I just got a new mobile phone recently, really just because I wanted to switch to a different provider that claimed to have coverage in Alaska, Pakistan, and Greenlend (my planned destinations over the next few months). So I decided to upgrade my organization ability(or start getting organized is more like it) and got a Pocket PC based phone (similar to the MDA Smartphone in the US, I think). It’s based on the HTC-Wizard design that is branded by various companies, and it’s a nifty little phone, with good battery life and runs all my favorite Nintendo ROMS without problems. Oh, and I can call people too.

Anyway, I realized that – since I now have a WiFi capable phone – I might be able to attach a US number to my phone using a VoIP service. That’s right: I could have my German number, as well as a US number, and be doubly reachable!

So here is my thoughts on what you get when you install Skype on your HTC Wizard device, and also about a different service called “Woize” that offers a similar service.

First of all, here’s the lowdown: your Wizard ain’t gonna run Skype to do what you want it to do. Chatting, sure; but that’s nothing special. If you want to get an actual number attached to your fancy pants phone, you need to subscribe to “Skype-In”. Which was an interesting experience in itself: while I was signing up to Skype-In, the yearly subscription price mysteriously increased. What a coincidence that was, I guess.

Whatever, I wanted to try it anyways. Well, you can figure out how to install Skype yourself (and you will want the version for slow-processor phones) and not spend the $40 for the incoming number: the quality is unusable. Oh, the phone will ring, and the person calling you may be able to understand you ok, but you won’t hear much but partial words. And the audio comes out of the speaker on the body, which probably could be fixed by using your headset.

It turns out that the processor doesn’t meet the minimum specs that Skype puts out, and you can in fact get it too work ok by installing a utility and overclocking the processor. The processor is, by the way, is an OMAP850 at 195Mhz : I don’t know anything about it, but I think it’s made by Texas Instruments, and has two cores that work together, which means it might not be proper to compare it to a Intel chip of the same megahertz.

Being less interested once I found out I have to overclock my phone to get Skype to work, I looked around for an alternative, and found one that should work. It’s called “Woize” and it apparently works on the Wizard perfectly.

So I went on over to Woize and signed up, happy about this alternative, only spending $40 on a Skype number I may never use. I quickly got turned off from Woize after trying with multiple credit cards to buy $4 worth of credits so that I could obtain a number. Something is seriously wrong with the pay service they use, “Paynova”.

Anyway, I decided that I would open a “Paynova Wallet”, which seemed my only alternative. After transferring 10 EUR to my “Paynova Wallet”, I was informed that I would have to “verify” my wallet before I could charge the $4 at Woize. And the verification takes several days. DAYS! Why didn’t someone tell me that before I started that whole thing?

Anyway, if Woize works, it could be a great alternative. The next problem with Woize is that the numbers available are in Holland and Sweden or something like that (there may be other countries available as well, but not the US or Canada yet). Since they haven’t taken my money yet, I haven’t been able to check which countries are available, and it’s not easy to find on thier website (I didn’t find a list, at least). But there is still a way around that.

A free (yes, free) service at IpKall allows you to have a real US phone number (in Washington State only). They forward your number to your SIP address, and then you’ve got a US number that is routed to your Woize account (and your phone if it’s running the Woize client at the time). That’s all you need to do.

Of course, since I won’t be able to pay the $4 until later this week, I can’t verify that it works – but I will post about it when I find out.