Fun With VoIP, Netgear’s New WiFi Skype Phone
I’m not sure how I missed this, but it seems Netgear is coming out with a WiFi Skype phone that looks very slick:
I don’t use Skype for calling friends, however nabbing this phone and using SkypeOut to call their regular numbers seems pretty fly. I read somewhere that the bummer is that there’s no web interface for the phone, so if you’re at an airport or another “hotspot” that you don’t control and have to login through the web to use, you won’t be able to do so, so no free calls. But at home I think that could be really badass.
I do use VoIP in my “office” already: I have a Cisco 7940 hooked up to VoicePulse Connect, with my G5 acting as the Asterisk server. Running Asterisk on my work computer (with Photoshop, Mail, TextMate, Adium, iTunes and Transmit running 100% of the time) takes the voice quality down a few notches, so I’m seriously considering buying an Intel Mac mini, sticking it and the Cisco phone on its own switch, and then running Asterisk on the mini to boost phone quality. Add to that the new Netgear Wifi Skype phone and a SkypeIn number and I’ve got some serious hotness.
So what’s your VoIP situation look like? Are you already running VoIP? Is it through your cable provider, Vonage, or a do-it-yourself plan like VoicePulse? What’s up?
