Merge Call mea culpa

So a couple weeks back, Chris Breen and I were recording a Macworld Podcast episode — him on the iPhone, me on Skype — when we tried to patch in another iPhone caller using the phone’s easy-as-pie Merge Call feature. The only trouble is, in this case, it wasn’t easy-as-pie — despite repeated attempts, Chris couldn’t patch in another caller.

We figured it was because I originated the call, not iPhone-using Chris, and the wording in the iPhone User’s Guide PDF seemed to back up our supposition. OK, we decided, that’s a tip worth sharing with the populace. And so I wrote it up and sat back to bask in the glow of appreciation from an enlightened public.

It was only slightly less gratifying when the enlightened public responded by saying, “Uh… wrong, dummy.”

We heard from lots of folks who said they were able to use the Merge Call feature on the iPhone even when someone else initiated the call, undercutting the usefulness of our little tip. All right then, we figured, maybe Skype was the culprit — maybe there’s something about VoIP that befuddles the iPhone whenever it’s time to put together a conference call. That became our next working theory.

So this afternoon, Chris and I put Theory No. 2 to the test in which I placed a series of calls from different phones to him and he tried to patch in another caller.

In test one, I called him from my office phone. He put me on hold to dial in Dan Frakes. Everything went according to plan. So that worked out.

In test two, I called Chris from my (non-iPhone) mobile phone; again, Chris successfully added Dan Frakes to the call. So chalk up another Merge Call success.

Now test three, where our Skype-as-the-fly-in-the-ointment theory would be proven correct. I launched Skype, called Chris, and waited as he tried (no doubt in vain) to add Dan to the call. Only this time, it worked as advertised — there were three Macworld editors on the call, now puzzled as hell as to why the same thing didn’t work just a week-and-a-half ago.

Noodling it over, I can only conjure up three explanations:

1. Operator error the first time around
2. The vagaries of Internet telephony
3. Some perfectly reasonable rationale I’m just not bright enough to figure out

I’m all but certain we can rule out Possibility No. 1 — I’ve certainly been known to bungle things, but it was Chris doing the call-merging when we struck out a week-and-a-half ago, and he’s a pretty reliable fellow. I’d need more instances of erratic behavior before I subscribed to Possibility No. 2. Which leaves us with No. 3 — I have no earthly clue. If you’ve got an idea, I’d be happy to hear it.