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An Interview With iSoftPhone Developer Mariusz Roznowski

Last week, Xnet Communications GmbH of Hamburg unleashed the iSoftPhone, described by its developers as "an easy to use Internet phone for Mac OS X using VoIP to provide full compatibility and crystal clear voice quality in an attractively sleek interface."

iSoftPhone's quick one-step configuration gets you talking to other users without a lot of time-consuming hassle. iSoftPhone is a Mac OS X application from the get-go, and not a port of any Windows or Linux software. The developers, who are known for tastefully-executed whimsicalness, as visitors to their Captain FTP client Website over the past few years will be aware (cannons and pirate ships), have endeavored to provide some fun by making iSoftPhone's skin "strangely familiar" to a product unveiled at Macworld Expo in January. iSoftPhone is a pure Mac implementation for Mac users only, in the traditional Mac mode of elegant user experience on top of its powerful telephony engine.

iSoftPhone features include:

• Crystal Clear Phone Calls
iSoftPhone uses the SIP protocol which is a protocol specifically designed to handle voice communications over the internet or networks. This gives it a distinct advantage over other internet phones which are using normal internet protocols designed to carry data.

VoIP also offers the user the possibility of very cheap and sometimes free calls (depending on the provider) when compared with traditional telecommunication.

• Sending Messages to Cell Phones
This feature is currently being developed and will be available shortly.

Once available users will be able to SMS directly between the iSoftPhone users.
Users will also be able to send and receive SMS from cell phones.

• Simple VoIP Configuration
iSoftPhone only requires the user to enter the most basic of data as can be seen in the screenshot. Simply enter the server address, the telephone number and your password and you are ready to go.

• Integrated Address Book
iSoftPhone is integrated with the Mac OS X Address Book. Simply right-click on a contact and select the option to call them using your iSoftPhone.

In the following The Road Warrior interview (via email), we asked iSoftPhone developer and co-founder (with Wolfgang Falz) Mariusz Roznowski about the story behind iSoftPhone.

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RW: Hello, Mariusz. iSoftPhone looks like another solid hit for Xnet Communications, building on the established success of Captain FTP. It seems substantially developed and released rather quickly after Apple's iPhone announcement. A happy coincidence?

MR: The idea of having simple-to-use iSoftPhone came to us about one half year ago. We were looking at using a VoIP solution to reduce our telephone costs and tried several of the leading VoIP clients at the time. All of them were terrible to configure, none of our users could configure them without the help of tech support. Furthermore they looked like unwieldy Windows or Linux ports and not at all like software designed to enhance user experience on Mac.

We decided to do some more research into the market and we found that there was a need for a native Mac client that had to be easy to configure for all users, an almost ‘Ready to Go’ client. We believed we could make a client to meet the demands of users and one that could become the standard OS X client for telephony.

RW: Why did you opt for using SIP-Standard (Session Initiation Protocol) technology instead of, say, the very popular Skype VoIP network technology?

MR: We also made at this time an investigation into Skype’s protocol. As long as it is a proprietary protocol, we do not have any interest in implementing it. We also took a closer look at the SIP-Standard (Session Initiation Protocol) and made a short decision to take this one, because standard and implement it in our VoIP-client. One day Skype will disappear and only standard will remain.

From the beginning we had the idea that iSoftPhone should offer only basic functionality, since nobody is consulting Webster or Wikipedia in life to make ordinary phone calls. Our goal was to hide the complexity of SIP-telephony behind the beauty of Mac OS X.

RW: So how has that choice worked out for you and iSoftPhone users?

MR: We found even for us that dealing with different SIP parameters is frustrating. We found tonnes of them in other soft clients. We made a decision to cover maybe only 95% of all cases, because regular users sit at home, with their Mac connected directly to the Internet. So the idea was to keep it simple.

All other cases and complex setups, like calling out of the corporate infrastructure, with all these firewalls, gateways and proxies have been moved to the business edition of iSoftPhone, which shall shortly follow the consumer product. This also works in combination with our Configuration Server for automatic setup of client parameters or exchange account data with SIP-Provider or centric SIP-Server infrastructure.

RW: You were at Macworld Expo last month, but demonstrating a different-named product - MegaFon. Was that pretty much the software that has been released as iSoftPhone?

