If you read the main blog, you’ll have noticed Villu’s post earlier about the 3 Skypephone — the excellent news (if a little delayed) that it was highly commended for its innovative approach in the Best Mobile Handset or Device category at the Global Mobile Awards.

The 3 Skypephone (psst — as well as being less than £50 in the new Skype Shop) is linguistically interesting. Or at least it is when we think about freedom.

Free, of course, can mean two things — free in the sense of lack of restriction, liberty, and free in the sense of costing nothing. The 3 Skypephone goes some way to providing both. Okay, it doesn’t let you make calls anywhere in the world (you’ll need a signal for that), and we don’t give them away entirely (though they’re pretty good value). But we like to think it’s a pretty good deal.

For more about freedom, you might want to check out the Stanford Enyclopedia of Philosophy. Or to experience freedom, find a nice beach with a 3G signal

Bonus trivia: I’m pretty sure this is the first occasion on which Skype has run a newspaper ad in the UK, too, though I suspect our friends at 3 might have had something to do with that too…

Photo by Tom