A veritable smorgasbord (or smörgåsbord even) of Skype Gear-related news and reviews this Friday.

Some recent hardware reviews:

• IPEVO Trio
• SMC WiFi Phone for Skype WSKP100
• Skype on PSP

And in the news

• How to Video
• Video Visits
• Online Etiquette

Get the full rundown after the jump…

Reviews

IPEVO Trio

Everything USB had a look at the IPEVO Trio, a Skype Certified combination USB handset and speaker/conference phone. They liked the sound quality and found the buttons on the phone quite useful—the record button automatically turns on the included recording software, which is great for interviews and recording random musings with friends and loved ones.

SMC WiFi Phone WSKP100

This WiFi phone for Skype was one of the first—we reviewed it a long time ago—but PC World in Australia posted a review this week. They liked the ease of setup and the straightforwardness of the phone, but found the buttons a little hard to press.

Skype on PSP

It’s now been out for a little while and quite a few sites have waxed positively on the addition of Skype to the PSP. Gaming site Kokatu has a video showing Skype on the PSP in action.

News

How to Video

For those who still haven’t hopped on the video calling bandwagon, James Martin from PC World gave a great introduction to making video calls this week, and mentioned Skype and the Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000, one of the webcams that enables High Quality Video on Skype. Speaking of the QuickCam Pro 9000, Good Housekeeping (via the Salt Lake City Tribune) gave the 9000 the highest marks in a test of 22 webcams for its great sound quality and the smootheness of its video.

Virtual Visits

Have you thought about giving Grandma a ‘visit’ through Skype? This article in AARP magazine (a US-based magazine for older adults) mentions using Skype and Logitech cameras to make virtual visits to older relatives. I think this is a great idea, and one that could be made even easier for your older relative if you use a remote access program (such as LogMeIn) to control his or her computer to set up the call. That way Grandma can just look at the computer and see you, without needing to click on anything (which is especially good if she’s not comfortable using the computer).

Online Etiquette

Speaking of being comfortable with Skype and other online communications methods, Anna Post (great great grandaughter of the first etiquette expert Emily Post) shared some business etiquette tips this week in a blog post on Robin Raskin’s ‘The Boomer’ blog on Yahoo! Tech. She’s also made a video, which you can check out below: