Latest Gadgets, Tablets and Smartphones
Over the last week we have been testing the 3 Skypephone. We did a full review of the Skypephone for you to read over. It scores highly and is an excellent phone for making free Skype to Skype calls. I just wanted to give you a quick heads up on the availability. You can now pick one up over at the Three store in the UK and it is available on both contract of PAYG.
Product Page
Here is the new Mobile Phone coming from Three and Skype. We were able to get our hands on a couple of them to give them some testing.
The phone has a 2 Megapixel camera, 3G connectivity 256Mb of inbuilt memory and can search the mobi-web. The phone also features a dedicated ‘Skype’ key to allow you to see which contacts are online. Charging is done via usb, which is always handy!
The phone is free on 18month contracts or £50 on Pay As You Go (PAYG). Currently these models we have do not feature Skype In or Out, and No video calling, but we are told that these will be working in the future. Each month you get 100 minutes/texts and 10,000 chat session instant messages.
Of course, you get a Three number and a regular sim-card to use the phone as a normal mobile phone. Apparently though, if you go abroad and want to use it you may be subject to Roaming Charges! (Be warned)
The phone packaging states that it is made by Amoi, and designed by Three and Amoi together.
This is only a quick glimpse of the phone, and a full review will be here within a couple of days, so check back to see what our findings are. We will let you know the battery life, camera quality and all those other things you NEED to know before you buy one!
From our initial findings it seems like a nice, easy phone to use which looks like it may well be a good smooth integration between Three and Skype.
Skype has become very popular over the few years that it has been running. It has opened up a whole new level of communications and a whole new area for businesses to work in. The latest Skype gadget to hit the market is the Mouse Skype Phone. By combining the mouse with Skype you get to use the mouse as a mouse when needed, but can then pick up the mouse, flip it open and receive or make a call.
Since the launch of Skype, the service keeps growing and growing. The latest figure I heard was that 200000 people per day were signing up for the service. I am an occasional user of Skype and think it is an incredible service and great for getting free and cheap rate calls to desitinations worldwide. Futiro from Ireland is launching three new Skype phones on to the market. Each phone is USB and has a stylish design to be different from the regular looking phones you get. Unfortunatly no wifi phone is available yet, but no doubt this will be on Futiro’s to do list and launched some time soon. Well, at least we can hope. 🙂
Each phone is to cost from $55.
Via: Fosfor
If you would like to win one of these Skype USB phones then read on. Before I pass on details of Skype’s little competition I will pass along a quick review of the above phone. I purchased one of these as a gift for a family member at christmas and it does exactly what it should. You basically plug it in, install the drivers and then you have full control over skype from the USB phone. If you push the red phone then skype minimises, if you push the skype button then it loads back up. You then have the option of scrolling through the contacts list on screen, or entering a number to dial. It is very basic and has no screen it’s self. If you are looking for a basic phone to make outbound calls then the US Robotics phone is an ideal choice at a good price.
Competition details after the jump.
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A new pricing structure is going to be announced for Skype on Jan 18th 2007. The new pricing structure will now include a connection fee per call which is expected to be from 0 – 0.039 euros per call. No word yet on if this pricing change will increase call charges per minute or not. The new prices are for SkypeOut. Skype Unlimited users in North America are not affected by the changes.
Via: Skype
VpIP is becoming more and more integrated with our day to day lives. I can access VoIP from my cell phone, I have a VoIP phone on my desk in the office and my home phone is also VoIP. Voice over IP has changed the way that calls can be made and has allowed us easier access to speak to those who are far away for next to nothing and in some cases for free. We can carry our home phone around anywhere in the world and as long as you can find an internet connection then people can keep in touch with you as though you are next door to them.
As VoIP becomes more popular, more and more research is done to make those internet calls more reliable, clearer to give you the best experience. Why would they do this though? Well… if they didnt then we would all stick to our regular and reliable land line phones and never progress.
