Tech Geek

I’ve been getting up to speed recently on the revised version of the Here We Stand 2.0 Confirmation Curriculum from Augsburg Fortress and the Spark Sunday School Teacher Training. In order to do this, I’ve participated in a few webinars from Augsburg Fortress. I recommend them as a great way to learn more about programs that you may be considering. A full list of upcoming webinars is available at - http://www.augsburgfortress.org/community/webinars/ - and you can sign up and download the software that you need from that page. But...you’ll also need a phone to hear the audio. I wanted everything to come through the computer so I wasn’t tying up a phone line at the church for over an hour. So I was glad to use the new Google Chat “Call Phone” feature.

Google has recently added “Call Phone” to the ever expanding list of features on Google Chat. Now when you log into your Gmail account, the Chat pane has a link to Call Phone. It’s about as easy as that, click on the link, and dial a number or start typing the name of a contact that’s in your Google Contacts and you can call them right from your computer. Calls until then end of the year within the U.S. and Canada are free, and calls to other countries cost 2-cents per minute.

The first time you click the Call Phone link, you may be instructed to install a plug-in for Google Talk that enables your computer’s microphone and webcam. This gives you the ability to audio and video chat through Google Chat, and also the ability to call phone numbers. The plugin, available at http://www.google.com/chat/voice/, is available for Windows XP or later, Mac OS X 10.4 or later, and various flavors of Linux.

I have been using Google Chat for video calls for awhile, so I already had the plugin installed. Something in the upgrade went wonky and it was crashing my web browser, so I had to go to my Add/Remove programs and un-install the old plugin and then re-install the new one. Since that, it seems to be working well. I’m also running a beta version of Google Chrome as my web browser, so that may have caused some problems.

In order to use this during the Augsburg Fortress webinar, I just logged in from the e-mail link I received from the WebEx center and then, instead of dialing in through my phone, I dialed in through Google Chat. The keypad is still live for entering the room number and other information. In order to save Augsburg Fortress a dime, I used the long distance number instead of the toll-free number! There is a mute button at the top right of the dialpad which I kept muted during the call, except for when I was actually talking.

If you’re going to use this regularly, you should get a headset with a microphone or even just a plain set of headphones. This helps prevent feedback, where the other person’s voice comes through your speakers, is picked up by your microphone, and sent back to them. For long calls or conference calls, preventing feedback is a necessity. I have found that for short calls, the anti-echo software built into the Google Talk plugin does a good enough job of canceling out the feedback that might occur.

If you have a Google Voice account, you can add credit to that in order to make international calls. You can also set your Google Chat number as one of the ones that Google Voice can forward messages to. I only use Google Voice to get my voicemail, so I haven’t tested that functionality.

Bonus Google Voice tip: If you use Google Voice for your voicemail, you can create a badge link that will people send you a voicemail message directly from a website. I have it embedded at the bottom of our church homepage at www.northridgelutheran.org if you want to give Google Voice a test run. I'm not sure if it will leave me a voicemail or connect you straight to my phone, but we'll find out!