This last week has been hellish for some people.  Some people actually do do video chat on their mobile phones.  My sister does because her husband is on the other side of the world working and getting their new house set up.  Her son misses his Dad and so they Skype on her Nokia N78 to my nephew’s Dad as often as possible.  Well this was all possbile until this week when Skype and Fring got into “it” and now their love affair is on hold or over.

Here’s a video I took at MWC showing the new Skype client working Symbian.  It was a huge scoop when I took this video.

I’m a horrible blogger.  I’ve had the FreeTalk Everyman headset for months now and used it countless times, I’ve also had the Yamaha PSG-01s for a month or so now and haven’t blogged about either one.  I could make excuses but I won’t.  I will just give you a quick review from my point of view, the user/consumer.  I’m not a techie numbers guy telling you that the the SILK processors do this or that and how special some chip inside of “it” may be.  I can tell you this though.

Everyman:
The Everyman Skype headset is fantastic.  It’s a basic stereo headset with a boom mic but it’s much more then that.  I’m no audiophile but I know this, it sounds great on every single call I’ve used it for.  It’s light, small and packs easily into a travel bag.  I’ve taken it on a few trips now and it’s treated me quite well.  Honestly I’d recommend it for anyone in the market for a Skype headset, but best of all it’s only $23.  I mean seriously, you can’t go wrong with this thing.  So my review of the EveryMan is this, don’t hesitate to go out and buy it, you won’t be sorry.

Yamaha PSG-01s:
Now the Yamaha PSG-01s is a real piece of high end kit.  This thing blows other speaker phones away, at close range.  The output on it is great, it sounds just like it should, no break up or static.  The input on the other hand is great, but only up to about 6 feet. When the person speaking is under 6 feet from the Yamaha you will undoubtedly pleased.  It’s as if you are on a wired handset.  On the other hand when the person speaking is more then 6 feet away it is still good but sounds like you are on a speaker phone, which you are.  It sounds a bit hollow and as if you are in a tunnel.  The call can continue without any issue but the quality isn’t perfect.
It’s a great speaker phone for small rooms or at least small tables with people not sitting far from it but it’s not going to be great for a large table of people.

As a whole I like both devices very much.  The EveryMan is something I will highly recommend and suggest people pick up.  The Yamaha is something people should consider carefully, it’s a bit on the pricier side but I still think it’s a great piece of kit.

PS: My good friend Jim Courtney writes here about the Yamaha and more importantly the special deal that runs until the end of 2009.  Normally priced at US$219/£199/€199 – including delivery and VAT/Sales taxes, until December 31, 2009 pricing has been reduced to US$199.90/£179.90/€179.90 – including delivery and VAT/sales taxes.

Disclosure: I have been loaned both of these devices.  All my opinions are my own and not influenced by the companies loaning me the gadgets.  Let’s be honest, if you give me something to review I won’t tear it apart, if I don’t like it I just won’t write about it.

What does it mean if Skype buys Gizmo Project? This is a huge deal for the VOIP industry.  It is a big deal for something that keeps going thorough my mind “The next Billion” (meaning the next billion people to get mobile phones and get on the mobile web).  The first thing that came to mind when I heard about this potential acquisition is interoperability with Truphone.

If Skype buys Gizmo Pr0ject this means they would start using the SIP standard as far as I understand.  Using SIP means that Skype would suddenly be interoperable with services like Google Chat (including video and voice chat), Truphone, and many of the other VOIP services.

In Truphone’s case this is a big deal because they would suddenly have an added available user base of many many million potential users.  Truphone is the only widely known mobile VOIP (only, leaving out IM clients) client and they are very popular in some circles but unfortunately totally unknown in most.  The interoperability with Skype would give them in my opinion the potential for instant fame.  They would be the most known interoperable mobile VOIP client and suddenly be thrust into the spotlight.
As far as the “Next Billion” goes, I tend to see for example people in India using VOIP over Skype more often for a variety of reasons, including the ability to put mobile VOIP on Nokia phones more easily then Skype. The fact that Skype is the most used internet telephone in world suddenly being able to communicate with  mVOIP would give people in India the chance to communicate, with hundreds of millions of additional people the world over.  They would be able to do more business, talk to family and just interact with more people the world over.
Essentially besides Michael Robertson the creator of Gizmo Project and the GP board/investors, I think Truphone has the potential to come out gaining the most out of this acquisition.  It might work nicely for Nokia too being the easiest devices to put your SIP details into and start making calls.

