Skype™ is promoting a new feature - group (multi-party) video calls.
That's great news for Skype users.
But unlike the limited one-to-one Skype option, the multi-party "premium" version is fee-based (http://tinyurl.com/2cuaptd).
For the computer phobic, Skype's $9.month charge is a small price to pay for conference video calls with up to 25 people (http://tinyurl.com/3x7z282). One Skype subscriber must have the premium version; the remainder can have the free Skype installed.
The new Grandmother uses Skype to chat with her Daughter and coo at her new Grand-Daughter on almost a daily basis. Even with a medium speed DSL connection on Granny's side, quality is satisfactory.
But Number 2 Son, a/k/a The Geek, told me about a free - correct, no charge, gratis - option called Tiny Chat (http://tinychat.com/.
It's a tad more complicated that Skype, but not all that much.
With TinyChat the call originator creates a "video chat room" on the Internet (a simple enough task). Then the originator invites (via email or phone or ? ) as many as 400 others to join. All for free. There also is a two-party, Skype-like option (http://tinychat.com/about.html.
Unlike Skype, there is nothing to install on any computer.
Skype DOES offer a greater number of supported interface languages, including Hebrew. TinyChat has 9 language options, including Russian, but no Hebrew. Skype also is Linux-friendly; apparently there are some problems on Linux with TinyChat (http://tinyurl.com/5sv7a96).
It's nice to know that there are options to not only talk to the mispahah but to see them as well.
Now if only Savata Raba could be brought into the 21st century . . .
