Skype Video Phone Connects With Loved Ones

YOU’RE going away on business and want to stay in touch with friends and family back home. Mobile phones, e-mail and instant messaging are all fine. But how much more heartening it would be if you could see your loved ones, as well as hear and swap messages with them.

Well, you don’t have to pay through the nose for video calling via a mobile camera-phone any more. Nor do you have to stump up for access to a video-conferencing service. A popular internet telephony program, Skype, now has a video function built into it. Download version 2.5 of the free software from www.skype.com and install it on a laptop or PC. Plug a $20 video camera into one of the computer’s ports, and you’re ready to start making video phone calls from and to anywhere in the world for free. If the other party doesn’t have a computer, no problem. There’s a small charge (typically a few cents a minute) for calling the person’s conventional phone or mobile.

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