Sony

You may have already heard about the Skype Nomad—intrepid Australian Rebecca Campbell is travelling the world for 33 days, only sleeping while on the move, blogging about her trip, and raising money for charity (Motivation). She’s using Skype to stay in touch and plan parts of her trip (you can send her recommendations and tips—she’s ‘theskypenomad’).

In addition to all her travelling and photo-taking and blog writing, Rebecca’s been writing a column in the UK’s Telegraph. But one thing that she hasn’t mentioned yet is the full list of gear she’s carrying. There are tons of ways to use Skype on the go, but Rebecca is perhaps taking it to the extreme—when you’re constantly on the move, light gear is of utmost importance.

Here’s her full list:

• 3 Skypephone
• Nokia N810 Internet Tablet
• Nokia N95 8GB (for Skype for your mobile)
• PSP and headset
• Macbook Air (with 3 USB broadband dongle)
• Solar powered battery charger
• Panasonic HD Video camera
• Canon IXUS 70 (SD1000) Digital camera

She’s got some neat stuff with her—and with the 3 Skypephone and 3 broadband dongle she can get online really easily whenever she’s in a 3 territory. Still, she’s already found that WiFi isn’t exactly ubiquitous and you can’t always be connected.

Rebecca’s going to be passing through the UK later on her trip, and I’m going to try to be one of the many meeting up with her when she’s stopping at Skype’s office in London. Do you have any questions you’d like me to ask Rebecca? Leave ‘em in the comments.

Some recent Gear-related news on this fine Tuesday:

A double take on the Belkin Skype WiFi Phone

I just caught this video review of the Belkin WiFi Phone for Skype by Chris Hogg (and Chris Hogg) on Digital Journal TV. We’ve reviewed it before here. "They" run through what the phone does and say that it kicks derriere. I’m not sure of the camera and computer tricks DJTV used to make the video, but it’s pretty neat. Watch it here:

PSP’d

If you’ve got a Sony PSP Slim & Lite and haven’t tried Skype on it yet, have a look at these step-by-step instructions on Instructables. The author also goes into how to rip and convert DVDs for viewing on the PSP.

Webware 100 Winner!

For the second year in a row, Skype is a winner in CNET’s Webware 100 Awards in the Communication category. Users (like you! Thanks if you voted!)chose the winners of these awards; no doubt this year more people are using Skype in more ways beyond the computer (like on a Nokia Internet Tablet, 3 Skypephone, a Skype WiFi phone, a Sony Mylo—the list goes on…). Check out the Skype’s winning page here, and all the 2008 Webware 100 winners here.

Announced last month at CES (and now being demoed at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week), Skype is now available on the Sony PlayStation Portable with software version 3.90 in the US and Europe. Villu has already heralded its arrival on the main blog (there’s also a nice video there of John Koller, senior marketing manager for PSP at Sony, demonstrating Skype). I’ve been playing around with it and think it’s pretty cool.

It’s important to note that Skype will only work on the PSP Slim & Lite (PSP-2000) version of the PSP and not the original, because the newer PSP has more RAM. You’ll also need either a Go! Cam or a headset and corded remote (which are currently sold seperately but will soon be bundled together) so you’ll have a microphone to input your voice.

With Skype on the PSP you can make and receive Skype calls and make SkypeOut calls when you’re connected to an internet connection via WiFi—I can see it as a good way to talk to the friends you play networked games against on the PSP, so it’s easier to set up games (and, um, trash-talk?).

Some screenshots after the jump.

Continue reading "Skype on PSP: What it looks like" »

Skype on the go was a major theme of this year’s CES. Another cool Skype-related announcement was the Sony mylo (“my life online”) COM-2. It’s a small internet device with a touchscreen and keyboard that supports Skype out of the box and improves upon a lot of the features of the original mylo.

The Skype integration is great—it means you can make and receive free Skype calls and instant messages (as well as make SkypeOut calls and receive SkypeIn calls) from anywhere you have internet access via WiFi. One nice thing for American mylo COM-2 users: WiFi access on the Wayport network is free until the end of 2010.

There’s also a lot to do with the mylo when you’re not Skyping…

Continue reading "CES Spotlight: Sony Mylo COM-2" »

So we have this tagline on Skypegear, on our front page—

Tell Skypegear how your Skype phone helps you at work, at home or on the move for your chance to win a brand new Skype phone every month…

Well, we haven’t been getting any entries because we haven’t been talking about any contests. At all. So we’d like to gradually change that, and to start we’re going to have a little competition. The prize is the Sony VAIO Mouse Talk VN-CX1 we reviewed a few weeks ago.

Over the next three weeks we want to hear about what Skype gear is doing for you. Is it making you more efficient or saving you time and money? Tell us. But here’s the catch. It has to be in the form of a haiku.

Continue reading "Skypegear Contest: Win a Sony VAIO Mouse Talk VN-CX1" »

The Sony VAIO Mouse Talk VN-CX1 is a slick little device that works as both an optical mouse and a Skype phone. I got my hands on one from the US Skype store, and after using it for a couple days I can tell you it’s a really good choice for business travellers and others who want to combine the functionality of a headset and a mouse in a compact package. Read on for the full review.

Continue reading "Skypegear Roadtest: Sony VAIO Mouse Talk VN-CX1" »

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...!" »

Now it’s a long time since Skypegear was at uni, and checking out the new ‘Skype U’ Facebook group did bring a pang of nostalgia for a lost youth.

The site offers a veritable smorgasbord of interesting nuggets including members’ photos, discussion boards, a Skype homesick-o-meter and offers hand-picked for Skypers.

On top of all that though, through November Skype and Sony are offering members in the US and Canada the chance to win one Sony Mylo every single day! NB For those majoring in Arts, that’s a total of 30 Mylos.

Continue reading "Win a Mylo a day for a month...if you can haul yourself out of bed for lectures..." »

It’s been a great week for Skype gear-makers this week. US-based Time Magazine got stuck in to Skype and the wonderful wireless world of wifi phones with a great roundup featuring Sony’s delicious Mylo in all its curvy glory (more about the Mylo later), as well as Netgear and Belkin’s new wifi phones.

There’s undoubtedly still an education piece to be done for consumers on the possibilities wireless internet can offer, and it’s great to see a venerable publication such as Time putting these devices in front of the noses of its readers.