The magicJack Giveaway

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After CES I was pretty fired up about the possibility of a femtocell magicJack – a gadget to potentially route some of our cellular voice commutations over the Internet, thereby saving carrier minutes. The technical details were murky, but the concept seemed compelling. So I reached out to magicJack’s PR team and insisted they get one out to me, even if only in prototype form, to dig deeper. As it turns out, we experienced a bit of  miscommunication and I ened up in possession of the traditional magicJack. Our goof is your gain.

As a refresher… MagicJack is a small USB doohickey, which works with both Windows and OS X, that allows you to make unlimited calls to the US and Canada. You’ll also be issued a phone number, with an area code of your choosing, to receive calls. A typical/traditional phone can be plugged directly into the magicJack (get it? magic jack) or the software can be used Skype-like with a headset. $40 gets you magicJack and a year of service; additional years of connectivity run $20/each. (Of course, this particular unit will cost one lucky ZNF reader nothing.) The company seems to be on a tear – the PC Mag Editors’ Choice has moved over 5 million units. Although, not without experiencing some growing pains.

Entering the giveaway is as easy as it gets, simply leave a comment. (US residents in the lower 48 only, please.) We’ll choose the winner at random in a few days.

61 thoughts on “The magicJack Giveaway”

  14. I’ve heard you can connect these to modded USB enabled routers and eliminate the need for the PC. I’d love to try that out.

  17. I like free stuff! And I don’t have long distance on my landline.
    Thanks for the contest Dave.

  22. I’d love, love, love to win! I’ve had my eyes on a MagicJack for a while now but I’ve been skeptical to buy it.

    Thanks for the giveaway, Dave.

  23. I would be curious to see if it works. Seems like one of those “Too good to be true” deals.

  28. I want the Jack! And if I get it, the sip credentials will be extracted and added to the little PBX that I have running locked up in the basement.

  34. I know a few coworkers with MagicJack and love. I wouldn’t mind a shot at having one myself.

  35. MagicJack…

    SipSorcery and Google Voice! The ‘other’ Magic…

    :-)

    All in all for $20 the MJ can be pretty inexpensive as things go…

  42. These are pretty nifty. I would love to give this to my folks in South Africa, that way they have a local number for me to call them on :)

  50. I absolutely positively can use this and give it a workout. Thanks as always for sharing your swag Dave. Your gebnerousity is certainly appreciated.

    Now, if we can just get MagicJack to get rid of Mel Arthur and the Fake ” Savings Shopping Network” commercial, it will be a home run. (:

  56. I just don’t think Dan’s ”femtocell” is ever going to happen. Claiming licensed freqs can be used because the license doesn’t extend into the house and if that fails we will just run it under subpart 15. ??? Count me in.

  58. The femtocell with magicjack is dead because they did not do their research on the licensing issues with spectrum. You simply can’t use a licensed frequency for your own use even if it is in the boundaries of a house. Plain and simple. That’s the point of licensing a frequency. If it can be used like the way MagicJack says it can, why bother paying the money for spectrum. Kind of shows the technology competence of the folks behind magicjack. Take an out-dated technology like a soft-phone in a usb drive and then throw millions of someone else’s money at it. Take the same amount of money and sell oxi-clean or something and I am sure Dan will be more successful. Technology just isn’t your thing.

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