Day 26

Tuesday 1 Oct 2013

Well, I’ll be honest.  Communication back to the States hasn’t exactly been easy.  The time difference is a bitch.  And then there’s how you do it.  Yes, Skype is great and free, but you need to be chained to a computer (or so I thought – I have since found out this isn’t exactly true for some voice calls).  But – I have discovered the game changer for me…

FaceTime Audio!  With the new iOS 7 update, there is now a FaceTime Audio option for communication.  I truly think this brings web based chatting to the mainstream.  Sure, there was always Viber, but this never worked that well for me to be honest.  Voxer is great for walkie talkie type communicating.  And of course there’s What’s App now with audio option.  But FaceTime Audio is going to be big I predict.  I walked to work and chatted with Liz and Pat brilliantly – all over my data plan.  Didn’t seem to suck up too much of the data either according to my plan stats.

And before I realized the Audio option, I was FaceTime Video chatting with Eric.  That is great if stationary, but walking and trying to hold the camera while going up my daily hill to the subway is tricky – to say the least.  I had to snap a pic of Eric though before I headed into the train station.

Technology is mind blowing – and is going to make communicating back to loved ones that much easier.

Related articles

• Save Minutes by Using FaceTime’s (Free!) HD Audio Calls (geeksugar.com)
• iOS 7 How-to: Make FaceTime Audio calls and check how much data they use (9to5mac.com)
• Why Isn’t Anyone Talking About FaceTime Audio Calls? (macgasm.net)