Product Reviews

Truphone is the first Voice over IP application to hit the App Store. It ignores superfluous features, such as instant messaging, and instead concentrates on the core feature - making affordable international calls for as little as 3p per minute to landlines, provided you're connected to a wifi network.

The application's interface scores highly since

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it replicates the layout of the built-in phone application. The tab bar at the screen's bottom is identical to the builtin application, except for the right-hand icon, which links to a web page where you can top up your credit. The amount remaining is displayed on the keypad screen, but sadly it's omitted from the others. We'd like to see it listed on the Favourites page, in particular, since we'd be more likely to dial an international number that's already stored in the phone.

Truphone uses your existing address book, so you can continue to maintain one list in multiple locations, whether on your Mac or iPhone, using MobileMe. The Favourites list, however, is a different one, because you'll add international contacts to it. Cheap international calls are a convincing argument for checking out VoIP providers anyway, and the instant familiarity of Truphone only helps to make the temptation to install it all the harder to resist.