I guess we’ll all just have to wait and see how all this play out, We may not know if Skype is going to buy Gizmo Project potentially until mid December because Skype is still trying to fight the lawsuits and come up with their own work around.  I don’t really foresee Skype wanting to part with the rumored $50 million for GP but they just may be backed into a corner.  If it does go thorough though it would be a huge win for Michael, so good luck to you and GP.

Logo credit to blog.tmcnet.com

My friends over at Nimbuzz announced some exciting news yesterday.  They have finally updated their app and it now includes VOIP.
They are focused on bridging the 3G VoIP gap on the iPhone – anywhere.

Here are some highlight of the new app.

>With free Wi-Fi calls to instant messaging buddies already available, we added a full dial-pad, and the ability to make VoIP calls to landlines and mobile phones with Skype Out, and via our 10 VoIP partners including Gizmo5, Vyke, sipgate and A1.
You can even see the available Skype Out credit you have directly on the dial pad!

>If Wifi is unavailable you can make VoIP calls to Nimbuzz buddies using Nimbuzz Dial-Up VoIP in over 50 countries. Dial-Up VoIP? What this means is that Nimbuzz dials a local access number that connects to anywhere in the world via Nimbuzz VoIP servers. So you can call your Nimbuzz buddies anywhere for the same cost of a domestic call.

>Turn iPod touch into an iPhone! Make calls over Wi-Fi via Skype Out or via VoIP provider.

>Upgraded interface with much improved usability and the awesome landscape-mode chat.

I’m really happy to see this as they were one of the winners in our TopMobile20 competition.

By Jeb Brilliant
Chief Editor
I had a really nice conversation with Jeff Rice today.  He’s the CEO at DeFi Mobile (disclosure, they provide me with VOIP).  I had some pointed questions I wanted to ask but we started off with what they are up to right now (the good stuff).  First though I should tell you that DeFi is a Mobile VOIP provider, working over wifi networks with a list of thousands it auto connects to and only costs $40/month for unlimited calls.

Now to let the cat out of the bag, DeFi has their app being reviewed by the iPhone people so they can get it into the iPhone App Store.  This is big for people living in the States.  There are many times more iPhones here then Nokia N and E Series devices, so they hope this means that the general public here in the US will start to download DeFi on to their iPhones and get a taste of Mobile VOIP.  And DeFi will be offering all new accounts a 101 free minutes anytime and to anywhere in the world.  So you can call landlines and mobiles.  You will also be able to always call for free other DeFi users, other VOIP providers, iNum #rs, Google Chat folks, and hopefully soon Skype folks.  So that’s what’s going on at the moment with DeFi.

To get started with DeFi once their iPhone app is available you will just have to download it and give them your mobile # and email address and poof your in business.  This is a great opportunity for couples to talk to each other for hours at a time or companies with globally located employees to talk, all for free.  This is just a stepping stone for folks to then pay the $40/month and get flat rate unlimited calls to anybody on any network, anywhere in the world.  Maybe even disrupt the big telcos by lowering your minute plans with them.

One very interesting and important innovation by DeFi is that they are going to be giving out iNum numbers in the future.  This iNum is a very new concept giving people a # geared toward being used around the world and not being chained to a geographic location.

On a side note, Jeff is currently using a Nokia E51, E71 and iPhone.

Thank you to Jeff Rice for his time and Tim Warner for making this happen.

Sometimes I have to pinch myself I feel so lucky.  I was sent an Asus Eee PC 901 late last week and have been amazed with it from the moment I took it out of the box.  I will go into more detail about the netbook in future posts but for the time being I just want to share my overall feelings and thoughts on it.

It is small.  When I said I wanted a small computer I really got what I asked for.  This 901 barely fits my 2 hands.  I am trying to get used to it but my hands are cold this morning.  There will be a learning curve but I think I’m getting it and it really isn’t difficult.  I have been really been trying to keep this thing light in terms of what  I install on it.  I think I have only installed 6 programs.  First and foremost Firefox, then Skype, SightSpeed then AVG, TweetDeck, and last but by no means least Boingo.   I could even cut that list down if I was really desperate.  It did come loaded with MS software, but I haven’t used or plan to use either.  I am doing all I can to keep this fully cloud based.  I just need to get to the cloud and interface with it.

