A great deal has been made about the inability to use the iPad as a phone. The argument is, who wants to use something this big as a phone? Well to be honest, me. The fact of the matter is to be able to make a phone call using the iPad as a speakerphone would be a great thing so I decided that I would try it out.
First I loaded the Skype application. It’s currently only available in the iPhone version but, as you know, iPhone applications work on the iPad. I tried it out and discovered that it works quite well. The phone quality is actually excellent. The only difficulty was that it unfortunately locked up on me a few times. This happens to be the same experience that I tend to have when using it on my iPhone.
I went looking for a different option. Back in the form of the application line2. While the application has had its issues because of a server attack shortly after it launched, it works quite well for me since I was in the pool of users early on. I loaded it on my iPad and made a number of phone calls. The call quality is quite good. More importantly it works beautifully and smoothly all the time without locking up. It actually is a good argument for continuing with the service after my monthlong trial is up. Here’s a rough video of me making a phone call with Travis. Apologies for the quality, but I didn’t want his number to be shown during the call. Most importantly, you get a sense of how well it works.
Note: Dan is too busy playing… So he is dictating to Dragon Dictation and me (Travis) This is why I get paid the big bucks.