Inconsistency

I posted an update on this phone here.

First off, I am using Skype not because I am a phone person. As some of you might know, AT&T had failed to provide me any reception at home. There has not been one call where it ran smoothly. Worst yet, Apple signed an exclusive deal with AT&T and I am stuck with them for another 2 years.

Tired of complaining all day, it was time to try Skype. I bought some Skype credits and had since use Skype as my main phone at home. Skype is incredibly cheap, a $10 credit can usually last me for a couple months. I trusted the sound and microphone quality of my Macbook Pro and had refused to purchase any additional hardware at that time.

After months of usage, I keep hearing the same comments: “Are you on Speakphone?”, “I can’t hear you”, “I hear a lot of echo”. It was a really stressful situation. It’s not like we just invented phone a year ago. What do I need to do to get some decent phone service?

I decided to research about Skype phones. There are quite a lot listed on Skype.com, but either they are expensive or they look ugly. I finally did a search on Amazon, and had found the phone that solved all my problems.

What I bought is this:

The brand is IPEVO and the product is a USB handset for Skype. What prompt me to purchase was the sleek design and the fact that it won a couple Product Design awards.

Pros
I am glad I purchased it. I had taken a lot of conference calls with the phone and had no trouble with it. The phone itself is small and looks great alongside my MacBook Pro. The sound quality is amazing. The controls of the phone had integrated with Skype rather nicely. As long as I keep Skype and its driver running, I can just pick up the phone and start dialing a new number or people on my Skype contact list.

Cons

The driver crashes all the time. It is less of a problem for a Mac user since my computer provides a dialog box asking if I want to restart the application. Not sure how that will work for a PC user. The other caveat is the phone is not heavy enough to sit nicely on the dock. It just keeps falling face down on my desk all the time. The third con is they should have made this wireless. I just don’t need another gadget that adds to all the wires around my laptop.

Overall
I will definitely recommend to anyone who uses Skype. The price if $27.99 is definitely a winner.

Update:
I am using it with my MacBook Pro and you have to download the driver here.  Since my post I had been having some issues.  Mostly with sound quality.

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