Follow Slashdot stories on Twitter

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×

How To Make Your Friends Call You More 233

Posted by kdawson from the not-funny-mcgee dept.
B0bReader writes, "Simply sign up to something called jajah (a VOIP service that connects real telephones) using your friend's number (mobiles included), then log in and dial your own number. Your friend's phone will ring and after they hear a brief 'Jajah is connecting your call' they will be calling you and incur all charges. As an added bonus you will quite probably receive your friend's latest voice-mail message as your own (at least on Irish networks), which you may or may not wish to hear. There is even a Jajah Firefox extension — which at the time of writing is the Firefox featured add-on — so you can do it right from your browser. This is about the best example of a bad idea, with terrible implementation, that I have seen all day. And with the wonderful publicity the Firefox page offers it should reach a wide audience in no time."
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

How To Make Your Friends Call You More More

How To Make Your Friends Call You More

Comments Filter:

  • Drinkdrink (Score:5, Funny)

    by eldavojohn ( 898314 ) * <eldavojohn@noSpAM.gmail.com> on Sunday October 29, 2006 @06:27PM (#16635926) Journal
    The makers of Jajah are hoping that it is as popular as Drinkdrink. Drinkdrink worked where you simply signed up using your friend's credit card number, then logged in and ordered booze. Your friend would receive the bill and then they would hear a brief 'Your friend is drinking your alcohol.' They would usually be calling you and rushing to find you. As an added bonus you could quite probably receive a specialized form of your friend's affection (at least in Irish cities), which you may or may not wish to experience.

    Irish police are still investigating any correlation between the popularity of Drinkdrink and a sudden spike in Irish homicides where in most cases the victim new their assailant prior to the fatal encounter. Similar incidents are on the rise--possibly due to Jajah.

    Seriously, if I tried this on one of my friends, not even a surgeon would be able to locate my cell phone.
    • What a waste in technology and resources. My friends call me on my cell phone. My enemies call me on my home phone which I don't answer since I used the land line for DSL only. A nice and simple solution. Although trying to get my friends and enemies to buy me booze is more difficult.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by uchian ( 454825 )
        The story is eroneous, the call charges are incurred to the jahjah account, neither phone get's charged, so unless you can get access to your friends jahjah account (on par with getting their email password and using it to spam their friend's inboxes) it's not going to cost them anything.

        In fact, all that the story is talking about is a rather weird way of calling your friends. If you want to jump through so many hoops in order to say hi to people, you probably deserve to be lonely, just call them ffs!!!

  • Hey, this is Slashdot (Score:5, Funny)

    by $RANDOMLUSER ( 804576 ) on Sunday October 29, 2006 @06:31PM (#16635946)
    Instead of "How To Make Your Friends Call You More", we need "How To Make Friends".

  • I can prevent this happening to me (Score:3, Funny)

    by Nasajin ( 967925 ) on Sunday October 29, 2006 @06:31PM (#16635954)
    I'll just get rid of all my friends.

  • Hyper-reaction! (Score:3, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 29, 2006 @06:32PM (#16635958)
    Obviously the Irish voicemail system you refer too is poorly designed in these days of confrence calls...

    This service however does not cause your friends phone to call you, thats rediculous. The service calls you localy, and calls them localy, and then links your calls with VOIP, saving any long distance calls. Thats about it.

  • The rates they are offering are much lower than any other service I know of. The only concern I have is privacy. They say privacy is guarenteed, but how I can know for sure?
    • The only concern I have is privacy. They say privacy is guarenteed, but how I can know for sure?

      It's going through the telephone system. Of course you don't have privacy. At least not if you're living in Bush Country (the United States). This has nothing to do with the fact that it's VOIP.

    • The rates they are offering are much lower than any other service I know of.

      google: skype

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Firehed ( 942385 )
      Who would dare back down on their guarantee? You can trust it.
  • Except the featured Firefox addon of the moment is "Sage", using the search box on the Firefox addons page for "jahjah" gets nothing, and jahjah.com doesn't seem to exist.

    Although Googling for "jahjah voip" does return hits, so whatever.
    • Never mind, their site works now - and the Firefox featured addon is Clipmarks. Said feature seems to be randomly selected every minute or two.

  • WRONG! (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 29, 2006 @06:36PM (#16636004)
    Hey Jackass have you ever used Jahjah? The call is _free_ for both sides. Are you a shill for some competitor? How does this shit get on slashdot unverified?

    • Re:WRONG! (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 29, 2006 @06:50PM (#16636130)
      This is Slashdot. Nobody RTFA.