One of the first things I did after installing Skype was have a video chat with my sister in Argentina.  The quality was what I have come to expect from Skype so we switched right over to SightSpeed and she told me how good the camera is on this netbook.  I was really happy to hear that.  I can also comment on the speaker volume and quality and say that it is adequate.

I want to address a common question I have heard about the 901 already.  What is the battery life  like?  Well I can use the netbook on and off all day, I’d say about 5 hours and be fine.  I don’t know yet how watching videos will affect the battery.  I do know though that the graphics card has a bit of catching up to do.  I was streaming over Hulu.com last night and got a few freezes.  A quick pause and play of the video fixed it but it was definitely noticeable.

I have spent more time on the couch with this in the last few days then I have with my MacBook in the last 6 months.  The Asus Eee PC 901 is extremely portable.

I will give it a huge thumbs up and point out my only disappointment I can find at this point.  I would like to see the right shift key  where it belongs, which is unfortunately right where the up arrow is.  My suggestion is that Asus goes back and splits the down key into up and down.  Then they can make the Shift and question mark keys a tad bit larger.

In conclusion of this first post on the 901 my suggestion is go out and purchase one.  If you are looking for a good solid netbook at a good price I think this one will fit the bill.

If you have any questions fire away.

So I’m shopping for a UMPC or Ultra Mobile Personal Computer, it’s a really small and light laptop and I have all kinds of questions.

What are the brands I should be looking at? What do I want out of it? What features must be present? And what are my minimum hardware requirements.

Well my options are vast, there is Asus, Acer, MSI, HP, Dell, Lenovo, Sony, and a whole bunch of other brands I can’t think of right now.

I want a UMPC also known as a NetBook to have a few key components. For starters an Atom processor, 1 gig of ram minimum, bluetooth and a 6 cell battery (I would like it to last at least 4 hours at a minimum). I need this thing to be a work horse for a single task at a time. I will be using it for entertainment for my daughter when we travel, so she can watch movies on a 14 hour flight. I need it for email, surfing the web, IM and video conferencing the rest of the time. I plan to run my email over GMail so that will be in a web browser and then I will be surfing the web in the same app. I have also been hearing good things about Meebo, it’s an IM client that runs in a web browser. So there is most of what I need all based in one single app. I also need to run Skype separately and SightSpeed/Dell Video Chat when I get alerted that someone wants to do a video conference. SightSpeed is great when the bandwidth is at a minimum.

So there you have it, I will probably run 4 apps regularly on the UMPC. Now which one should I get? I can’t just go to the store and play with them, most electronic stores don’t sell them yet and if they do it’s probably only 1 or 2 brands and models. I don’t want to go online and purchase 5 or more netbooks just to return all but 1. So I need to rely on my readers to give me some advice. What do you plan on buying or what do you have already?

Lastly do I want a solid state drive (SSD) or a regular spinning hard drive (HD)? And do I want it to run Linux or XP?

I’m leaning toward the Asus 901 for $429 , the Acer Aspire 1 for $399, Dells high end offering for $494 (specked the way I want it), or the MSI Wind for $506. I just can’t decide.  I would prefer it to run XP.

I was in San Jose airport last week waiting to fly home and was told there was free wifi.  I had a few hours to kill and I went to the Bits & Bytes bar, plopped down ordered a Tuna sandwich and a beer expecting to spend a few hours working.  Well, low and behold, don’t fall over anybody, the wifi in the airport was terrible.  I was able to connect on and off for about 30 min, then it went totally dark.  Of course it was in the middle of a Skype chat with Andy Abramson who was in the next terminal over and we were trying to coordinate meeting up.  Well, that never happened and I blame it on the crappy wifi.  I’m learning more and more that free public wifi in airports can’t even be counted on to check email and IM with friends.  I wasn’t expecting to make a video call, but I didn’t think retrieving my email should be so taxing on the airports wifi infrastructure.

Anyways, that’s another airport that gets a big fat zero in my book.