How to

There are few first-world problems as infuriating as spammy telemarketing calls. Sadly, carrier networks don't seem to have their interests aligned with customers enough to prevent the wasting of our voice minutes, not to mention our life minutes, and iOS doesn't make blocking calls or messages easy either. And, of course, they always seem to come in just as we're sitting down to eat, relax, or in my case, while traveling so I can get stuck paying exorbitant roaming fees as well. Luckily, developer David Smith was annoyed enough to find a work around.

While FaceTime was originally locked to an iPhone phone number, now that iPod touch, iPad, and Mac can make FaceTime video calls, Apple has added email addresses as a way to connect. Usually your FaceTime address will be your main Apple ID -- the one you use for iCloud, and sign in with when you setup your device for the first time. However, you can all register additional addresses with Apple and FaceTime. This makes it relatively simple to ensure anyone with any of your addresses can get through, or even to separate work from family addresses, or to use different addresses on different devices.

• How to register additional email addresses for FaceTime
• How to enable or disable phone numbers and email address for FaceTime

While FaceTime calls are much more interactive and personal than regular old voice calls, you may find a time that you need to pause a video feed but continue talking to the person on the other end. Whether it's kids running around or you need to tend to something around the house, you can easily convert a FaceTime call into an audio only call with one simple tap. When you're ready to restart the video stream, you can do that just as easily.

Here's how.

Apple's free video calling service, FaceTime, is available on every iPad since the 2011 iPad 2, and iPod touch since the 2010 iPod touch 4. Because FaceTime requires an internet connection, on the iPod touch and non-cellular iPads, you need to be connected to Wi-Fi to make a call. On an iPad or iPad mini with cellular, you can FaceTime any time, from anywhere, you just need to keep an eye on your data limit, if any. Unlike the iPhone, FaceTime on the iPad, iPad mini, and iPod touch is a separate app. Tap it, and you're ready to call any other FaceTime user!