I am currently in Boston to visit the Telerik office on my way to the DevReach conference in Bulgaria. As custom goes, I made the obligatory call home to let my family know I made it safely to my destination.
What was different this time was that the call was face to face. This is the first time I have had a significant time away from the family in a while and with more travel on the way I decided to get a webcam for the house. My wife is not a big fan of computers, but she was able to get logged in and ready for the video call with just a little assistance from the kids.
When I made the purchase I really wasn't sure how well it would work, but I have attended enough on-line meetings to know the audio should be just as good. My primary goals were to not waste cell minutes, stop passing a phone around the room to say the same thing to everyone and keep that visual connection with the kids.
Even she was impressed how well it worked. The video wasn't crisp, but it was clear enough. Some of that could have been that I bought a low end ($40) webcam, but a little blur I can live with. I was able to see everyone in the shot and have a group conversation. Even the dog was able to participate. I know this isn't a great revelation on a brand new technology, but I am just so impressed at how well it went I thought I should share. I hope I get a chance to try it out in Bulgaria. If you are traveling, it might be worth a little cash to get a webcam and give it a try.
Oh, in case you were wondering I used Windows Live Messenger. I might try Skype next to see if there is a difference, but I was happy with the results this time.
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