      - Dave

    • Re:WRONG! (Score:5, Funny)

      by slughead ( 592713 ) on Sunday October 29, 2006 @07:00PM (#16636206) Homepage Journal
      Hey Jackass have you ever used Jahjah? The call is _free_ for both sides. Are you a shill for some competitor? How does this shit get on slashdot unverified?

      By raffle.
      • The voicemail thing wasn't by raffle.

        I got that two out of two tries.

        P.S. Like the summary says, it wasn't my voicemail.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Frogbert ( 589961 )
      I think it has to do with how US Mobiles are priced. For some stupid reason in the US the one receiving the call is the one who has to pay. The rest of the world goes the more sane route where the person making the call pays.
      • There are advantages to the European system. The disadvantage is that the US is huge and would have to have a large block of mobile-only area codes so that you would know that you were calling a mobile. In each of the European countries they have dedicated mobile codes for exactly that reason. Also, the US system requires less regulation - the price of a call to a mobile phone always has to be the same amount or you would never know what kind of charges you would incur. For this reason, the US system allows

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Tim C ( 15259 )
          Also, the US system requires less regulation - the price of a call to a mobile phone always has to be the same amount or you would never know what kind of charges you would incur. For this reason, the US system allows better price competition.

          Let me get this straight - because all calls must cost the same, you have better price competition? If they all have to cost the same, then you have no price competition!
          • No, I phrased that poorly. In the US, there are no set prices for calling a certain exchange. This leaves the cost open to competition.
        • There are big advantages to the U.S. system as well. With number portability, you can take your landline number, with its same exchange, and move it to a mobile phone, and use it as your primary number without making everyone who wants to call you pay extra.

          The area code of where you transfer the number from (the original geographic exchange) will determine which people pay for it as a "long distance" call, but that's far less expensive for most people than European mobile airtime is, I think.

          I wouldn't be willing to keep a mobile phone as my only phone number, if doing so required everyone who wanted to call me pay extra. That just seems rude. I'm quite content to pay for people's incoming calls to me, since I'm the one deciding to attach the number to a mobile, rather than fixed phone.

          From the caller's perspective, the U.S. system puts land and mobile numbers on equal footing, which seems more logical to me.
      • Actually, in the US, BOTH sides have to pay: the caller pays airtime and call charges, the callee just airtime.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by WoTG ( 610710 )
        But that would be no different than ANY phone call that someone answers on a cell phone in the USA (or Canada).

        IMHO,t his JahJah service actually looks pretty useful...
      • For some stupid reason in the US the one receiving the call is the one who has to pay. The rest of the world goes the more sane route where the person making the call pays.

        No, in the US the one who's mobile pays, unless he's within his free minutes deal (e.g., free nights and weekends). This has nothing to do with making or receiving and everything to do with "airtime".

        (In the US the person making a long-distance call also pays, but that's different and usually very small.)
    • More likely this is some particularly odd marketing on the part of jajah. The headline is clearly pro-jajah and the body is unbelievable, prompting people to actually click the link to see if it goes to evidence (I clicked). Seeing as you cannot spell it, I would guess you have not used jajah either.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by x1n933k ( 966581 )
      JaJah is not free. It is not free for local calls, it is not free for long distance calls. Although, it is quite cheap. They give you 60 cents or so and then charge you every time you use it and then a few cents per minute. I know this because I have been using it for the last few months.

      Didn't think of adding friends numbers though. The problem I see if after they rack up a bill they link it to your IP. That and of course, your friends would notice,"One moment please. Jajah is connecting your call" auto

    • Hey Jackass have you ever used Jahjah? The call is _free_ for both sides. Are you a shill for some competitor? How does this shit get on slashdot unverified?

      The call is not free for either side if you have to pay for airtime. If your friends pay for airtime and you have a free incoming calls deal....

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by JaJ_D ( 652372 )
      Chill......

      Give it a few days and scuttlemonkey will repost it as breaking news....

      Jaj

      Go on Mr Monkey, then I can link back to this post!

  • For Americans (Score:2, Interesting)

    by MightyYar ( 622222 )
    If this seems pointless to Americans, it's because it is. In the US, the holder of a cell phone is always responsible for the charges, no matter who places the call. In Europe, if you make a call to a cell phone YOU pick up the charges. They have special exchanges just for cell phones, so most Europeans rarely get hit with charges accidentally. Neither system is as bad as it seems from the other side :)
    • If this seems pointless to Americans, it's because it is. In the US, the holder of a cell phone is always responsible for the charges, no matter who places the call.

