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Skype Gear

News, comments, reviews from Skype and partners by the Skype hardware team. Tell Skypegear how your Skype phone helps you at work, at home or on the move for your chance to win a brand new Skype phone every month... E-mail your entries to skypegear@skype.net.

Virtual Holiday Party over SkypeDecember 22 2008

Photo by Adam Vogel

'Tis the season of holiday parties. This Christmas I've been to quite a few; it's been great to catch up with friends and colleagues over mulled wine and mince pies. But what can you do if you want to celebrate but don't live near your friends and colleagues? Over Twitter I recently learned about Kyle Sheldon-Chandler, a woman who has been having a virtual holiday party over Skype with one of her clients for the past five years. Kyle runs a virtual assistant services company, and was kind enough to answer a few questions for me:

Skype Gear: I happened to notice on Twitter that you're having virtual holiday parties over Skype--how long have you been doing this?

Kyle Sheldon-Chandler: I have been doing a virtual Christmas party with my client for 5 years.

SG: How does it work? Do you have a different party with each client?

KSC: I only do this with one client. We schedule our date and time and then get ready to have some fun. At the appointed time, one of us calls the other on Skype, we have our dinner or snacks and

Holiday Gear News RoundupDecember 16 2008

Happy holidays! Here are some recent stories about how Skype can be used to spread holiday cheer:

• Here are two good guides for how to for have video chats over Skype and use Skype generally. if you're reading this blog you probably already know this stuff, but they could be a good for forwarding to family and friends who aren't using Skype yet. Also, here's a video on how to Skype.

People who are cutting back on travel during the holidays can use Skype to keep in touch instead.

Soldiers are using Skype to keep in touch with their families when they can't be home for Christmas. They're also sharing war stories with students over Skype.

And students are learning new languages or about different cultures through Skype.

As Skype becomes more of a standard, one journalist calls on other journalists to use Skype more.

And here's another review of the Asus AiGuru SV1 Videophone that I recently reviewed. It could be a great holiday gift...

Skype for FilmmakingDecember 11 2008

We've seen some interesting uses of Skype on webcams recently (including a roving robot and sight for a blind man)--here's another. Barak Kassar, the director of a digital communications / marketing firm, recently was able to direct a film his staff were making in San Francisco via Skype from Spain.

Kassar was able to watch the monitors as they were filming and give an actor tips--though at one point his staff muted him and it took quite a bit to get their attention:



Kassar said on his blog that he was pleased with the experiment, and liked that he could avoid such a long flight.

Have you ever done something unexpected over a webcam? Let us know in the comments.

[Via

Well hello, Asus AiGuru SV1December 3 2008

It was with great fanfare that the first Skype Certified videophone, the Asus AiGuru SV1, officially launched last month. I've had one around my office for a few days now; it makes video calling really easy to do--read on for my review.

First impressions:

The box includes the AiGuru SV1, battery, AC adapter, ethernet cable and documentation. It's a very attractive device--big but not too big, solid but not too heavy. It hinges on its base so you can adjust where the camera points to, and it has a built-in battery so you can move it around your home or office while having it based in one place. It's the sort of thing that would be perfect for my parents to have an AiGuru SV1 in their kitchen. They could very easily have video chats with family and friends while cooking or hanging about, or take it to other rooms to show things or chat from the couch.

Functionality

The reason it can move from room to room is its built-in wireless connectivity. After you first turn on the AiGuru SV1 and select your language, it displays a list of available wireless networks. If your network is WEP or WPA encrypted, you can type in the network password on the SV1's on-screen keyboard. You type in you username and password in the same way.



Once you're signed in you see the familiar Skype interface, with icons laid horizontally for Settings, Search, Add Contact, Call phones, Contacts, History, Status, See myself and Account. They're pretty self-explanatory.
Settings includes options for Video, Sound, Profile, Calls, Privacy, Network and Advanced. The contacts menu is organized in a smart way, with contacts broken down into groups according to what letter they start with--this is a lot easier than having to scroll through a long list of contacts vertically.



And how does it work? Well you can see a video of it in action here:

Hands on with 3's new INQ1 phoneNovember 19 2008

Today I had the chance to check out the new INQ1 phone from 3. Like on the 3 Skypephones S1 and S2, Skype is built in--you can make calls for free using Skype (or for cheap using your Skype credit) from wherever you are. The phone is also big on Internet features and Facebook integration. It will be available from 3 in the UK very soon.

Hardware-wise, the phone feels quite solid in your hand, and the flipping open the keypad is quite satisfying. The buttons offer a good amount of feedback. Software-wise, the BREW interface is clear and clean, and it has many nice features, including widgets on the home screen and an automatic change from portrait to landscape mode in the browser when you turn the phone.

Here's a video I made showing off the INQ1's user interface and Skype functionality.