liGo NEWS
The Netgear SPH200D: How does it measure up?
Ginny Granger @ May 19, 2007 | 6:28 pm
It’s hard to believe there was a time when phones were simply devices that plugged into proprietary sockets in order to make circuit-switched phone conversations. There are still plenty of such handsets around, or course, but if you can stand a bit more complexity, there are telephones out there attempting to break the barriers of conventional telephony–not to mention cutting down the costs of making calls.
Netgear’s smart SPH200D is one such phone. It plugs into a standard telephone socket in order to make calls using the PSTN as would any other DECT-based cordless handset. At the same time, it comes with a base station which has an Ethernet port, allowing it to be plugged into the Internet to automatically access Skype, the revolutionary internet telephony company. It can also be used with alternative VoIP services, though this feature depends on having the required access box and subscription from that company.
Perhaps seeing it as a landline+ type of proposition is looking at it the wrong way around. Nobody would seriously buy this handset to make ‘landline calls’, as they are still sometimes called. The Netgear is an Internet, VoIP phone first that lets the user integrate this manner of communicating with the old-style PSTN for convenience. It integrates two very different worlds into one so that the differences in underlying technology don’t need to be thought about. To the home or small business user, it is just a phone.
The point about using this phone with Skype/SkypeOut is that it frees the user from using a PC (i.e Skype run on a PC with a microphone or USB phone plugged in); the software to set up and manage the Skype connection is built into the phone itself. Once the account user name and password has been plugged into the handset, the phone does the rest on its own, a process that is transparent to the user. The only slight inconvenience is that when dialling, the user must manually choose whether to route the call over a landline connection or Skype, something that can be mildly confusing at first. One can be preferred over the other.
The Netgear SPH200D also integrates with one of Skype’s cleverest features, the ability to see when other Skype contacts are online and available to receive calls. If any of a user’s trusted contacts have their Skype fired up, the phone displays these on its colour LCD screen, ready to be ‘phoned’ at a single button click. It’ll even note the SkypeOut call credit available to phone contacts where the end-point is a PSTN line.
An unexpected bonus that eventually worked; anyone picking up the phone who happens not to have an existing Skype account set up on a PC can plug in a user name and password, and sign up for the service using the handset itself. Normally, this would be set up online, but that means having a computer on hand.
The phone itself is unusually well made by the standards of consumer DECT handsets, but is pretty much identical in every other way. The major difference is the menus to set up the Skype service, and some additional network settings that might be required on some sites (setting DHCP or a static IP address for instance).
About the only thing we’d question is the price – at a street price of just over £100, the Netgear is more expensive that buying the rival Philips dual-mode handset, and you also get a spare handset with the Philips. The Netgear is better made than the average DECT handset, which is worth bearing in mind for the long term.
Get Style and Talk time with the Siemens Gigaset C340/C345
Jenny @ March 17, 2007 | 9:54 am
Talk as long as you wish with the Siemens Gigaset C340 and Gigaset C345. The batteries for each unit lasts a glorious fifteen hours, enough to make anyone feel giddy at the prospect of uninterrupted phone call transactions. But lo and behold, these are not the only surprises in store, albeit those fifteen hours is a feature that’s quite tough to beat. Both cordless phones incorporate an illuminated graphic display into their structures so users can see with ease and comfort. Ringer tunes that you can set for specific phonebook contact also enable caller recognition. So you’ll know straightaway if it is your boss on the other line asking for an update on your sky-high tasks or your best pal wanting a rattletrap account of the latest deets on your social life.
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VOIP841’s Panache and Practicality
Jenny @ March 15, 2007 | 10:45 am
Though it’s tough to imagine the VOIP841 from Philips as a pair of tough old boots, to anyone who has ever known the sort of convenience and functional advantages that can come from a pair of robust shoes, the resilience as well as the practicality and degree of usability that this cordless phone is able to provide is nearly as equal if not beyond what these remarkable footwear are able to give.
With Skype applications like SkypeIn—this one allows users to make calls—and SkypeOut—this one for taking calls—along with sharp, uncluttered audio (it’s a DECT phone after all), a speakerphone for hands-free phone conversations and a user interface that remarkably brings home the Skype experience to every user, the VOIP841 is truly a cordless Skype phone that stands apart from the rest.
