Technology Review: magicJack
Recently I bought magicJack for $39.95 and it includes one year of free local and long distance telephone service. Then after the first year, I pay only $19.95 per year.
The magicJack is a small device that connects to your computer and allows you to make calls from the Internet using your regular phone. So you need a broadband (high-speed) connection to use this product.
You can plug magicJack in to any available USB port on your computer, and the internal software automatically runs and configures the device. According to the website, magicJack includes features such as:
- FREE Caller ID
- FREE Directory Assistance
- FREE Phone Number
- FREE Call Waiting
- FREE Voicemail
Once setup, you can dial out over your internet connection – using your phone or your computer screen. The call sound quality depends on your internet connection speed, which should be a minimum of 128 kb/s. Of course, one drawback is that your computer, which magicJack is connected to, must be on in order to use the phone.
My test results varied. Some days the device worked perfectly, other times the device needed to be restarted. I also notice that for me, using a Windows XP test system, I was not able to initiate Standby mode while the “magicjack.exe” service was running. I also noted other Internet chat by people having the same problem with Standby and Hibernation modes.
I discovered a pretty decent workaround: Go into Standby, where you will need to go into the Task Manager and disable the magicjack.exe process. Then, when coming out of Standby mode you will need to restart the magicJack software for the device to function. I also noticed that at times when dialing certain phone numbers it would go into a “Trying” phase and eventually time out.
Overall, I think it is a good money-saving product and worth purchasing if you have all the prerequisites listed earlier and are ok with some of the quirks it can present. You can also get a free trial to test it for yourself, which is the best way to see how the device works in your environment.
Have any of you tried magicJack? What do you think?
UPDATE (March 2009): I wanted to also mention that magicJack lets you get voicemail notification via email. In addition, you also get an audio file of the voice message within the email.
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow–thanks for this, it was fascinating. How does this compare to Skype?
Isbel,
Good question, both are Voice Over IP technologies. I am not a Skype expert, so I hope our readers can help fill this in, but in my opinion the big difference is that with Skype you are using your computer’s headphones and microphone, where as with the magicJack device you are using a regular telephone as the interface. On the question of sound quality between the two, it would be interesting to know if sound quality was purely a factor of ones internet performance.
I’ve actually used Skype quite a bit making calls to the Czech Republic and Canada. It really does all come down to the quality of the internet connection. I’ve had great call quality at times and huge latency other times, which I have determined to be caused by my not so reliable wireless provider in most cases.
My brother has completely ditched his LAN line provider and exclusively uses MagicJack, he seems to be very happy with it. He’s using it with a Comcast Cable modem and has a pretty fast and decent quality internet connection….He’s also bragging all over town about it!