      Actually, some cell phones in the US have free incoming calls. At 2.5 cents a minute for a mobile-to-mobile call, that's a pretty good deal.

      • It just goes to show how bloody expensive the US phone market is. For my £30/mo contract ($56) I can spend up to £90 of allowance ($170) on either texts, or calls to any UK landline or mobile. I don't pay a penny if people call me, whether I have allowance left or not.
        • There are cell phone companies in the U.S. that feature free incoming calls, too. So get off your Euro-centric high horse.

          U.S. cell phone service is dirt cheap compared to places like Japan. People in North America and Europe like to pretend that Asia is some electronic utopia where all the experimental features are enabled on all phones and using them is free, but it's not. The typical calling plan in places like Tokyo is US$60/month for 100 minutes but unlimited texts. The typical calling plan in the
          • Where the hell are you getting your cell service?

            Right now, in the US ALL of the major providers have the SAME plans. $40 a month gets you 450 minutes of daytime calling and either unlimited or thousands of night/weekend minutes. No included text messages, but you can get 200 (text or picture) for about $5 (US).

            This whole thread is confusing to me because I am being mindful of exchange rates. I'm wondering what "90 pounds worth" of value translates to, as well. To illustrate:

            On Cingular, if you do prepa

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by NMerriam ( 15122 )
          It just goes to show how bloody expensive the US phone market is.

          The American cell market grew slowly because our landline service is insanely cheap compared to anything on the continent or UK. And it's not as if we're getting ripped off on our cell phones -- a $30/month cell phone contract will come with unlimited minutes during evening and weekends, when most lengthy personal calls are made. It's not hard to find ones with unlimited minutes to anyone on the same network, unlimited calls to numbers you sel

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by rayde ( 738949 )
      not everybody will use ONLY a cell phone to use this service. and making a phone call with it during the free nights and weekends that all mobile phone operators offer means it's free even if you DO use a cell phone.

      so it's not pointless to americans. and, as other posters have mentioned, some carriers (namely, Sprint) offer free incoming calls.

    • Not quite (Score:4, Informative)

      by Sycraft-fu ( 314770 ) on Sunday October 29, 2006 @07:51PM (#16636584)
      So the way it works on the American system is cell phone users are always responsible for airtime charges. This means that any time you are on a call on your cellphone, it is counted against your minutes, or billed per minute if you've exceeded your monthly allotment. However any other charges are the responsibility of the caller. So if it is long distance between the two parties, the initiator of the call pays those charges, if applicable, regardless of the type of phone on either endpoint.

      There are plenty of plans that make airtime charges more complicated, such as no airtime charges nights and weekends, no charges to people on the same network and so on but the basis is that the owner of the phone pays for the time it's actually on the air. However they don't pay for other charges on received calls. You can call from Germany and you'll pick up the long distance tab, I'll just be responsible for airtime. However if I call Germany I am responsible for both the airtime and the LD.
    • In Europe, if you make a call to a cell phone YOU pick up the charges.
      Unless the callee is roaming internationally, in which case the callee also pays for the call at the relevent international roaming rate.
    • You are confusing airtime cost with 'long distance' cost.

      In the US, 'long distance' is always paid by the caller, and is entirely unrelated to wether a number is a cellphone or not. (Although some cell providers offer 'unlimted' or 'free' long distance, but see the following point) (Some types of phone providers offer effectively free/unlimited 'long distance' [mainly VoIP providers])

      In the US, cell 'airtime' is paid for by the person who's name is on the cell phone account. It doesnt matter wether the call
  • Hey, lets make some people we don't like call 911 (emergency in the states)! Or... anything we want! you just put two numbers in the form and it just makes the first person call the second one, even if they're not you!
    lovely implementation....
    -Taylor
  • If someone is stupid enough to actually do something like this, the concept of using this one friends is going to result in a less number of friends.
  • Alas... girls I give my number to never call me. At least now I just what to do! Ladies - watch out, Jajah's got my back, hear?

  • I know... (Score:4, Funny)

    by NetCow ( 117556 ) on Sunday October 29, 2006 @06:48PM (#16636102)
    Assuming this is true - well, I've always felt I should become friends with Darl McBride...
  • This not a completely worthless service- in fact I think it's quite clever- certainly too clever for the writer of this article to grasp. This service allows international calls to be made for the price of two local rate calls. Sounds pretty fucking good to me.

