Filed under: Cellphones, Networking

With Skype and other assorted VoIP services getting more and more popular, you might be eyeing one of those new handsets we’ve been showing your for the last few months. However, some of you might have wondered why you’d want to buy another handset when you probably have a perfectly good cellphone with the necessary internals to do the job, right? You’re in luck, as such a product just debuted at the VoIP / IPTV World 2006 expo in Korea: Clipcomm’s BS-T100V will convert your home VoIP service and send it over Bluetooth to your celly, letting you talk up a storm without using a ton of those precious minutes. (Of course, if you’re a T-Mobile customer in Seattle, you could get HotSpot @Home right now.) As happy as this product makes us, we still can’t get too excited yet given that we don’t know what it’ll cost, nor if it’ll ever make it across that bigger pond to the West.

[Via AVING]

 

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Wireless

While it’s not quite as exciting as those computer-free and base station-free WiFi Skype phones that have been cropping up of late, Philips’ new VoIP841 phone at least can do its thing without a computer — and does it in style. The new phone bests its VoIP321 predecessor with a color screen and a whole lot more sexy. Of course, we expect this phone to trump the former on price as well, so you’ll have to ask yourself if those pretty little notification icons are really worth the extra green. All you need to make calls with the VoIP841 is a broadband connection to hook the base into, after that the DECT protocol takes over and you can roam your house in freedom, with cute little Skype graphics to keep you company. The phone should be available for the 2006 holiday season.

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

It seems like everyone and their sister is coming out with Skype-compatible phones these days. And taking a page out of the handheld barcode scanner design playbook, Keyspan wants a piece of the VoIP pie too. Its new $79 model, imaginatively called the “Cordless VoIP Phone”, has 15 hours of talk time, 1200 hours of standby time, USB/AAA power, and it’s Mac and PC friendly, a’course. However, Keyspan doesn’t list where you can buy this handset, or when it will be available. That aside, if another company (besides FiWin) really wanted to make the real-deal ultimate killer handset, they’d make a phone that was Gizmo/Zfone and Skype-friendly — we’d definitely be interested. But apparently Skype doesn’t like to play nice with SIP phones or any other kind of VoIP, which is a real shame because there’s such a great marketing opportunity here — they could call it SIPpe, like “sippy”, as in the cup. Whaddya say?

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Wireless

While this may not match your speedy new Lamborghini notebook, the Asus AiGuru S1 handset should make your VoIP calling a bit easier — while you’re on the PC, at least. This Skype-friendly wireless handset resembles a Nokia candybar phone circa 2000, but touts the ability to connect via 802.11b/g to make calls. Unfortunately, that excitement was quickly put back on the shelf, as reviewers noted that it only connects via a computer with “customized software” installed (thoughtfully included on a USB wireless adapter), thus eliminating the thought of hitting up a VoIP call whenever near a stray WiFi signal. The 128 x 64 blue LCD was said to be “responsive” to commands, and the 2.5 hours of talk time should be plenty for all but the lengthiest chats. It was noted that the built-in voicemail was a tad buggy initially, but eventually worked itself out, and the most important praise came from the “perfect audio quality” when yapping over Skype. As somewhat of an afterthought, the phone does have an audio output for streaming tunes via Windows Media Center to your headphones or attached speakers, but we doubt your VoIP handset will become your favorite musical liaison anytime soon. The AiGuru S1 performed well enough to earn 8 out of 10 golden stars, but considering that you still need a (powered up) PC to use this thing, £69.99 ($132) seems a bit steep to get your VoIP on.

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Filed under: Peripherals

Though far from the first Skype phone adapter, VIVOphone’s new VoiceKey here may well be the smallest — the company’s certainly claiming it is. In addition to letting you use any old phone to make and receive calls with Skype or VIVOphone’s own VoIP service, the VoiceKey will let you juggle up to nine calls at a time and handle conference calls with up to five people. The adapter’s also compatible with DECT cordless phones, as well as the more common 2.4GHz and 900MHz varieties, and it’ll get along nicely with PBX systems. No word on price or availability just yet, unfortunately.

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Filed under: Handhelds, Portable Audio, Portable Video

Speaking of unholy abominations, Sony decided to take some design tips from their own PSP, functionality from the OQO, usage scenarios from Nokia’s 770 (and a wee dash dash of inspiration from Ixi’s OGO), and mash it up all together into a single device: the mylo. The name refers to “my life online,” ahem, which we assume probably has a little something to do with the Sony’s old school MYLO / My Life Online, a wireless service Sony launched launched at PC Expo 2001 “to offer mobile users an original and personalized way to access information and entertainment content for work and play.” (Yeah, that’s specific.) This blast from the past now takes shape as a $350 WiFi-centric handheld features a slide-up 2.4-inch screen, VoIP capabilities via Skype, web access, media playback capabilities, 1GB flash, and a Memory Stick slot — just think of it as a UX180P, you know, for kids.

[Thanks to Eric and everyone who sent this in]

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Peripherals

We guess it was inevitable — long the bane of landlines, the novelty phone has finally found its way to VoIP, with the Verballs line of animated Skype phones set to invade desktops and annoy co-workers this fall. Available in five different characters, the Verballs flash and wave their hands when a call comes in and, most disturbingly, sync their lips to the callers voice — which could well cause you to never look at your friends the same way again. In addition to acting as a handsfree speakerphone, the Verballs also include headphone and mic ports for more discreet conversation, and can be used in conjunction with MP3s and text to speech software, if you’re so inclined. Plan on dropping £30 (about $55 US) when these critters launch in September.

