophisticated by my standards (sigh). I am motivated to discover those fundamental uses a humble enduser can successfully implement and ENJOY using on the PE. So, I wanted to find out how USEFUL people have found the edge to be as a telephone. If it seems that some people (even if they are only sophisticated Edgers) find it to be an easy, reliable and satisfying function, I would be motivated to plow through the setup in my slow laborious hesitant fashion. Needless to say, thank you both very much for your comments. They might encourage people who have not tried the telephone functions to do so and hopefully report back.

10-14-2011, 03:05 PM	#6
tarvoke Dog Dentist Posts: 108 Karma: 18 Join Date: Sep 2011 Device: PE, GT540, VM670, GOGHVMU, Qualcomm 1600	here's the detailed step by step that I was too lazy to write: http://iiordanov.blogspot.com/2009/0...-gv-guava.html in my case, it's sipgate + csipsimple. since sipgate stopped giving out free accounts recently, the alternative is using the ipkall alternative (which has some extra, annoying steps) the alternative to that, is install sipdroid and use its wizard that does all the GV/pbxes setup for you (I think) and shouldn't require much in the way of manual intervention. if no one else does, I'll give it a try this weekend and report back how easy or not it is, and if it works any better than last time I tried.

10-14-2011, 03:18 PM	#7
tarvoke Dog Dentist Posts: 108 Karma: 18 Join Date: Sep 2011 Device: PE, GT540, VM670, GOGHVMU, Qualcomm 1600	also, stevesr0, thank you for starting the new thread ^_^ it seems like lately all the popular threads sort of go off topic and information is lost and repeated and lost and repeated - it would be nice to have things collected in one place as reference. (I wouldn't mind taking a little time and building up the mobileread/edge wiki...) (sorry for the off-topic post ;-)

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