December 2006

Happy Christmas!

Skypegear's taking a little break until the New Year. And it sounds like we're going to need it - with CES just round the corner, you can bet that there will be a flurry of announcements from Skype's hardware partners to keep us busy over January and beyond...

So please enjoy the holidays, and if you do get a Skype phone under the tree, why not send us a picture?? The best picture will get another Skype phone so you can give one to your brother/sister/best friend/boss so that they are always just a Skype call away. Just send the photos over to skypegear@skype.com.

In the meantime, check out the Weemee site, where you can make yourself a lovely "virtual you" for all your Skype buddies, decked out in as much Christmas clobber as you fancy.

All the best, and here's to 2007!

Memory sticks are pretty much old hat now, but the usefulness of having up to 2GB of storage hanging off the end of your keyring cannot be denied.

So for anyone contemplating a jaunt off to sunnier, less well-connected climes in the New Year, the Sandisk Cruzer is certainly worth packing alongside the 3 month's worth of Imodium and the battered Ernest Hemingway novel designed to make you look mysterious and worldly.

Continue reading "The Cruzer: Skype in your pocket, wherever you go travelling" »

There's been a good chunk of press about Skype's recently announced unlimited calling plan for US customers over the last week or so. The deal is simple: for $29.95 a year, US Skype users can get unlimited SkypeOut calls to any phone in the US or Canada (and that's been halved to $14.95 if you sign up by the end of January). Users can still opt to 'pay as you go' in the normal way if they want to, but I reckon at $14.95 a fair few will opt for the unlimited option.

What hasn't been reported quite so much is a fringe benefit of signing up: money off coupons to put towards Skype hardware to make the most of all that unlimited calling. New recruits get a number of coupons redeemable upon purchasing a number of different Skype hardware phones and other gadgets.

Apparently one way users can find out and redeem these coupons is by adding a special Skype buddy to their buddy list, and then calling them for details. The name of the Skype buddy is skypehwcoupon. Check out the offers live there now...

News just in: to find the perfect gift for their loved ones, Brits walk the equivalent of a marathon, and make an average of a whopping 11 trips to the shops. Wow, I'm exhausted just thinking about it.

So it's perhaps good news that UK high street retailer The Works have just announced that all 250 of their stores are now stocking the ultimate stocking filler: The Skype Starter Kit.

Continue reading "UK chain 'The Works' stocks Skype Starter Packs in time for Christmas (just!)" »

"Be a little wiser baby, put it on, put it on,
'Cause tonight, is the night, when two become one".

Spice Girls, 1996

Yes, as you probably guessed from the quotation, we've decided to merge the Skypegear and Mobile blogs. Why? Well, I suppose that now Skype users have a whole host of devices to choose from when they are deciding the best way to make calls via Skype. Mobile is one of those, as are the wifi phones we've seen popping up, or the cordless DECT/Skype phones, for example. We want a one stop shop for the whole 'ecosystem' (as it's called at Skype).

Continue reading "Mobile and Skypegear become one" »

US-based Linksys brought out their first Skype phones way back in the summer of 2004, but the two new phones in their iPhone range are the first two Skype phones they've bought out that don't need PCs to run. Both are being released in the US immediately, which should hopefully mean that US-based customers will be able to get their hands on them from retailers such as Amazon in time for Christmas. In fact, Amazon are already listing them here and here!

Continue reading "New iPhone Wifi and Cordless Skype phones announced by Linksys" »

Skype for mobile has already hit the 5 million downloads mark since April 2004, so this week's release of the public beta of version 2.2 should already have a loyal following.

So is it worth upgrading? Well, there are certainly some neat new features.

Continue reading "Skype for mobile 2.2: more phones supported and better integration" »

Having a wifi phone is all very well and good, but the question is: when you're not using it, where do you put it? It's all very well and good putting it down on the sideboard, but if your house is anything like mine, before you know it's disappeared under a load of clutter.

As if by magic SMC announced two interesting new products last week to complement the SMC WSKP100 Skype wifi phone and address this very need: a simple charging cradle for the phone, and a charging cradle which also includes a wifi access point.

Continue reading "A home for your Wifi phone: the SMC charger with wifi access point" »

As I've already remarked regarding Dabs.com and Amazon.co.uk, sales of the first wave of Wifi Skype phones have been very strong indeed.

We've already seen moves from manufacturers such as SMC to ensure that these phones can be used with more and more Wifi hotspots outside of the home, and Belkin's announcement last week that their new Wifi phone would include Boingo's software allowing users to automatically authenticate with around 60,000 Wifi hotspots worldwide including US outlets of Starbucks and Kinko's for a flat subscription of $7.95 a month is indeed very welcome.

Continue reading "Belkin's new Wifi Skype phone: use it with 60,000+ Boingo hotspots" »

We've already had Amazon.co.uk predict that Skype phones might be sitting under quite a few Christmas trees this year on the 25th, and now news reaches SkypeGear that Dabs.com are also seeing really healthy sales of Skype phones. In fact, according to Jonathan Wall at leading UK retailer Dabs.com, Skype phones are consistently in the top 3 most searched-for products on their site, and are currently the number 1 most searched for item.

Continue reading "Skype top search term for online retailer Dabs.com" »

Taiwan seems to be the place to be for really innovative products, and Taiwanese manufacturer Asus have come up with a curveball I certainly didn't see coming: Skype motherboards.

Continue reading "Skype motherboards: just plug your home phone into your PC and call!" »

What the nxZen VoIP headset lacks in vowels, it certainly seems to make up for in performance. Ontario-based manufacturer Gennum's first Skype-certified cordless headset works via a USB adapter, and contains a number of features designed to make a really clear, crisp Skype calling experience.

Continue reading "Gennum's nxZEN headset: unpronounceable but powerful" »

I've had quite a few people (including eagle-eyed Skyper Seb - thanks mate! ) asking whether or not the SMC / FON router bundle announed a while ago would mean that the SMC phone would be compatible with FON hotspots. The official answer: Not yet, but soon.

Continue reading "The SMC - FON bundle - does it work with FON hotspots or not??" »

Now some Skypers might have been a little disappointed by the news last week that Philips VOIP841 cordless Skype phone won't be shipping in the US until 2007.

For those who just can't wait or those who just fancy something a bit different, the GE phone reviewed this week by BusinessWeek may be just the thing. The GE 28300EE2 (nice name chaps - catchy!) differs from the Philips phone in that it plugs into your PC rather than your router, meaning that you do have to have your PC on in order to make Skype calls (although you can happily make landline calls from it when the PC's off).

Continue reading "GE DECT Skype phone "Well thought-out device": BusinessWeek" »

Following on from yesterday's news regarding availability of the Philips VOIP841 and DUALPhone 3088 from RTX, news reaches Skypegear that the Netgear Skype wifi phone  is now available in India.

India is obviously a big market for Skype, and apparently now Indian Skypers will be able to talk wirelessly via the Netgear phone.

Continue reading "Netgear Wifi phone available in India" »