coxy's blog

A while ago I posted about thesixtyone and didn't really go into much detail about the site - but that's because I hadn't been using it much. More recently, I've become addicted to the site. Forget Spotify, move over Last.fm Radio, I'm playing the game.

thesixtyone turns listening to music into a game; the more you listen to and 'heart' music, the more reputation you gain. The more rep you gain, the more you level up. The more you level up, the more you can do with the site and the better you look. You see how it's addictive?

When you first arrive at thesixtyone, I can't say it's obvious how you navigate around the site; but if you stick to it, you'll soon get used to it and find that you're zooming around the site to find the music you want to play and the music you need to listen to.

I say 'need' because thesixtyone isn't about merely listening to music that you want to hear - there's the game element - and if you're playing the game, listening isn't the fastest way to increase your level; you can complete quests - and this is where the site becomes a whole lot of fun.

This Just In
Listen to seven songs on the first pages of the recently posted section of the home page.
Award: 10 reputation, 2 hearts

'This Just In' is one example of a daily quest and is a way of earning frequent rep and hearts. There are Main Quests too which are sometimes a little more complex, but score larger rewards. Discovering a song before fellow users will gain you rep on a daily basis too and you'll here audio confirmation that you're the first to discover that track (which is a really neat feature).

N' Sync
Get four listeners who you've invited to listen to the same artist at the same time.
Award: 50 reputation, 5 hearts

A massive advantage to thesixtyone is that by playing the game you're allowing the site to take you on a journey of undiscovered music - there are many 'unsigned acts' on the site and you'll find yourself listening to artists and genres that you wouldn't usually listen to.

I think the best way to get into thesixtyone and to fully understand what I'm babbling on about, is to check it out for yourself. The site integrates well with Twitter, Facebook and Last.fm - so there's no excuses not to get social about it.

Sign up for free - remember that you were referred by coxy - and get playing.

You may recall that a few posts back I asked whether you Wengo or not. Since then I have used the software (version 2.1.1) to an extent where I believe I'm in a position to give a good opinion on what it's like - whether it's reliable, how it handles and whether it's better than a suitable alternative to Skype.

I originally found WengoPhone through searching for a messenger client that could handle more than one service; and Wengo carries this out successfully. At work I'm running MSN, ICQ, AIM and Yahoo! through WengoPhone along with the Wengo service itself, that of which is comparable to popular VoIP service, Skype. At home, I choose to continue using Pidgin for MSN, ICQ, AIM and Yahoo! and keep VoIP clients Wengo and Skype stand-alone.

Running 'third-party' services through WengoPhone works reasonably well. I expected the experience to be largely buggy and incomplete; but the basics of what you need (ie, the ability to instant message each other, complete with emoticons) is there and works well. The only problems I experience is that MSN occasionally disconnects (but I think that's MSN's servers, as opposed to a fault in Wengo) and file transfers don't seem to work (which is great as far as I'm concerned; MSN file transfers are slow and crap. There's nothing wrong with services such as senduit).

Since downloading the software, I'd found that the Wengo service is based in France - methods of discovery included wengo.com having only English and Francais language options and making a test call to hear the instructions read to me in English, followed by French. However, the majority of the application is English based with only a few voice-based error messages in French (such as 'this number cannot be recognised', etc) - this means that the application is still perfectly usable if you're not fluent in French.

The calling aspect of the application is undoubtedly one that's essential to any VoIP service, and also the feature I was dreading most. Aside from PC-to-PC calls, I'd not really tried voice calls before. After plugging in my IPEVO Free-1 USB Phone (which works as a mic / speaker) and trying the test call, everything appeared to be working fine; so proceeded to spend some cash on Wengo Credits.

One of the reasons I started to look into using Wengo's VoIP service over Skype is because with it's popularity, Skype's application has become bombarded with promotional guff. Like Windows Live Messenger, there's lots of additional tabs that do nothing but try and sell you additional services and although Skype's call prices seem to have settled on a flat rate (good), they seem to have increased overall (bad). With Wengo, I have found call prices to be cheap and very reasonable.

With 10 EUR of credits purchased, I was ready to make my call to a Republic of Ireland land-line; unfortunately, my WengoPhone software wasn't. Problems ensued whereby I was able to dial out but neither hear the person I was calling, or be heard myself. I posted in the Support Forums and resorted to adding credits to my Skype account to make the much-needed call that day. Skype 1 - 0 WengoPhone.

Once I'd got the software working as it should (read this thread for more info), and having tried both Skype and WengoPhone VoIP services out, I can account for Wengo being crisper, clearer and of a better quality to my Skype call.

All-in-all, I'm quite impressed with Wengo. Although I did run into problems with the voice calling at first, it was good to find that the quality over numerous calls was better than Skype, and cheaper too. The fact that you're able to integrate MSN, ICQ, AIM and Yahoo! services into the application is a big bonus and whilst I'm aware there's been features of the application I'm yet to try out (PC-to-PC calling and Video Calls) I'd still, with my bias to open-source, love to rely solely on Wengo and rid my machine of Skype.

Unfortunately, with a brand name being stronger than saving a penny-per-minute on calls, I feel it's going to be much easier for the software to co-exist and have Wengo serve up my VoIP calling services whilst Skype deal with my PC-to-PC needs, than convince my Skype Friends List that this wacky French alternative is a good thing.