Smart Plug and Talk

[Dedworth]

Smart are selling these dongles for £5 with 300php loaded at the Barrio Fiesta. Thats the price on the Smart stand - not sure what the resellers with the website below are charging. Calls to Philippines are 6 or 7 pesos a minute

http://www.plugandtalk.co.uk/home/index.html

[somebody]

Wow a fiver now that is a bargin for one of those devices:xxgrinning--00xx3:

[JimOttley]

Indeed that is an excellent price, I paid about 20 quid each for 2 of them about 18 months ago in Manila.

They are prone to corrupt file systems on the dongle, at least mine is, but it's fixable.

Saying that I've finally got round to writing and just about finished a small program for reading the contents of the message file shsty.dat and archiving it to xml (you know for proof of relationship and so on).

shsty.dat is one of the main files that gets corrupted when it goes wrong.

The user interface of the Soft Phone is ok but not great, it tends to get confused if for example you try to use the mic and speakers on the laptop instead of the built in audio on the dongle.

I use mine mostly for SMS messages.

[Dedworth]

Indeed that is an excellent price, I paid about 20 quid each for 2 of them about 18 months ago in Manila.

They are prone to corrupt file systems on the dongle, at least mine is, but it's fixable.

Saying that I've finally got round to writing and just about finished a small program for reading the contents of the message file shsty.dat and archiving it to xml (you know for proof of relationship and so on).

shsty.dat is one of the main files that gets corrupted when it goes wrong.

The user interface of the Soft Phone is ok but not great, it tends to get confused if for example you try to use the mic and speakers on the laptop instead of the built in audio on the dongle.

I use mine mostly for SMS messages.

You are right about it getting confused my Mrs just called her sis and whilst we could hear through the laptop speakers she couldn't hear us unless the supplied mic/earpiece was plugged into the dongle. Still at a fiver and 6php/min who's complaining. Bargain :xxgrinning--00xx3:

[joebloggs]

6 or 7php a min..
on website it says as low as 7.5php a min
which is 10.5p per min ?
some phone cards charge 10p a min to phone a mob/landline in the phils...
so are you saving much ??? (maybe the charges (if any) of your phone company to dial the access number??)

[stevewool]

i pay 8.5 pence per minute mobile to mobile a little cheaper to a landline using rebtel , i have many free minutes on my phone so it comes off them

[Pete/London]

i pay 8.5 pence per minute mobile to mobile a little cheaper to a landline using rebtel , i have many free minutes on my phone so it comes off them

That`s a good rate Steve, we use a company that costs 8p pm to land line and 10p pm to mobiles total costs from our home phone, and very reliable.
Does a `dongle`enable your laptop or desktop to be used as a phone?

[Doc Alan]

Indeed that is an excellent price, I paid about 20 quid each for 2 of them about 18 months ago...



I use mine mostly for SMS messages.
it was the same price for me last month. Like you, I use it for SMS messages which are far cheaper than using a Roaming Smart Cellphone or UK network cellphone. The quoted rates for sending 156 character text messages are Php 1 to a Smart mobile number, Php 2.5 to a Philippine non-Smart mobile or landline number, and Php 15 to an international number. When I receive a text on my cellphones I reply wherever possible using the Smart USB device. It's surprising how quickly 156 characters are used up!

[JimOttley]

6 or 7php a min..
on website it says as low as 7.5php a min
which is 10.5p per min ?
some phone cards charge 10p a min to phone a mob/landline in the phils...
so are you saving much ??? (maybe the charges (if any) of your phone company to dial the access number??)

Used to be much cheaper Joe when the exchange rate was up in the high 80's low 90's.

At the current exchange rate you are right it's not a device for talking.

The VOIP text at 1 peso is a steal though you can't match that on any international text service including Skype.

[JimOttley]

it was the same price for me last month. Like you, I use it for SMS messages which are far cheaper than using a Roaming Smart Cellphone or UK network cellphone. The quoted rates for sending 156 character text messages are Php 1 to a Smart mobile number, Php 2.5 to a Philippine non-Smart mobile or landline number, and Php 15 to an international number. When I receive a text on my cellphones I reply wherever possible using the Smart USB device. It's surprising how quickly 156 characters are used up!

Actually I was an early adopter I think my first one might actually have cost closer to 4000 peso when I reflect on it.

I will never reply on a phone these days unless there is some terrible emergency, it helps that I am always surrounded by computers though :)

[joebloggs]

The VOIP text at 1 peso is a steal though you can't match that on any international text service including Skype.

chikka jim cost nothing to send a text to the phils thru the net, i used it for years ( must have saved me £1,000s for the years i used it, and i mean £1,000s - i use to send at least 30 txts a day) , my stepson uses it to send texts to his misses back in the phils now for nothing. (she doesn't use chikka to reply thou :D)

[JimOttley]

chikka jim cost nothing to send a text to the phils thru the net, i used it for years ( must have saved me £1,000s for the years i used it, and i mean £1,000s - i use to send at least 30 txts a day) , my stepson uses it to send texts to his misses back in the phils now for nothing. (she doesn't use chikka to reply thou :D)

Do their replies come back into chikka? It looks like a reply costs 2.5 peso? Smart Plug n Talk costs me 1 peso out and 1 peso back remember I end up paying for both directions one way or another :)