If you have a google voice account, you can make free VoIP calls on your iPhone. You’ll need to sign up for a Gizmo account and download Fring for your iPhone, but after you’re done you can make free 3 minute outgoing calls and have unlimited incoming calls through Google Voice.
Ingredients
To do this you’ll need the following:
The following are optional but will optimize your experience (though Apple will hate you for it):
- jailbroken iPhone
- Backgrounder
- 3g unrestrictor
Sign Up for Gizmo
All you need from Gizmo is the VoIP part of the puzzle. You don’t need to download the Gizmo desktop client, but you will need to change some of your settings.
When you’ve signed up for Gizmo, login to your account and turn Google Voice on. Add your google voice account number and you’re set. On your way out, be sure to grab your Gizmo number which is two headings below in the Account Overview section. You’ll see a heading called SIP Number. Copy it. We’ll need to add it as a phone in Google Voice.
Set up Google Voice
Navigate to your Google Voice settings and click on the phones tab. At the bottom of the tab is an add another phone link. Click it and select Gizmo as the phone type from the drop down menu.
Set Up Fring
Open up your Fring app and click on the SIP selection in the Add Ons menu. Use the Gizmo option to login to your account.
Fring now has push notifications so you can be notified when someone is trying to reach you. It isn’t the most reliable way to take incoming phone calls, but it’s the only way for an un-jailbreaked iPhone to handle incoming calls without having the Fring app open constantly. So this system isn’t dependable for switching to VoIP just yet, but you can make 3 minute calls for free and have your friends call you back for unlimited interaction time.
Either Way, a Smart Move
Using this system of Google Voice->Gizmo->Fring will help you cut down on your minutes, and it’s just the thing to keep you connected when you’ve run out. Jailbreaking your phone allows you to keep fring open in the background to receive calls, and it also lets you wander off of wifi. Using the 3g network for VoIP means you can lower you minute plan to nil. All you need is data. Isn’t that a Beatles song?
Related Posts -
Top Ten Must Have Jailbreak Apps For The iPhone I just published a list of Jailbreak apps that should convince anyone that their iPhone can do better. You can find the same list in my Must Have iPhone Apps list, but in the Cult of Mac article I give a healthy description of the app plus a couple...... -
Advertising or Publicizing Your Events Using MySpace and Facebook Email is for Spam I barely read my email anymore. I'm not sure if it's because I need Ritalin or drink too much caffeine, but email is boring. We need email though. It is necessary: for opening up MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, and Second Life accounts. But that's about all it's...... - One Stop Shop: Linking Students to your Web Presence Before I go deeper into Social Networking, YouTube, podcasting and the like... I thought it would be a good idea to do a little preventative maintenance. How to Promote For a while now, I've been plugging our different avenues of communication in four ways email- it's good for some things,......
- Creating a Professional Facebook Account I like to keep things separated in my life. Work and personal items have their own places in my apartment as well as online. If I needed a facebook presence using something other than a page, I would create a professional account so as to not muddy up my personal......
- Keeping Technology in One Place with Flock I've been using this browser for a while. I've heard about it on Attack of the Show! on G4 which is great to watch for a little research tv, plus my friend Flo made their logo. Flock is a web browser based on Firefox that allows the user to access......
Related Websites - Google Voice Can Save You Money A few weeks ago, I found out about Google Voice, another service by Google. It has a lot of great features that are very useful and can potentially be used to save a lot of money. I signed up immediately, paying a few bucks on Ebay for an invite, and......
- Google Sitemaps - How Important Are They? There is no denying that Google is the king of the hill when it comes to search engines. A fairly decent page ranking in Google is worth so much more than a better showing in other less prominent search engines. The reason for this is the overwhelming popularity of Google.......
- Google: More Than Search Google is a one stop shop for searchers, it controls such a large portion of the market that most use it without thinking et. The serach engine market is a good example of one where, at least in the Western world, one big company has market share. Google is regarded......
-
Google SEO for WordPress Blogging If you have been in the internet marketing scene at all, even just for a short time, then you are already probably aware of the fact that blogs that are search engine optimized properly tend to achieve greater and faster rankings in search engines like Google than other websites and...... - Enough Wait for White: Black iPhone 4 Unboxing Time to get a new black iPhone 4 Although she had been waiting a long time for the white iPhone, my wife had had enough of not being able to make or receive phone calls with her ATT iPhone 3G, so we went to the Verizon phone to pick her......
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Great article. I just wish Google would respond to my request for a Google voice account!
Everything works fine but if fring is not active and sombody calls your GV number, u will see call coming to your itouch but when you accept the call it didn’t go through.
Any help is appreciated.
Deepak