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iPad mini Replacing iPhone with iPad mini...VOIP tips?

L

lifeboy001

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 18, 2005
41
0
Don't try to convince me it's not the right thing to do....given my line of work and the way I travel around NYC, this is exactly what I want to do. That said, what are your best suggestions for sending and receiving calls and texts? I am willing to pay for a dedicated phone number, but wondering which company does VOIP/SMS the best.

Thanks!
 
Look into Talkatone... I remember making free calls with it and I don't think there is any U.S. limits.
 
There are several highly rated ones in the iTunes App store. Talkatone is one as is Line2. Do some searches for best voip apps for iPad and read the reviews. This seems to be a very popular topic with lots of information online.

You are far from the only person wanting to do this. I'm going this way too. No iPhone or other cell phone- just iPad Mini + Voip app + Earbuds with Microphone. For me Skype will be good enough as I don't need much inbound calling (though there is an option for that via Skype).
 
I did a lot of research into this a couple of months ago before I ditched my carrier.

There are plenty of free VoIP apps out there, but I wasn't impressed. You can use them to call out, but no one can call you unless they use the same app. That's just not practical.

There's Skype, but it's geared mainly towards using it with other people that have Skype. Again, that's not always practical.

In the end, Line2 was the one app that felt the most like a real phone. For $10 a month you get your own phone number, unlimited calling and texting in US & Canada, voicemail by email, caller ID, call waiting, call forwarding, etc... I've been using it for 3 months, and don't have anything negative to say. I highly recommend it.
 
corvus32 said:
There's Skype, but it's geared mainly towards using it with other people that have Skype. Again, that's not always practical.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty much with you that there are stronger VOIP apps than Skype but Skype calls landlines & cell phones just fine with a small subscription. Around $30/yr and I can call anyone in the U.S & Canada (landline, mobile, etc) whether they use Skype or not. Voice quality is excellent (better than I've ever heard via cellular voice).

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CoMoMacUser said:
Would Vonage work?
Click to expand...

Yes, but there's no iPad native version so it will be the iPhone version, maybe at 2X. Line2 and Talkatone have iPad native versions. This may or may not matter to some.
 
HobeSoundDarryl said:
I'm pretty much with you that there are stronger VOIP apps than Skype but Skype calls landlines & cell phones just fine with a small subscription. Around $30/yr and I can call anyone in the U.S & Canada (landline, mobile, etc) whether they use Skype or not. Voice quality is excellent (better than I've ever heard via cellular voice).
Click to expand...

Buying a Skype subscription will let you make outgoing calls to anyone, but people without Skype still cannot call you until you spend more money on a Skype online number. Then there's the issue of not being able to receive text messages sent to your online number. Skype is just a mess, IMO.

For $10 a month, Line2 just works. It's easy to setup and understand.
 
Pinger is completely free. You get a real phone number other people can call, free texting, free calling, free voicemail with a custom messages, photo and video messaging and a lot more. I use all the time and it works perfect. The app does not have to be running to get a call. I love it.
 
The iPhone google voice app works fine on the ipad , might not look as good but you get push notifications
 
iphonedude2008 said:
Pinger is completely free. You get a real phone number other people can call, free texting, free calling, free voicemail with a custom messages, photo and video messaging and a lot more. I use all the time and it works perfect. The app does not have to be running to get a call. I love it.
Click to expand...

Pinger is not completely free. Using Pinger to call a phone number that's not a Pinger number requires you to purchase minutes. It cost $10 for 400 minutes or $20 for a 1000 minutes and they still make you look at ads. You'll also need a phone number to begin with to register, and there's no native iPad app either.

For $10 a month, Line2 is simple, and there's none of that hidden crap.
 
Last edited:
Vonage app and Viber

Both also do HD calls when calling another user, which makes regular calls sound like crap.
 
aka777 said:
Vonage app and Viber

Both also do HD calls when calling another user, which makes regular calls sound like crap.
Click to expand...

Vonage is an iPhone app that requires your mobile number to work, and like other free VoIP apps you can only receive calls with it from people using the same app. Viber is basically the same - only people using Viber can call you. It also has no native iPad version.
 
GV Talk

I'm experimenting with GV Talk which is similar to Talkatone, in that it adds VOIP to your Google voice number. So far so good, but it concerns me that there is no website for the product or developer that I can find.
 
corvus32 said:
Vonage is an iPhone app that requires your mobile number to work, and like other free VoIP apps you can only receive calls with it from people using the same app. Viber is basically the same - only people using Viber can call you. It also has no native iPad version.
Click to expand...

Well, The other option is to buy VOIP software like acrobats and then sign up with an actual voip provider like CallCentric.
 
lifeboy001 said:
Don't try to convince me it's not the right thing to do....given my line of work and the way I travel around NYC, this is exactly what I want to do. That said, what are your best suggestions for sending and receiving calls and texts? I am willing to pay for a dedicated phone number, but wondering which company does VOIP/SMS the best.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

100% talkatone. Why?

Get a google voice account for FREE, that's a free number and free text msging after which you add ur gv to talkatone. Talkatone will call you on your gv number via gtalk and you can text people as well.

So with talkatone and google voice you have a free phone but on your iPad. All you need is the Internet.

Give it a try to test this out yourself to get a feel for it.

One thing people don't know about google voice was that short code text msg didn't work. (Ie. text FB to 32233) now I've noticed with talkatone lately you can receive these short codes but you can not send. Just a heads up.

Hit me up if you have any questions.
 
Tortri said:
100% talkatone. Why?

Get a google voice account for FREE, that's a free number and free text msging after which you add ur gv to talkatone. Talkatone will call you on your gv number via gtalk and you can text people as well.

So with talkatone and google voice you have a free phone but on your iPad. All you need is the Internet.

Give it a try to test this out yourself to get a feel for it.

One thing people don't know about google voice was that short code text msg didn't work. (Ie. text FB to 32233) now I've noticed with talkatone lately you can receive these short codes but you can not send. Just a heads up.

Hit me up if you have any questions.
Click to expand...

This is what I did for a while when I first got my iPad prior to getting an iPhone, although I did have an old POS flip phone on a PAYG account for calls but no texting. I may go back to it once a retina mini comes out. One question I have though is - is it possible to have my iPhone 4s on a PAYG account without data once my current contract expires? If so I would likely keep it as my primary phone and use the mini for everything else. Before anyone say anything about just keeping the iPhone with data, there is a massive savings in money doing it the other way, something like $40-50/month with the few calls I make.
 
Second on google voice paired with talkatone.

Been using that set up overseas to keep US connectivity for a couple years now. I text w/my US number via GV app, make and receive phone calls via talkatone. If not logged into talkatone for incoming calls I get a GV push notification with voicemail transcription and audio. Works great. iPod Touch w/data sim would be sweat for this set up...one can hope!
 
SHirsch999 said:
This is what I did for a while when I first got my iPad prior to getting an iPhone, although I did have an old POS flip phone on a PAYG account for calls but no texting. I may go back to it once a retina mini comes out. One question I have though is - is it possible to have my iPhone 4s on a PAYG account without data once my current contract expires? If so I would likely keep it as my primary phone and use the mini for everything else. Before anyone say anything about just keeping the iPhone with data, there is a massive savings in money doing it the other way, something like $40-50/month with the few calls I make.
Click to expand...

Honestly I'm not sure if it is possible to have a smart phone without a data plan. I know tmobile has a $30 prepay plan. I never went that route though.
 
So, if you had an iPad with 4g, you just basically have "wireless" connectivity away from WiFi?
 
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