    I just used the service to connect my Irish landline here to my parent's phone at home in N.Ireland, and it worked perfectly; whatever rate the two calls cost (local calls are free in the UK at certain times), it's certainly cheaper than the 40 cen

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by fbjon ( 692006 )
      It seems pretty expensive actually, compared to SkypeOut. Except for the free offer of course.

  • JaJah is GREAT! (Score:5, Informative)

    by yfarjoun ( 878821 ) on Sunday October 29, 2006 @07:09PM (#16636276) Homepage
    I don't know what the poster is high on. Jajah is simply a way to call long-distance for cheap. I use it all the time for calling international and long distance (I hate talking on the cell-phone for a long time).

    The way that they work is that they call both you and your party and connect the call via VOIP. However, you foot the bill with a credit card. I tried many other calling-card companies, Skype, and whatnot. So far, Jajah is pretty good, and darn cheap.

    Sure, you could sign up and put your friends number, but it will not charge any money to them. My only complaint is that you can only change your phone numbers 3 times so if you move often (as I have over the last few months) you might have to open a new account.

    They even give you a few $$$ to spend BEFORE they ask for your credit card number! so you can try them out for "free".

    yfarjoun.

  • Jajah call works by making 2 two local calls to to the participants and then
    connecting these two local calls over the internet (voip). The advantage for
    international calling should be obvious.

    In normal use jajah requires you to credit your account (visa,mastercard etc) and then charges
    for calls. And although you could use it for prank calls by registering someone else
    phone number then connecting them to someone else (the queen or whoever) you would have to
    pay.

    There is a free trail where you could set up
  • This is about the best example of a bad idea, with terrible implementation, that I have seen all day.

    Well, the day ain't over yet, so why not cause as much trouble as possible by publicizing this on a slow news day? I blame the editor for letting this one through.

  • Sure, in the US the receiver of a mobile call has to use his minutes. But even if I exchange the source and destination numbers in Jajah, how is this different to just calling my friend on his mobile *without* Jajah? It seems like a sensible service to me. However, you could use it to make prank calls; that doesn't seem like a groundbreaking loophole - you can make prank calls already - although in this case you could write a script to DOS someone's phone vua the Jajah website.
    • Several mobile carriers offer 'free' incoming calls (eg no airtime charges).
      If you and the person you want to call both have that feature, theoretically you could use this to call each other and neither of you have to use chargeable airtime. There are better ways of doing that, though.

  • Exes (Score:3, Funny)

    by Joebert ( 946227 ) on Sunday October 29, 2006 @07:25PM (#16636388) Homepage
    This has Ex-Girlfriends written all over it.
  • Be descended from this guy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_More [wikipedia.org].
  • I've read their website and I watched their demo, and I'm just sure there is some kind of catch. Could someone who has been using this service for a while report if there have been any unexpected surprises on their phone bill? Is the quality like Skype i.e. is it sometimes cackly and doesn't handle bidirectional speech well?

    Sidenote: It doesn't help either that I speak Spanish and keep reading the name of their service as "Hah Hah". You know like, "Ha hah, the joke's on you when we bill you three dollars

  • EXPLANATION (Score:2, Informative)

    by Crazyswedishguy ( 1020008 )
    So to make things clear, before others keep posting about how stupid this thing is:
    Jajah is basically similar to Skype, except that instead of using your laptop to talk, you use your phone. The end result is the same, that is you are connecting over IP to the other person.
    So, you go ahead and schedule a call, your phone rings, you pick up, and you're connected to your friend. In Europe, you don't pay for incoming calls, so this makes phone calls free.
    Now you're thinking, so what's the point of using this in
  • This is the second story today that is just plain WRONG. The service doesn't charge your friends it charges the CALLERS account voip credits.
  • Not long after I got the internet (back in 1996, but it was AOL so that hardly counts), I envisioned a future where you'd get your TV, radio, phone, movies, music, email and web access all through the same data line. Of course looking back on it now, it's obvious that it was going to happen, but back then not that many people were talking about that kind of convergence.

    It's amazing to me to see that what I had thought would require a fiber connection is now totally feasible with a standard cable modem.

  • Criminal (Score:2, Funny)

    by B0bReader ( 1019846 )
    I never paid for any kind of voip credits, yet so far today I have:

    1. Made most of my former friends call me twice.

    2. Listened to the rest of my former friends' personal voice-mails (because their phones were turned off when they "called me" so this is only fair, right?).

    3. Gotten my parents talking to each other after so many years (although my Father wasn't best pleased that he had to pay for the call).

Slashdot Top Deals

On the eighth day, God created FORTRAN.

Close