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VOIP841 Fits the Bill
Ever had the sensation that while you’ve been trying to make do with an obsolete, inefficient cordless phone all this time, everyone else is having a grand occasion with theirs?
Such thoughts, though, cannot be helped especially in light of the release of the new cordless Skype phone from Philips, the VOIP841. The phone packs quite a wallop, brimming with such convenience features as Skype applications, landline calling and sound clarity that can only come from DECT phones of remarkable quality.
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Fancy Looks and Exceptional Function with the VOIP841
When other fancy-looking cordless phones make you shudder with frustration at the incredible ineptness of their operations, at the inadequate qualities of their applications, Skype phones like the VOIP841 are certain to afford you the satisfaction you need.
A cordless Skype phone that certainly deserves its hunky good looks, this is one posh device capable of offering an extensive range of services that the ideal phone system has
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Catch-Up with the VOIP841
In an age when people have the sublime pleasure of being able to surf the Internet, send photos and check their emails while essentially catching up with someone on the phone, investing in a credible and top-of-the-line phone system is no longer a luxury—it has become a necessity.
Everybody else is hearing about Voip (or Voice over Internet Protocol) calls which inevitably lead to a lot of talk about Skype and Skype phones. How about you?
If you are one those people who still cling to some old-fashioned beliefs when it comes to communication devices, primarily those decreeing that phones must allow its users to make calls and nothing else, should come along with a cord and charge hideous amounts of money for international calls—do all these cover the essentials?—then it’s a safe assumption that you’ve probably never heard of a cordless Skype phone or if you had, you probably just dismissed it out of hand.
But times are changing and the evolution of cordless phones the likes of VOIP841 from Philips are proof of that.
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The VOIP841 Difference
Jenny @ March 14, 2007 | 7:40 am
Most people, when they hear about Skype phones, are incredibly hesitant to take the leap though their hesitancy springs more from a decided lack of knowledge on the product rather than outright displeasure. So if you have been meaning to take a look around for a cordless Skype phone that you can utilize in the office or make use of right there in your home, better check up on the VOIP841 from Philips. It’s a Skype phone, yes, but one that’s unlike the whole lot that’s out there. The VOIP841 does not need a PC in order to access Skype functions. It can do so on its own. Just have an Ethernet cable handy and you’ll be logged in no time at all. The phone also installs swift and easy so link-up troubles are nowhere near a reality with this cordless phone.
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The VOIP841 Investment
It’s going to cost money: that’s the first thought that often pops into the heads of average consumers. Practicality counts these days. Thus, consumers wish to be able to spend their pennies wisely. So why go for a Skype phone that comes with an insane price tag and passable functions when there are better alternatives? Of course, that notion presupposes the fact that one knows better alternatives exist out there. Well, one such great option is the VOIP841. This cordless Skype phone from Philips, unlike many other cordless phones of the same category, justifies every coin it asks for from the consumer.
VoIP841: Latest from Philips
If you’ve been keeping your ear on the ground for the latest Skype phones, then news of the VOIP841 from Philips must have reached you already. The VOIP841 is the first DECT phone in the market that has been designed to see to a number of crucial Skype operations like SkypeIn and Skypeout—the first one allows users to call contacts while the latter makes it possible for users to receive landline calls—without the faculties of a PC. The norm used to be that Skype was only limited to the confines of computers but with the emergence of Voip phones like the Philips VOIP841, change seems to be in the air. And it’s gathering there fast.
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Design and Utility in the Philips VoIP841
Appearances can be deceiving, yes. And this has been proven more than once in the run of consumer level electronics that have flooded the market and still continue to do so. Some products that look great actually prove to be mediocre devices and this tends to put people off great-looking devices since they do not want to risk getting saddled with a product that, though reflects high-style flair, demonstrates no more than middling capacity when it comes to integral phone functions.
But in the instance of the newest VoIP phone from Philips, the VOIP841, greatness extends to more than mere looks. And what looks, they are.
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