July 2008

Summer holiday season is in full swing, and if you're anything like me, sun and beach are an integral part of the perfect holiday. Earlier this month I found the sun and beach on a sailing trip around Sicily and the Aeolian Islands (it's a hard life, I know). I brought my 3 Skypephone with me and was very pleasantly surprised when I turned on my phone in Italy and was reminded of 3 Like Home. It's a 3 feature that lets you have your standard 3 rate whenever you're on a 3 network, including data access, without any roaming fees.

So whenever I had 3 Italy service (which was most of the time, a surprise considering how much we were on a boat in the middle of nowhere in the Mediterranean), I could make Skype calls, regular calls and check my email on the phone without worrying about extra fees. It was great to be able to stay in touch so easily.

The 3 networks that support 3 Like Home are 3Austria, 3Italy, 3Sweden, 3Denmark, 3Australia, 3Hong Kong, 3Ireland, and 3UK. If you live in one 3 country and are traveling to another, think about picking up a 3 Skypephone--it'll almost certainly save you some money calling home and calling friends and family on Skype.

It's been quite a while since we've mentioned the Nokia N800 and N810 Internet Tablets. What's new with them? Well, the open nature of Nokia's Linux-based OS2008 has allowed people to continue to add new features and exploit the devices in new ways. We already know that the N810 and N800 provide a great way to use Skype on the go, but what's been improved since they came out and how are people using their Internet Tablets?

• Last month Nokia released the OS2008 Feature Update, which adds better GPS support to the N810, over the air firmware updates, and an improved email client and other software improvements to the N810 and N800.
• People are talking about using the N800 as a laptop substitute and running Java applications on the N810.
• Some enterprising coders managed to install Google's Android operating system on the N810, an interesting proof of concept
• New applications make it possible to run Palm applications on the N810/N800 and geocache more easily
• And of a (only slightly) less technical nature, here's how to crochet a pouch to hold your N810 or N800.

It's great that people keep finding novel ways to use their Internet Tablets.

Want to be able to import all the numbers in your mobile into Skype, so you can call them easily using a Skype unlimited calling plan or pay as you go Skype credit? Andrey Goltsov did, so he created SkypeSync, a Skype Extra that allows SyncML-compatible phones (most European mobiles and some US mobiles) to import their contact lists into Skype.

It isn't exactly automatic--you need to make an account at ZYB (a free synchronization server) and after installing the Extra you need to follow a rather detailed set of instructions. And SkypeSync isn't free--it costs 12 euros (you can purchase it in the Skype Extras Manager using Skype credit)--though you can use it in trial mode to import 15 contacts.

Once you have your mobile contacts in Skype, you'll likely save money by calling them using Skype credit or a Skype unlimited calling plan rather than your mobile all the time. I know I do when I'm calling family and friends in the US from London. You could also use Skype for your mobile from your mobile to save on international calls. You can learn more about SkypeSync here, and read an interview that Andrey Goltsov recently did with Skype Journal here.