Having many friends in GErmany and Luxembourg (among others), this is very convenient to continue talking with them. I use the webcam "fairly" often and the micro embeded in the frame of my computer work extremely well, I can be a couple meters away from the computer and if I talk strong enough, they can hear what I am saying. This is really a little jewel and a step toward the next big thing (or at least, one of the models) in communication technologies.