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Foonz: Free Group and Conference Calls

Foonz is an easy way to make a group call from any phone. The service is absolutely free. Only your normal phone use minutes apply and will not charge you a dime more for using it.

You get to send invites to your friends through IM messages, text messages or email. The group call can be scheduled to make sure everyone on the group is free to make the call. You can also use the service to leave messages to a group. The invited people will be sent with a message containing the number to call. When they call in, foonz will link you all together. You can even leave a message for anyone who couldn’t make the call and they will get a note from Foonz to dial in and get your message.

This is one great way to get in touch with a whole group of people in one simple call. You don’t need to call each one to send your voice message. They don’t have to go online just to setup an IM voice conference. They can join the conference instantly using their mobile phones.

Foonz will work with any phone, but a mobile phone is the best for two important reasons. One – since only you use it, when you call in with a mobile phone we can log you in automatically! Two – we can send TXT message invitations to you on your mobile phone when you are invited to group calls by others!

International Callers FAQ:

Can callers from outside the US use Foonz?

Yes. Anyone, anywhere can set up a foonz account, call the foonz number and start a group call. However, text message invitations to the group call only currently go out to mobile phones within the US.

Foonz Mute Modes
• Conversation mode — everyone in the group can hear everyone else
• Presentation mode — everyone in the group is muted except the owner
• QA mode — everyone in the group is muted except the owner. However, anyone can unmute and remute themselves by pressing 4.

Tags: Foonz, Group Calls, IM, Mobile Phones, Phone Conference, text-message, Voice Conference

Yuuguu: Collaboration Tool with Multiple IM and OS Support

Yuguu is an interesting service with an interesting name. The name was derived from a Japanese word for Fusion. It’s a collaboration tool which functions pretty much like your normal IM client. The client is available for Windows, Mac and Linux (currently 3 distros are supported) which will pretty much eliminate some OS compatibility issues.

Recognising the changing world of work, Yuuguu came about as a solution to help people work together remotely, through any firewall, across different platforms, with as many colleagues as needed, just as if they were sat right next to each other.

Yuuguu features the usual online meetings, web conference, audio conference and web collaboration. The remote desktop and support is that most useful feature of Yuuguu. Imagine not having compatibility issues with screen sharing or desktop sharing software. Whether you are a Mac, Windows or Linux (Fedora, Ubuntu or Suse) user, you can collaborate with each other using the application.

Another useful feature of Yuuguu is its multi-IM support. By integrating your other Instant Messenger (IM) contacts with Yuuguu – you can share your screen, chat and work together without your contacts having to change networks or sign up to Yuuguu. Yuuguu supports group sessions across multiple IM platforms, so several participants on different networks can easily chat and join the secure conference or screen share.

Yuuguu is free to use and you can work with up to 30 people at any one time. If you’re going to use the service with more than 30 people, you have to acquire a pro account. This is a great application if you are collaborating with people using different operating systems.

If you are looking for other collaboration tools, you might also want to try DabbleBoard or Twiddla.

Tags: collaboration tool, IM, linux, Mac, Windows, yuuguu

Archive your IM Messages Online Using Dexrex

Dexrex is an online solution for IM users who wants to easily archive their IM conversations online. Users will never have to worry about their archived conversations to be deleted in the event of a computer crash. Remembering to backup archived conversations is tough work for novice users and often given low priority even by advanced users.

This is perfect for heavy IM users who are very concerned with their IM conversations. Some of those IM conversations contain important phone numbers, website links and other important and treasured messages from friends and family. Dexrex aims to end that worry of having to lose your treasured IM moments. Dexrex is also a place where you can upload your existing conversations saved in your hard drive.

Registration is not needed in order to start using Dexrex. All you have to do is login using your IM account username and password. There is no sign up because when you type in your information it automatically checks with your IM Network to make sure the screen name and password is a match. Since you own your screen name and password, you confirm this account. You also need to download and install the Dexrex IM plugin for it to recognize what IM you are using. This will enable Dexrex to log your IM conversations in your Dexrex account. You can also link multiple IM accounts together in one single Dexrex account. That way you only have to login using one IM account to see your other IM logs in Dexrex. If you think your regular screen name’s password is too easy to guess, you can always add extra security by turning on the Lockdown feature.

Dexrex works only on Windows 2k, XP and Vista. It supports Pidgin, AIM Lite/Pro, Skype, Yahoo Messenger, Trillian, Digsby, Miranda, Instantbird, Meca, Mercury, Emesene and aMSN chat clients. Supported networks include AOL Instant Messenger, Google Talk, Jabber, Windows Live, Skype, Yahoo Messenger and Blackberry (SMS).

A share feature is also available in the service. You can easily do this by clicking the share button just below the conversation bubble. Dexrex will automatically generate a public URL for the selected conversation. This page can be publicly viewed by people you shared the link with. Just be careful in using the share feature. You don’t want your most private conversations fall into the
wrong hands.

Dexrex is a useful tool for saving your chat conversations and easily sharing them.

Tags: dexrex, google talk, IM, IM extension, sms, Yahoo