New Skype Phone Adapter
Friday, June 17, 2005
I’ve been testing out a new Skype phone adapter and I thought I’d go ahead and mention it here in case anyone is in the market. This unit was purchased from this eBay store for $44.99. It shipped overseas to Houston in about 4 days, which was unexpected. What makes this unit a little unique from the others that we have tested is the fact that it combines a standard phone line and your Skype account and uses them over the same phone.
It’s a USB device that attaches itself to your computer (PC only) as a new sound card. No drivers were necessary for Windows XP, but you do have to load their software to make it work with Skype.
Once connected, it works great. Incoming phone calls or Skype calls both ring on a standard telephone, and the conversation quality is good. To make a call, simply pick up your phone and hit the * button to switch between Skype and your regular telephone. It totally supports Skype-out as well as speed-dial numbers for your Skype contacts.
There are a couple of down-sides to this unit. First, if you have a Skype contact assigned a speed-dial, then you have to have them shown on the screen for it to work. What this means is, you must ‘show offline contacts’ if you want it to work all the time. Otherwise, when you dial, you just get nothing. And since I use this with a cordless phone, I am never by my machine to see who is on-line and who isn’t. But that's not to say that Skype has to be active on the screen at all times - when you pick up the phone, Skype opens on your screen, and when you hang up it minimizes.
The second issue, which is probably the biggest, is the fact that it activates both interfaces at the same time when you pick up the phone. So if you make or receive a Skype call, incoming calls on the POTS line will get a busy signal.
All-in-all, though, I am going to keep this one…
posted by Russell @ 10:41 AM,
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