EDIT (January 18, 2012): I see that this review has been revised to remove the incorrect information I pointed out below. Also, on January 15, Jill Duffy (the author of the article) e-mailed me to say that she was working with a contact at Obihai regarding a few of these points. She also thanked me for my letter.
In my lifetime one thing I have learned is that traditional dead-tree media are often some of the LEAST reliable places to go for information. Even if they post some of their content online, they still seem to have a real issue with accuracy in their reporting. I don’t care if it’s the local Daily Fishwrap or a national glossy magazine, they all seem to have a real problem with getting their facts straight.
The recent PC Magazine review of the Obihai OBi110 was no exception. Besides the fact that they made it sound like the device was much more difficult to configure than it actually is, the article contained a couple of factual errors. So, in response I fired off a message to Jill Duffy, the author of the article, and I wanted to share that with you. This is what I wrote:
Date: January 14, 2012 1:46:51 PM EST
To: Jill Duffy (e-mail address available here)
Subject: Your OBi110 review contains a couple of factual errors
As one of the first people to review the OBi110 () and a long time user of both the OBi110 and the OBi100, I just wanted to let you know that your review contains a couple of errors
You wrote:
Your OBi110 is still not really ready to use, because there’s no service for it yet. Without a service, you can only call other OBi device owners, but only after you and the other person mutually agree to be in a “circle of trust,” basically, agreeing to allow calls between you (so that a random OBi user can never call you unsolicited).
Actually, that’s not true. If you know another user’s OBi device number, you can call them from ANY other OBi device, even one that’s not yet been registered with the OBiTALK server. This capability is available right out of the box, so to speak. The “Circle of Trust” is used for a completely different reason — to allows others to place calls through any service you may have connected to your OBi device. This is primarily useful within families. For example, say you have an OBi110 at home and a sibling that has moved to some other country. If you gave that person an OBi110 (or OBi100) and put them into your “Circle of Trust”, they could place outgoing calls via the landline connected to your OBi110 (or any other service you have configured on that device, including Google Voice), thus potentially saving hundreds or thousands of dollars in international phone charges.
With a little tweaking of your OBi110′s dial plan, it would also be possible to send incoming calls to their OBi device, so someone could call a local number and the call would be forwarded through the OBiTALK network to the distant device.
You wrote:
Making calls with OBi is similar to making calls with Google Voice. Rather than directly dialing a number, you call your own OBi number from the phone, reach an automated voice answering service, and then follow a few prompts that allow you to dial out. It’s a little confusing at first, but once you use it a few times, it makes more sense.
I’m sorry to say that you REALLY missed it on that one. Assuming you have configured your OBi110 correctly (using the OBiTALK portal), you are able to connect a traditional telephone set to the device’s PHONE port and place and receive calls via Google Voice. I’ve helped set up at least half a dozen of these devices (probably more, but who’s counting) and in no case have we EVER had to use the process you described. It’s as simple as picking up the phone and dialing the call, or someone calling you on your Google Voice number, and you pick up the phone and answer it!
Finally, as just a general comment, when I first got my original OBi110, configuration was still a little bit difficult, but since then they have greatly improved the OBiTALK portal and now I can get a new device working with Google Voice in about two or three minutes — it’s so simple a child could do it (particularly once they had done it a time or two). It’s actually more difficult to configure the Google Voice service itself than it is the OBi110. I will concede that the documentation that comes with the unit could stand improvement — in particular, they could probably include a “Quick Start Guide” to setting up the unit with Google Voice — but keep in mind that it was only about a month ago that Google Voice announced that their free service would continue through the year 2012. Now that we know that the service will continue through at least the end of 2012, they may have more motivation to write some better documentation.
I still don’t know how you managed to set up your device and missed the simplicity of just hooking up a phone to place and receive calls, but may I humbly suggest you take a look at my series of reviews, particularly the one I linked in the first paragraph. I do suggest using the OBiTALK portal to configure your device, and if you set that up for Google Voice, you should find that it “just works.” And it’s FREE! What more could you want?
(Disclaimer: I am not and have never been employed by Obihai, but about a year ago they did give me a free Obi110 and later an OBi100 for review purposes. Best freebies I’ve ever received!)
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That’s the e-mail I sent. I don’t know if I will ever receive a response or if the author will ever amend her article, but at least I tried to set the record straight! EDIT: As noted at the top of this article, it appears that the incorrect information has been removed, and the author did respond to my e-mail.
