Just the other day Julia was at the office and needed some papers that were at home but where I was but I had no idea which ones so I switched on Skype using my smartphone, called her on her computer at the office and after the usual silliness (which I am sure will wear off) at the novelty of video-telephony (I was spinning myself around keeping the front camera as steadily as possibly on my face...) I then switched to the main rear camera and in seconds I was able to locate the papers Julia needed by showing her what was there and with her directing me accordingly, thanks to the camera feed.

Now that's what I call a successful and useful use of video calling.

Some phones don't have a front facing camera but I reckon I'd have been fine just by listening to what Julia was saying - it wasn't critical for her to see me during the call and I would still be able to share the main camera view with her.

We quite frequently use Skype instead of a phone call if we know we are at our computers and Skype works very well when I am abroad. Several of our friends routinely use Skype to keep in touch with friends and relatives abroad, too. While you can connect to real phone numbers with a chargeable call, I've never done that and can't see that I ever will, so not only is video calling great, there is basically no extra charge for using it.

And it only seems like yesterday that video-phone watches on Thunderbirds seemed like a distant dream. Come to think of it - how come portable video telephony rarely featured on Star Trek? Or should that be 'will' feature...