skype voip phone state of the art

On 18 Jul 2007, at 11:39, tdbtdb wrote:

> I am looking at handsets for use with skype on a mac. Sad to say,
> mac compatibility is a big issue. I was disappointed not to find a
> recent tidbits article on the topic.
>
> There are also many form-factor choices to make (wired, cordless,
> wifi, or box-that-lets-you-use-your-regular-phone) and a large
> number of models to choose from in each category.
>
> Googling around, I did not find comparisons or recommendations from
> a credible source. Needless to say, I hope you guys do an article
> sometime soon, though it may be too late for me.
>
> [As it happens, I just went through the long exercise of examining
> every available piece of Skype hardware myself, as that's one of my
> best communication options now that I've moved to France. I've
> learned quite a bit...maybe I'll write up my thoughts as an article
> in the near future. -Joe]

I second that request. I've been a latecomer to Skype and frustrated
that my Motorola headset won't work with the MacBook pro's built in
Bluetooth. I also live in France (well, Monaco actually) and find
Skype a great solution.

Looks like a great candidate for a Take Control book to me.

Geoff Armstrong

tdbtdb wrote:
> I am looking at handsets for use with skype on a mac. Sad to say, mac compatibility is a big issue. I was disappointed not to find a recent tidbits article on the topic.

I have just hooked up a "keyspan" Cordless VoIP phone to Skype and it
works really well.

http://www.keyspan.com

Regards
Narrell
(in Australia)

I purchased a Yealink B2K box to connect a plain old cordless telephone to my Mac, and have been pleased.

<http://www.von-phone.com/usb_skype_phone_adapter.php?cat=120>

The Yealink provides a set of connections to make any connected phone a dual-mode phone (both POTS and Skype), but I use it merely for Skype, since I have the unlimited outbound US/Canada calling plan. There are two versions of the SkyMACMate driver for OSX - install the newer version if you're using the phone as dual-mode, the older version if you're using the Yealink only for Skype.

You can also use speed-dial with the phone, by renaming your contacts with the number of the speed-dial at the beginning, e.g.: my friend "Tom" becomes "10 Tom", and then I simply dial "10#" to call Tom.

Call quality is fine. The Yealink is connected to a G4/700 iMac that has only original (802.11B) Airport, and there doesn't seem to be any additional delay in the conversation that I can attribute to setup on my end.

This was the simplest and least-expensive solution I could find that allowed me to have a Skype phone that I could walk around the house while using, and didn't have to reconfigure my Airport network to install.

On 2007-07-20, at 02:45, Geoffrey Armstrong wrote:

> I've been a latecomer to Skype and frustrated
> that my Motorola headset won't work with the MacBook pro's built in
> Bluetooth. I also live in France (well, Monaco actually) and find
> Skype a great solution.
>
> Looks like a great candidate for a Take Control book to me.

Have a read of the 'conditions' and vote for title 122: Take Control
of Internet Telephony.

<http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/suggest4.html>

Thank you soooo much for taking the time to write this article, so helpful, as I have struggled with the same issue.
Living in Switzerland and absolutely not wanting to be tied to a computer, I will take this article into account and ask my local APPLE retailer for advice.

<http://db.tidbits.com/article/9081>

SANDRA GENILLARD
GENILLARDMAC.COM

I, too live in France and got a USB corded phone to use with Skype - the Ipevo Free-1 USB model and downloaded sw for Mac. it works fine, no problems at all with both the G4 MDD and a G4 Powerbook. It's tethered to the Mac and you need to have both Skype and its sw open (and yes, it puts itself in the login items after installation). I don't use it much for local calls, preferring a cordless POTS line (I don't tend to use a phone much anyhow), but it's very useful for international and intercontinental calls.