free or low cost tools to bridge the distance

It appears I blundered in my greeting card post below and came across as a sales advert.  To make up for my misstep, I thought I'd share my favorite tools that I use for my own relationship.  Below are ideas (beyond email, MSM and skype) that may help you bridge the distance without blowing your budget:

1. whatsapp. newcomer link: http://www.whatsapp.com/ [nonactive]
This is one of the few apps that works on multiplatforms (both iphone and blackberry).  Allows free texting and you can send pictures/videos from your phone or camera.  Love how it shows you when the other person is typing so you don't cross messages.  Fairly reliable.

2. tango.
newcomer link: http://www.tango.me/ [nonactive]
This allows face-to-face calls exactly like skype but on your iphone.

3. game apps.  Our favorite games are scrabble newcomer link: http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/scrabble/id284815117?mt=8 [nonactive] and drawsomething newcomer link: http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/draw-something-free/id488628250?mt=8. [nonactive]  Fun to play and games can be paused and continued at anytime (great for different timezones!)

4. magicjack.
The phone app is here: newcomer link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/free-calls-with-magicjack/id463926997?mt=8 [nonactive]

This allows free voice calls even on 3G.  Bit sneaky but one party creates a US/Canada number and now your can use the US magicjack number to make a call locally to US or Canada.  I have a US account and I share the login info so he logs in and uses the US number.  It's nice when one of us is away from the computer but still would like some voice time.  It also allows the UK resident to have a local number in the US.

Or you can buy the PC plug or wall plug here so you don't need an iphone:
newcomer link: http://www.magicjack.com/plus-v05/ [nonactive]
This gives you unlimited long distance anywhere there is internet.  I take it with me when I travel to call back to America.

Hopefully this helps and I would love hear some of you ideas for staying in touch!
Jennifer

p.s. Not an advert but if you would like to contact me and I can let you create and send out a free greeting card to the US.  If you like it maybe I'll have you as a customer--if you don't, I'll still feel great knowing that I helped make a connection between you and a loved one.  No obligation but trying to help out.  Cheers.

Great ideas! Thanks for sharing!

My husband works for a VoiP (Voice over internet protocol) company and he bought a voip phone over Amazon for me to use in the US and added it to his account. For £2 per month we were able to talk over the phone for as long as we wanted (or until the batteries died on the cordless phones). When we sent in our spousal visa application we had logged nearly 150 hours in a months time!

Being able to talk over the phone, even with both of us on speaker phone was much better than trying to hear one another over Skype. We still used Skype to see one another, but we would mute our computer microphones and use the phones.

Thanks so much! We've been paying for a US Skype number while living in Asia but will give magic jack for iphone a go when we move to the UK in the New Year.