Equipping our family with technology

Google+ Hangouts are the best. By far.
Seriously, you have to try them.

Our departure date is approaching with ever increasing speed (I know it's an illusion. Bear with me :) ) so we have started thinking about keeping in touch with our families after we embark.

I have some very good experiences with Google+ Hangouts from a time when a friend of mine was working in Germany (Hi Kristina!) and have used it to keep in touch with my Mom in England ever since. It is the the service we are planning to use with our friends anyway, so we decided to introduce the rest of our families to it.

After the tedious process of shopping we installed the new cameras and laptops and eventually tried it out. Everyone loved it, al though introducing my dad to the effects option might have been a mistake! In all we have bought one new laptop and equipped two stationary computers with new webcams, so we think we are set for now.

I am really impressed by GooglePlus Hangouts and really urge you to give it a go. It allows you to connect several people at the same time, shows all their faces at the bottom of the screen and automatically focuses the big screen on the one who is talking. With additional options such as the youtube plugin it allows you to play a song in everyone's background, creating almost a pub-like atmosphere. When everyone is provided with a drink (unfortunately Google doesn't help with this obligatory step yet) it is as good as it gets.

My intuition tells me that this type of socialising should be common in Sweden. After all, the drinks are expensive and it's cold outside so I'd expect people would be keen on the idea of chatting with your friends from the comfort of your own home. How right am I about this? Please respond in the comments!

I might invite all of you to join me on a hangout once and meet some of my readers! Would anyone be interested?