MR: Yes we went finally to Macworld in San Francisco to get in touch with the Mac community. This was our first Macworld Expo and what a wonderful show it was to be part of. We traveled half-way around the world to be part of the Expo and it was worth every uncomfortable minute of the 13 hours flying to get there and be part of it. We went to San Francisco to unveil a revolutionary softphone called Megafon (previous version to iSoftPhone). It was very important of us to find out first hand what users thought about it and to be honest we were surprised that the feedback was so positive.

RW: So what sort of reception did you typically get from the Mac community at Expo?

MR: One user commented: "I have been waiting four years to find software like this". The feedback was that the interface is beautiful, the phone is easy to use with best possible voice quality but most importantly it is very simple to configure with any VoIP provider and no restriction to a particular provider.

RW: And then the Steve Jobs keynote....

MR: Obviously the highlight of the show was the unveiling of the iPhone with Steve Jobs' obvious showmanship offering the perfect delivery for a beautifully designed phone. It was exhilarating to hear the passion of the crowd responding to his jokes and the gasps of joy as he unveiled each new gem. We went to dinner that night and had a few glasses of gorgeous Californian red wine. Obviously we talked about nothing except for Megafon and iPhone.

RW: Which was the genesis of the iSoftPhone interface, I'm guessing.

MR: Users had been asking us all day the same question "Can I use Megafon on the iPhone?". We didn't know yet but we had a fun idea. Part of our fun presentation was to show users the Megafon as a BMW car or as a Motorola cell phone, they were cute and users loved it. So why not an iPhone skin too? So we did it, we made an iPhone skin for the phone that night just to show off and have some fun. The impact was awesome, users got emotional when they saw it and even the guys from Apple who stopped by really enjoyed it.

RW: Did you get any feedback from Apple?

MR: The feedback we got from Apple was great with offers of help to test the product and advice on the GUI’s appearance. A couple of words that stick in my mind from one of the Apple guys was "that phone looks strangely familiar". We must have heard that a 100 times that day and it became our introduction, "Would you like to something strangely familiar? and bing! - we would launch our iSoftphone, make a quick call to show it worked. The impact this had of us convinced us we should make a real version when we got back home.

RW: Which is iSoftPhone....

MR: The fruits of that labour have now been unveiled officially as iSoftPhone. The iSoftphone goes way beyond what Megafon can offer and this will become clearer quite quickly when we release the new GUI in a week or two. What came out of Steve Jobs' magic hat at the MF keynote, is what you can get now and put the beauty on your desktop! Maybe the iSoftPhone will even satisfy iPhone desire until June, to have it on your own desktop is cool! Anyway it is at the moment the best looking internet telephony client ever and the configuration is a snap (well that’s what the user community is saying).

RW: But elegant good looks, which have been an emblematic characteristic of Captain FTP over the years, are of course not the only consideration with software like this.

MR: But the main thing is that this is a REAL telephone application. And it is not a bad joke like when somebody is trying to put the beautiful iPhone skin on WinMob device. Our iSoftphone runs on Apple Mac and is working!. You may make and receive calls to basically any telephone device be it another softphone, cell phone or normal landline. So it is not only just a pleasure or a treat to have on the desktop but a working product. We got a great boost at the Expo to meet one particular user who was using the phone while in San Francisco at Macworld to run his telecoms business back in France and speak to his wife of course!!

RW: What do you have coming next?

MR: We have just released iSoftPhone and have been overwhelmed by the reaction of Mac fans and users. We are getting a lot of very enthusiastic and positive feedback and suggestions. For sure there are also some negative voices but that will always be the case, Apple has the same situation with iPhone.

But.

We are working hard to improve and develop the User Interface. I think the keywords going forward are ‘User Experience’. Not only to just put skin around the phone but to go further and add more iPhone feeling. Obviously we do not want to violate any of Apple’s patents, so we are working hard on our own product and ideas.

RW: When will we see the next version of iSoftPhone?

MR: This will be fact in few weeks (or days, while we speed up the development?)

RW: Thank you for this.

MR: Best from Hamburg

iSoftPhone can be found here:
http://www.call4mac.com/iSoftPhone/

Click on the link below to download iSoftPhone:
http://xdsnet.net/isoftphone/iSoftPhone.dmg

iSoftPhone is available exclusively to Mac users for a free trial and can be later purchased from XNet's online shop:
http://www.call4mac.com/shop/buy.html?iSoftPhone

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cmoore@macopinion.com

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