By now, many of you may have heard about magicJack, an Internet based telephone service that works with your Internet service provider by simply plugging the magicJack hardware into your computer’s USB port and then connecting a telephone to the magicJack hardware itself. You then sign up for the magicJack service online and voila, within minutes you are making calls to anyone in the United States for as little as $1.67 a month.

You’ve all heard the old expression “if it sounds too good to be true then it probably is…” I am pleased to say however, that the magicJack is one of the very few exceptions to this old rule of thumb. There are still a few things that I would like to clarify about the magicJack which I will do so below.

System Requirements

The magicJack website claims that their product is compatible with computers running Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, or on an Intel Mac running OS X. This is true, but you’ll want to make sure that your computer has at least 1 GB of RAM and that it is completely free of viruses and spyware before you attempt to use your magicJack. Let’s face it, many applications will not run properly on a computer with inadequate memory or on a computer that is infested with viruses and spyware. I personally run my magicJack on a brand new MacBook that has 4 GB of RAM and an Intel Core 2 duo processor running at 2.6 GHz and have always found that my magicJack works properly.

Next, I’ll list the pros and cons of using the magicJack;

Pros

• Incredibly affordable.
• Calls are crystal clear.
• The soft phone is very easy to use.
• Voice mail system is extremely intuitive and will actually email you with your voice message so that you can then playback the message on your computer.
• Fantastic tech support. They resolved the one issue that I did have in under 5 minutes.

Cons

• A fairly powerful computer is required.
• The magicJack needs to be plugged directly into a USB port on the computer, not into a USB hub.
• *67 dialing does not work.
• Incoming calls do not display on the phone’s caller ID only on the soft phone software’s caller ID.

In summary, the magicJack absolutely works and can greatly reduce your telephone expenses. I for example, cut my cell phone bill in half by purchasing the magicJack. If you can live without the *67 dialing feature and don’t mind not being able to use your phone handset’s caller ID then the magicJack is something that you should definitely consider purchasing.

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Written by | Mike Steben

Mike enjoys computers and technology, playing the piano, selling stuff on eBay, playing video games, cooking, and eating at Teddy's Pizza. He started CompuNoodle in 2009 and loves to hear from his readers.