Hands On with Ooma

Upon joining Dash, I gave up the seemingly unlimited supply of phones and service provided by Sling. Plus, I had dumped Vonage in Feburary after two and a half years – the call quality/connectivity had simply deteriorated to the point of being unusable. So, of course, I’ve burned through all my iPhone minutes (and rollover … Read more

Skype 2.6 Mac Beta

Skype is out with a beta (“experienced users only”) client for Mac OS X. While several of the new features play catch-up to the Windows app, Mac users do get one exclusive… Call Transfer. TechCrunch tried it out and had this to say: When you are on a Skype call, you can transfer it to … Read more

My Vonage Line Is Safe For Now (Bummer)

To recap… Verizon went after Vonage, claiming patent infringement. The jury agreed that Vonage infringed on three of Verizon’s patents, ordering $56 million in repayment plus future royalties. The court seemed to move towards a total injunction, but yesterday GigaOm reported on Verizon’s propsal: Judge Claude Hilton has issued an injunction that bars Vonage from … Read more

Hands On With Netgear Dual Mode Skype Phone

netgear-skype1.jpg

I must preface this post by saying Netgear gifted me with their new $199 Dual Mode Skype Phone, part of my CES Blogger In Residence prize package (AKA ‘Dave got paid’). So, it’s entirely possible I’m not objective and therefore I won’t do a formal review. Having said that, quite a few products sit (unopened) on my floor for months waiting to be reviewed… whereas I immediately put this phone into production when I returned from CES.

Unlike Netgear’s previous WiFi Skype phone, this model has a base station which you wire to your home router. The base station will also accept a telephone connection from your “land line” — hence the “dual-mode” moniker: Skype + Land Line. Which brings me to the first point (of two) that I wanted to share…

Read more