Printer-friendly version

Send to a friend

You might also be interested in

• Jafar is Hotter When You're High

This Issue 09/25/2008

Also in this issue

• Street Makes It Better: Early Morning Classes
• Science Experiments
• A Haiku on Quinoa
• Duking It Out
• FORGOTTEN CINEMATIC MASTERPIECE
• The Defibrillator
• Word on the Street

Ever feel like the universe is conspiring to keep you and your friends apart? Sure, there's e-mail and cell phones, or you could even kick it old school and scrawl a letter out longhand. But all these means of communication have a way of either being too much (… la listserv spam) or not enough (bad reception, anyone?). Unlike those nights when you've had one drink too many, there's no reason to cut yourself off.

Hot Skype

Remember when you told your girlfriend that nothing could ever come between you? That was before she decided to study abroad in Amsterdam and suddenly the Atlantic Ocean became the ultimate cock-block. Download Skype - all you need is a microphone and an internet connection to make free calls to any other Skype user on the planet. You can chat phone or video style, and if the one you love doesn't have internet access, check out Skype's super-discounted web-to-phone rates. This isn't even limited to one-on-one conversations; Skype has the capability for conference video chats. That is, if your girlfriend is into that. (Now that she's in Europe, you never know.)

True Story

Sometimes names just can't be trusted. Like "World's Best Pancakes." Or "Penn's Premier A Cappella Group." Freeconferencecalls.com, however, is a glorious exception. The site sets you up with a login and you choose the time to call. Tell up to 149 of your closest friends to call in and gear up for a marathon chat session: get up to four hours of talk time before you get cut off.

XOXO BBM

Stop drooling over the iPhone touch screen and embrace BBM, for free texting from your BlackBerry. Not only can you type until your thumbs fall off without spending any money, but you can also have group conversations without resorting to the impersonal mass text. If you'd rather hear the shriek of an "Oh my God!" than have to read yet another "OMG," you can send a voice note, a recorded message of up to one minute long. Excessive, yes, but also excessively fun.