Cyberphone

CyberPhone -- The latest in the Internet phone craze to hit the web is an app by the name of CyberPhone. Like its predecessors (Internet Phone, Digiphone, WebPhone, Speak Freely, and WebTalk), CyberPhone allows users to make long-distance phone calls over the 'net for as low as the cost of a 'net connection. CyberPhone supports both half-duplex and full-duplex transmissions, 8-bit audio, text chat, file transfer capabilities, Caller ID, and CyberPhone servers (for easily finding others to talk with). Like Speak Freely, CyberPhone offers cross-platform compatibility, with separate versions available for Windows 3.x and 95, Sun Solaris, Linux, SunOS, and more to come. While its interface might not be as attractive as that of WebPhone, CyberPhone still sports an appealing layout complete with advertising space for companies wishing to sponsor the CyberPhone development team, CyberScience, Inc. CyberPhone also currently lacks several features found in competitors' releases, including the ability to handle concurrent and simultaneous conversations, voice mail/answering machine capabilities, message encoding, and advanced message compression. Still, its feature-set is quite impressive, including essentials such as call muting and blocking (do not disturb), an efficient address management book, extensive communication statistics for conversations, point to point 'manual' calling, sound effects and voice smoothing, and sufficient online help documentation to get users started. Overall, CyberPhone fares well in what is rapidly turning into a very competitive segment of the 'net. For anyone looking for ways to save on long-distance phone calls, CyberPhone definitely delivers. Pros: Impressive array of features including call muting and blocking, extensive stats, and sound effects Cons: Lacks some of the features found in the competitors, interface not as attractive as WebPhone's New: Text chat and file transfer capabilities; improved online help, interface, and compression rates Version Reviewed: Beta 0.9 Date of Review: 1/13/96 Reviewer: Forrest Stroud Date Entered 7/7/96