A first for me: on the train ride in from Montclair today, the fellow sitting next to me was another Internet Tablet user, which we discovered when I pulled out an N800 to work on. Having a particular interest in the Gizmo Project, he suggested we talk later, Gizmo to Gizmo, N800 to N800 (or maybe it was N800 to 770).

As it happens WiFi is conscientiously blocked where I work, so I’ll have to try this later, perhaps tonight. But a visit to the Gizmo Project (from which I’ve been absent, lo this last half year) shows that versions for the N800 and the 770 are both available (not to mention the Nokia N80, one of the six or more WiFi-capable Nokia cellphones). (Screenshots link from here [N800] and here [770].)

Gizmo, of course, is SIP-based VoIP, with free computer-based calls (that includes Internet Tablets) to other Gizmo users or any SIP-based software, such as Google Talk. This is as opposed to proprietary approaches like Skype. The Gizmo Project’s value-add is that it offers users the option to pay nominal fees to connect to landline and mobile phones.

I’ve used Gizmo, and I’ve used Skype, and I’ve used Google Talk, and I’ve used Vonage, and I’ve used cellphones (Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile), and so on, and so on. (Landlines!) We all have. I know that pointing to another way to talk to people doesn’t make your heart beat faster, even if it does use a non-proprietary protocol. And I can scarcely think of times when I’ve had fewer than 2 or 3 options available to make a call at one time or location. But …

But Gizmo lets you talk using your Internet Tablet to anyone with any phone. Now. (Actually, dating back to July. Some months yet before Skype joins the fray.) That’s a big step up from “talk to other people with Google Talk on their computer.”

Sometimes I’m so busy with getting somewhere, I don’t see that the landscape has changed. Drastically.

Maybe Gizmo will make my heart beat faster after all …

— Roger Sperberg