How To Make Phone Calls From An iPod Touch

As most of you probably know, the iPod Touch and the iPhone are almost identical; with the exception of one signficant characteristic - the iPhone can of course make phone calls, and the iPod Touch cannot. You will of course pay a lot more money for your iPhone as a result. Well the astonishing, but very good, news is that you CAN make calls from your iPod Touch. This hub will show you, in very simple terms, just how you can do so. This method will also work for making free calls from an iPhone, so those that spent way over the odds don't miss out (just playing with ya).

• A Jailbroken iPod Touch (or indeed iPhone), if your device is not already jailbroken - or indeed you don't know how, then check out this article, which will tell you how. Don't worry, this is free and takes about 1 minute.
• If you have an iPhone then you just need your standard iPhone headphones. If you have an iPod Touch then you need to invest in a pair of Touch compatible microphone headphones, unfortunately iPhone headphones do not work with the iTouch. These will set you back just $10-$15, I have chosen some high quality but affordable pairs in the Amazon capsules to the right, the range of headsets compatible with the iTouch is pretty limited, as this is clearly a small niche!

Once you are satisfied that your iTouch is Jailbroken, and you have the right headset, you need to install a VoIP application, there are currently two that I know of. These are the freeware SIP-VoIP application and another called Fring (which is compatible with Skype). I am going to talk you through the installation of SIP-VoIP which is a more established provider, although I recommend that you install Fring as an alternative option too. This is how you install SIP-VoIP:-

Step 1: SIP-VoIP is not found by Installer.app by default, so you need to launch Installer and then go to the 'Sources' tab. Now select 'Edit' and then 'Add' and type:- http ://touchmods.net/rep.xml (remove space after http) into the Add source dialog field. Press 'OK' and the Installer will present you with a refreshed list of sources.

Step 2: Go to the Install Tab and find the 'Touchmods' entry, where you will see an app called 'Touchmods SIP-VoIP'. Install this App. It will say that the source is 'Untrusted', just ignore this and continue the installation.

Step 3:SIP-VoIP doe not work with the most famous VoIP application, I'm sure that I don't need to tell you what that is - oh go on then it's Skype you monkeys - so you will have to set up a service with another provider. Luckily, there are loads. There are loads of them, but the one that I recommend is FreeCall. You need to register your details and your phone/cell number, and then 'top up' with airtime, this is typically a minimum spend of $10 or 10 euros. If you want to try some free calls first, there are providers out there that offer you a limited free trials. But they are for you to find on google ;-)

Step 4: Now your ready to link your SIP-VoIP application with whichever SIP provider you have signed up with in Step 3. To do this, just launch the app, then select 'Settings' in the bottom right hand corner. You will find a quick and easy form which asks you to enter the details that you will be given by your SIP provider. This will typically just be a username and password. When the form has been completed, press 'Save' and then select the Dial Tab which will take you to something called the 'Dialpad'.

Step 5:You are nearly ready to make your first call from your modified iTouch, all you need to do now is to connect the application to the SIP server. This is really self explanatory, just select 'Connect to sip server', which should just connect you straight away. Then all you need to do is dial your number (normally with the country code included) and select 'Call'

Of course, I have only told you how to make Outbound calls. But don't worry, it is even easier to register to receive inbound calls. You can do this completely free at ipkall where they will assign your iPod Touch a phone number with absolute ease and no cost whatsoever! There you go, your iPod Touch is now an iPhone ;)