Like it or not it seems that Facebook is becoming more and more an escapable part of your digital life, and now T-Mobile’s Bobsled is giving you yet another way to ignore communicate with friends and family.
What’s Bobsled:
Bobsled allows users to make calls to anyone on their friends list on Facebook for free. Not to shabby considering that you may have friends and family across the country or around the world. If you ever wondered what having Skype on Facebook would be like this would be it (albeit with some takeaways).
So why use Bobsled over Skype? Well that ultimately depends on your web habits. Unlike Skype, Bobsled comes with over half-a-billion potential users, users that won’t be required to sign up for another web service, create some lame user handle, or be given another strange telephone number that they won’t remember. If you’re friends with John Doe, then you’ve got his number.
How it works:
If you made it this far then you’re at least possibly interested in trying it out for yourself. So here’s what you need: a computer and a Facebook account. Bobsled is compatible on Windows, Linux, and Macintosh computers and works on all the major browsers: Safari, Firefox, Chrome, and IE. Install the .pkg file from their Facebook Page: http://apps.facebook.com/bobsledbytmo restart the browser and you’re ready to get started.
Once installed on your browser, open up the chat window and you’ll notice a new telephone icon. Select a friend and you’re ready to start. If you’re friend hasn’t installed Bobsled yet, they’ll be harassed (just like all your other app requests do) invited to use the service.
That’s it; below is a simple gallery to illustrate.
But what do you think about it?
As of this morning, T-Mobile voluntarily pulled the app while they work with Facebook address design issues. So I will hold off on making a final verdict but know this much, it worked very well in terms of call quality and connectivity. We’ll keep you posted and once it goes live, we’ll do a before and after review.
Didn’t T-mo shutdown the service do to unexpected infrastructure problems?
According to their very buried presser, T-Mo and Facebook are at odds over branding. Facebook seems to feel that It’s not properly differentiating itself as an independent app.
Interesting. You’d think they would have worked that out!