January 2007

Estimates suggest that in the UK alone there are around 9 million people with some kind of hearing impairment, and that up to 4 million of those people use hearing aids or have cochlear implants.

For these people, Skype can offer a really useful way of being able to communicate cheaply and easily through multiple channels, be it voice, text, video or some of the extra ways of communicating in Skype 3.

Continue reading "Which Skype phones are Hearing Aid Compatible?" »

Well it appears in the white heat of CES that Skypegear missed out on a few of the Innovations awards that Skype partners had bagged at CES; turns out that it was in fact a grand tally of at least 7 rather than the still 3 that I reported previously.

Continue reading "Correction: Skype bags 7 innovation award winners at CES rather than 3...!" »

So, as always, rumours abounded during CES amongst the deserted employees of Europe not attending that the world’s largest consumer electronics fair was nothing but martinis, gambling and bling, not helped by weather back home which didn’t even seem capable of dealing out some decent cold weather, preferring instead a kind of miserably warm, windy and wet damp squib of a winter, not even cold enough to offer a cosy evening in front of the fire.

So despite the emails from the Skype guys in CES assuring us of the thousands of miles they were covering each day round the conference floor pressing flesh and spreading the Skype word, backed up by photos of the Skype booth in the grand hall (above), an over-arching suspicion was hanging around that perhaps this didn’t tell the whole story

Continue reading "Flock wallpaper, shrunken execs and zoom lenses: on the inside at CES" »

We’ve already seen photos from CES of the Asus Aiguru S2 in both its red and white livery, and we’ve seen the official photos of it in sombre grey, but as you can see from this fabulous quality snap, it also appears to be available in a rather eye-catching pink!

Continue reading "CES 2007: Asus Aiguru S2 wireless phone available in *how* many colours??!" »

The Innovations Design and Engineering Awards have been going since 1989, and are a way for the industry to acknowledge products that their team of independent judges consider to be the best designed products in consumer technology. Skype partners managed to bag no less than three honorees this year at CES, so congrats are due to:

• Thomson - for the GE DECT 6.0 Embedded Skype Residential Phone
• Plantronics - for the .Audio 910 Bluetooth Headset
• Netgear - for the SPH200D cordless Skype phone

The Plantronics is pictured above; (slightly blurry I’m afraid) photos of the other two award winners with their newly earned stripes after the break…

Thomson cordless GE Skype phone…

Continue reading "CES 2007: Skype partners bag 3 Innovation awards" »

The Nokia N800 has already begun shipping in the US, and although we may have to wait a while before Nokia’s latest internet tablet gets full Skype support, their announcement at CES that the N800 would add Skype calling to its list of features some time around the middle of the year is most definitely good news.

Continue reading "CES 2007: The Nokia N800 Skype-enabled some time around the middle of the year" »

You may not be familiar with Belgian manufacturer Topcom, but their latest Skype phone, announced at CES, is certainly a worthy addition. Combining the ease of use of a standard desk phone with a large 2.4”, 320x240 colour flip-up screen for accessing contacts and other Skype features is a great idea in my opinion, and hopefully the Webt@lker will deliver when it arrives in April 2007, with a recommended price of €169.00.

Continue reading "CES 2007: The Webt@lker 5000 Skype phone brings some class to your desk..." »

A good showing from Taiwanese manufacturer Ipevo at CES; check out Skypegear’s initial comments for more…

First up - Skype’s own answer to Finnish Eurovision sensation Lordi…Skype’s Ipevo product guru and resident Finn Rasmus…

Continue reading "CES 2007: More live photos of IPEVO Skype phones" »

More photos of the intriguing Asus Aiguru super-slim, email and music-equipped Skype phone from CES…more after the break…

Continue reading "CES 2007: More photos from CES of the Asus Aiguru S2" »

Photo: Gizmodo

Who woulda thought it: A Skype phone which also allows you not only to make Skype calls wirelessly, but also to listen to music stored on your PC and check your email, right from the handset. Asus’s new Aiguru S2 cordless USB phone, unveiled at CES, shows just how far Skype phones have come since the original Aiguru came out last year.

Continue reading "CES 2007: Asus's Aiguru S2 Skype phone - music, email...and crikey it's slim!" »

Taiwanese manufacturer Ipevo just don’t muck about: rather than sticking with the one Skype announcement at CES this year, they’ve gone for three.

Continue reading "CES 2007: IPEVO pull 3 new Skype phones out of the bag" »

So CES is officially “go” today, and first off the block for Skype announcements we have Netgear’s cordless SPH200D.

Sharing a very similar design to the company’s existing wifi Skype phone the SPH101, the SPH200D is designed to let users make both regular landline calls as well as both free Skype-to-Skype calls and cheap SkypeOut calls to regular landlines or mobile phones.

Continue reading "CES 2007: Make Skype or landline calls from Netgear's new cordless phone...without using a PC!" »

Now the original cordless DUALPhone has to be one of Skype’s best ever selling phones, and holds a special place in my heart as my first Skype phone (aww!). The combination of being able to make Skype calls and landline calls from one handset was just what I was looking for.

However, apparently with the release of Skype 3 for Windows there were one or two compatibility issues, and so Danish DUALPhone manufacturer RTX have done the decent thing and provided a firmware upgrade to take the phone to version 2.22. This upgrade also ensures compatibility with Windows Vista for anyone who has January 30th (the Vista consumer release date) marked on their Pocket PC’s calendar and a whole hunk of money in their back pocket.

Continue reading "Firmware upgrade for the original DUALPhone" »

The team over at Kentucky-based Multilink have been slaving away to get their new Skype-certified TeleVoIP phone into US retailer SkyMall’s catalogue before the CES trade fair next week, and it looks as though they’ve succeeded!

Continue reading "Multilink's TeleVoIP: a low cost way to make Skype calls from home" »

Well it’s back to work, and already Skype CEO Niklas Zennström has been talking to the BBC about, amongst other things, what to expect from Skype in 2007:

Today, most Skype users are using Skype on a computer. What we’ll also see in the next few years is that more and more people will use Skype outside of the computer on mobile devices, wifi telephones, and other devices. Today most revenues are coming from voice calls. What we’re also working on now is to develop other revenues, in terms of e-commerce and content.

Certainly there’s going to be a real focus on hardware, and what better place to start than the world’s largest consumer electronics show, CES, in Vegas next week?

Continue reading "Looking into 2007: Where does the Skype genie go from here?" »