T-Mobile brings free voice calls to Facebook

By Aemon Malone April 19, 2011

T-Mobile is hoping to expand its customer base exponentially with a new application that lets Facebook users place free calls to each other. The app, dubbed Bobsled, once installed, will allow anyone with a Facebook account place a call to a friend on Facebook chat. Bobsled also lets users post a private or public voice message to a person’s wall for later retrieval.

“Bobsled by T-Mobile takes our communications services innovation to a whole new dimension, bringing simple and cost-effective connections to more than half a billion people overnight, said Brad Duea, senior vice president of T-Mobile. “Our new Bobsled brand will evolve in the coming months to provide even more ways for people to connect, no matter what platform, device or mobile provider they are using.”

According to T-Mobile, a recent survey indicated that 88 percent of Facebook users want the social networking site to offer a voice calling feature.

The company says it has plans to bring Bobsled to Android devices, the iPhone and unspecified tablets. The company has also indicated it may also offer video calls, land-line calls and text messaging through Bobsled at a later date. It’s not clear if the outcome of a pending merger with AT&T will affect any of the company’s future plans for Bobsled.

The app is now available to any of Facebook’s 500 million users — not just those in the U.S. Also, phone-shy Facebook users be warned: even if you don’t download the app, T-Mobile says it’s still possible to receive Bobsled calls through Facebook.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Computing

The HP Victus gaming PC with RTX 3060 has a $550 discount

The HP Victus 15L gaming PC in white.

Gamers don't need to spend more than $1,000 if they want to buy a new gaming PC because there are affordable options like the HP Victus 15L gaming desktop. From its original price of $1,400, you can get it for just $850 as HP has applied a $550 discount on this machine. However, you shouldn't delay your purchase because there's no assurance that the gaming PC will still be 39% off tomorrow. If you want to make sure that you get it for less than $1,000, you're going to have to complete the transaction for it within the day.

Why you should buy the HP Victus 15L gaming desktop
You shouldn't expect the HP Victus 15L gaming desktop to match the performance of the top-of-the-line models of the best gaming PCs, but it's surprisingly powerful for its cost. Inside it are the 13th-generation Intel Core i7 processor and the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 graphics card, with 16GB of RAM that our guide on how much RAM do you need says is the best place to start for gaming. It's enough to play today's best PC games without any issues, and it may even be capable of running the upcoming PC games of the next few years if you're willing to dial down the settings for the more demanding titles.

Computing

This 17-inch HP laptop is on sale for just $300 — but hurry!

The HP 17t-cn300 17.3-inch laptop against a white background.

If you want to buy a laptop with a relatively large screen, the good news is that you don't have to break the bank with your purchase because you can get the HP Laptop 17t for a very affordable $300. It's on sale from HP with a $200 discount on its original price of $500, but there's no telling how much time is remaining before this offer expires. We don't think it will stay available for long because laptop deals like this almost always get sold out quickly, so complete the transaction as soon as possible to make sure that you don't miss out on the savings.

Why you should buy the HP Laptop 17t
With the 17.3-inch display of the HP Laptop 17t, you'll have a lot of screen real estate to work on your projects and watch streaming shows. It's pretty affordable for a laptop with this large screen, which offers HD+ resolution for sharp details and vibrant colors. However, despite its big display, the HP Laptop 17t maintains portability because it's only 0.78 of an inch thick, which makes it easy to slide into your bag when you're on the go, and it won't be too heavy to carry around because it only weighs about 4.6 pounds.

Computing

What to do if your Intel CPU keeps crashing

Pins on Core i9-12900K.

Despite being among the best processors you can buy, some high-end Intel CPUs have faced a wave of instability over the past few months. Intel is investigating the problem, but the company and its motherboard partners have already worked toward some temporary fixes to improve stability on high-end Intel CPUs -- even if it comes at a performance cost.

Before getting into the fixes, keep in mind that they are temporary. Intel will release a statement on the instability soon, likely with more direct guidance on what affected users should do. In addition, the scope of the problem isn't clear -- if you're not experiencing issues, you shouldn't have anything to worry about.
Who's affected