Skype is now offering a video phone. The compression technology and higher bandwidth availabilities can now allow us to communicate more clearly with video. 3J communications have put both Skype and video calls in to the Skype Video Phone. The video phone allows for a frame rate of 30fps running at 320 x 240 pixels. The phone has the camera built in so that a web cam is not needed as an extra feature. Any call that senses the camera will trigger it automatically. I seriously hope that this is an option and not an item that you cannot switch off 🙂
With it being a Skype certified phone it allows for the basics like your contact list, SkypeOut, echo cancellation for handsfree (and camera) operation. The conversation is full duplex which stops the annoying breaks in conversation when another noise in the background is heard.
The Skype video phone is packaged at just 56.88 dollars and can be used with Yahoo! Messenger and MSN Messenger.
Via: Coolest-Gadets
If you suffer from poor quality calls on Skype then a video has been made to give you instructions on how to improve the quality. Some technical know how is needed, although there are plenty of tutorials on the internet to help you get more clear calls. A few things they cover are setting up your router to give you a fixed IP address, opening a skype port to that IP and then setting that port to have a priority. Making these changes can greatly change the call quality as it gives priority over the other traffic such as downloads that are being done at the dame time.
Let us know if you have any success with this, and also feel free to drop an email to us if you need any advice as I can help also with your quest for better call quality.
Via: Gizmodo
Video: Labrats
The Skype DualPhone is the first available cordless phone that doubles up as a Skype phone. RTX have launched this in the market to allow users to use their regular phone for some calls and then switch to Skype to make free or international calls at a lower rate. The RTX Dualphone 3088 needs no PC and it’s built in firmware runs the skype software and connects direct to your broadband internet connection.
Skype has a huge userbase of 136 million… so someone you know is bound to have a skype ID you can call for free. On the cordless side of things the DUALPhone 3088 is dect which is reliable for voice calls with no interference. The base unit connects to a broadband router and then you get the choice of how you want to make the call on screen.
The phone has 10 hours of talk time with 140 hours of standby time. It seems that a nice phone and good contender to the market has been introduced here.
Via: DualPhone
Skype and Fon have teamed up to sell the SMC WSKP100 Skype wifi phone with Fon’s La Fonera router. The deal comes in at 160 dollars and includes 500 SkypeOut minutes and voice mail for a year.
The pricing looks good as the handset alone can cost around 200 dollars. Currently it’s out of stock and I am not suprised. Id suggest getting your orders in now to make the calls.
The phone only supports wireless networks and not regular phone calls. The battery is a 1100mAh Lithium-ion battery which gives 3 hours of talk time and 50 hours of standby. It is 802.11b/g compliant, has WEP support in both 64 and 128bit encryption, it runs Skype software and the firmware is upgradeable. IP’s can be either static or dynamic with DHCP. It also supports your contact list to make calls easier.
Via: Engadget
If you do not mind being attached to your PC with a curly cord then the Skype Retro phone is for you. It’s basically shaped in the form of one of those old 80’s and earlier phones with the curly cord and chunky hand set. Looks funny and I dont think I will be able to make a serious call with it.
All we need now is a Skype Candlestick Phone 🙂
Via: UberGizmo
Skype has taken the world by storm over the last few years. Recently we are seeing more and more phones become available so that you can make calls like you would with a regular phone and not have to be attached to your PC and wearing a headset.
The Belkin Skype phone is a nice new Wi-fi Skype phone which has all the software built in. All you do is get your self to the nearest wi-fi hotspot (which are all over these days) and then you log in on the phone to the Skype network and can make calls all over the world for free to other Skype users. These new phones are just amazing! What else makes it great is that wi-fi is world wide. It doesnt matter what country you are in, as long as you are in a hotspot then you are good to log in and call anywhere.
The only downside is that wi-fi networks are not as accessable as a mobile cellular network, but who cares? Wi-fi is growing at a huge rate and it wont be long before wi-fi is everywhere.
The phone is set to retail for $190 and looks just like a regular phone. More details below.
Via: TechEBlog