[Via Red Ferret Journal]

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Wireless

We’ve been waiting on Netgear’s WiFi Skype phone for quite a while now, but what we didn’t know is that it won’t be only one of its kind for long. Skype now has four WiFi phones in the wings, the F1PP000GN-SK from Belkin (pictured), Edge-Core’s WM4201, SMC’s WSKP100, and of course Netgear’s SPH101. From the looks of things, Netgear’s entrant, which is due this month, will be the priciest at $300, but Belkin should follow in August with a quite similar offering for a much more acceptable $189. We’re pretty short on details for the rest, but we should know more soon. Like the SPH101, all of the phones will allow you to manage a buddy list, and make calls from a WiFi connection without a need for a PC in between.

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Take advantage of those low rates for SkypeOut without having to spring for a new phone with this Skype Phone Converter. If you’re unfamiliar with SkypeOut, it lets you use the Skype Internet phone system to reach any phone in the world. The Skype Phone Converter plugs into a USB port on your PC and has a phone jack on the other side, so all of a sudden your plain old telephone turns into a Skype phone.

Converting the analog signals from your phone into digital signals understood by Skype, all you have to do is hit the star key (*) twice and this converter will immediately activate Skype on your PC. Includes a voucher for 30 minutes worth of SkypeOut, barely enough to even get you slightly addicted, and two free months of Skype Voicemail. Available now in the UK for £29.95 ($55). – Charlie White

Product Page [via über gizmo]

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Earlier this week, a gentleman named Charlie Paglee received a Skype call from a colleague in China -- nothing out of the ordinary, except for the fact that this particular call was coming from an unofficial, homemade Skype client. Paglee, who cofounded the VoIP startup Vozin Communications, claims that the Chinese friend he spoke with is part of a team that has successfully reverse-engineered the Skype protocol, possibly paving the way for a series of third-party clients that would delight consumers but provide no small amount of frustration to Skype-owner eBay. Although this unlicensed client is currently only able to perform peer-to-peer calling -- presence, instant messaging, and super node features have not yet been implemented -- it seems to be only a matter of time before the engineers have a more robust demo available for public download (they're supposedly shooting for an August release). And since all of this work is going on in China, eBay has no legal means of shutting down the client's development, but even if they did, it's probably already too late -- now that the cat is out of the bag, it's pretty clear that an open-source Skype client is inevitable, and that eBay's future business plans will have to take that reality into account.

[Via GigaOm]

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Filed under: Handsets, Software, HTC, T-Mobile, Windows Mobile, GSM, GPRS, EDGE, Misc

If your SDA is feeling a little long in the tooth, don't throw cash out the window on a new device -- give 'er a makeover! Besides overclocking the 195MHz OMAP to a more palatable 240MHz, we have here some tips on unlocking the phone yourself (at no cost) and throwing Skype on there for some do-it-yourself dual mode action. Like the article says, proceed at your own warranty-voiding risk, but honestly, what red-blooded Faraday or Wizard owner hasn't putzed around with ROM images at this point?

[Via Hackaday]

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Filed under: Portable Video

Twas only yesterday the lads in the Engadget mansion were lamenting about giving Skype a try if only it streamed some of that hot analog TV we've been hearing so much about. Little did we know that in some back alley of Akihabaraville, a team of hucksters from Novac in Japan were putting the finishing touches on their TV for Skype Anywhere (or something like that) product. Just load-up Skype and Novac's software onto your home PC, slip in their USB stick with integrated analog tuner, and voila, you're ready to stream the sweet, sweet TV out the Internet to any of the newer Skype clients capable of video calls. The TV will even call you and then allow you to change channels via a chat window if we're reading the machine translation correctly -- enter "the ##12#" to switch to channel 12, for example. Not likely to give Slingboxers any competition in terms of functionality or quality, but for ¥9,800 or about $85, you're not likely to find a cheaper solution boxed up so neatly. Oh Skype, come 'er and give us a cuddle.

[Via Impress]

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You wouldn’t believe it, but somehow FiWin (which is owned by FIC) got Skype and SIP to sit down at the table together and play some Mahjong. It’s not really technically all that difficult, but until now we hadn’t really seen a Skype / SIP dual-mode VoIP capable handset, so we welcome you, oh pathfinding FX28S and SS28S WiFi phones; otherwise they’re just another couple of 802.11b phone devices with a 3.5 hour call life, a USB 1.1 connector, and a weak 1.2-inch 65k color 128 x 95 CSTN display in the the FX28S, and a 1.4-inch monochrome 96 x 65 display in the SS28S.

[Thanks, Sam]

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Filed under: Networking

Remember Net2Phone, that way-too-early-to-market VoIP telephony software and service company back in the 90s? Remember how people were trying frantically to save cash on their calls because huge buckets of free long distance cellphone minutes weren’t yet available, and everyone had had to suffer with their product over dial-up back then? Well, suffice to say, times have changed, when you think internet telephony nowadays, you either think SIP, or you think Skype. We’d imagine it’d be hard to sue SIP, it being an IETF VoIP telephony standard, but it looks like Net2Phone is gonna try to put eBay’s Skype division through the ringer for infringement of US Patent 6,108,704, originally filed September 25th, 1995. Net2Phone’s patent outlines the process of a point-to-point internet protocol that would enable a third party service to determine whether end points are online, and then broker data exchanges — apparently via email. No, nothing much appears to be said about VoIP communications or the like, just biz on brokering data and email, pretty much like any other P2P system ever dreamed up, from IM to BitTorrent. As usual, the lawsuit carries the certain scent of one party trying to reach into the other’s deep pockets, but we’ll keep you posted on important developments in the case because you just never know.

[Via Yahoo]

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

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Filed under: Laptops

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Filed under: Cellphones, Peripherals, Portable Audio, Wireless

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Filed under: Software