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Thanks to Nick Starr’s last minute reminder, I picked up Skype unlimited calling for $14.95. Its was too good of a price to pass up. I have no use for a SkypeIn number right now as I use my cell for everything but my problem is i have almost no cell service when I’m inside my house so the SkypeOut is handy if I need to make some calls.

Since I no longer had my BT headset for my cell, I went down to to CompUSA to pick up a USB headset. While looking at the headsets, I came across some of the phone handsets that work with Skype. Unfortunately they were all Windows only…except one. The Keyspan Wireless VOIP Phone had a nice sticker on it that says PC + Mac. The packaging looked a little shady and the $79 kinda turned me off but I picked it up anyways. If it worked good, it would be worth it but if not, I have the receipt and a USB headset from Logitech to fall back on. I went to work right after so I started reading some reviews on it. Everyone seemed to say it was a solid phone is good range and voice quality. I finally got home and hooked it up.

Thoughts:

The phone is small and seems a little cheap but once you start to use it, it feel more solid. The package comes with 3 AAA rechargeable batteries that can be recharged via an included USB cable. Setup was fairly easily as I already had Skype installed. Insert the CD, mount the DMG and install. It install just a Wireless driver that allows the phone to communicate with Skype directly. The driver it installs is not Universal yet but since it loads on boot up and you never have to actually run anything, you’d be hard pressed to tell. I’ve also read from various reviews that when you have an incoming call, the handset will not ring. Since I do not have SkypeIn, I have no way to test this. It has been said its a known issue and should be fixed in a software update.

The phone’s LCD display is tiny. Its readable and usable but tiny. Shows me signal, battery level and status which is good enough for me. My only problem is my SkypeOut contacts only show as numbers and not names like actually Skype Accounts do. So I have to either dial the number or initiate the call from Skype directly. From the phone you can startup Skype, set your status, see whos online and close the Skype window. Call quality is good, surprisingly good actually. On par with a 2.4Ghz phone. I can walk around my house, about 900 square feet, without losing any quality.

All in all, it was $79 well spent. There are a few small things that could be polished and a universal binary of the driver would be nice but it serves it purpose and it serves it well.

January - started using Mac OS X

February - built dedicated computer to run Mac OS X on

March - Starting using iTunes to manager my media

April - stopped using Bloglines, switched from Exchange to Google Mail and Google Calendar, bought a Jimi wallet

May - switched Layout, Skype is free for the rest of the year, started a new job, Macbook’s released, went to grand opening of Apple 5th Ave store, bought my Macbook

June - joined valleyshwag, MC360 released for XBMC, bought a Nintendo DS Lite, canceled my Final Fantasy XI account after 3 years

July - switched to Flock, Macbook got hit with discoloration, started running using the Nike+iPod kit, Macbook Random Reboots started

August - switched from del.icio.us to Shadows, started using OpenDNS, got hard to find Trauma Center and Phoenix Wright for the DS, new mc chris and Evanescence albums, bought the Timbuk2 blogger bag

September - started new full-time job, fall TV season starts, bought a Xbox360 after Guitar Hero 2 is announced with new controller, canceled my Myspace account

October - got tickets for macworld 2007, Xbox360 troubles, 300 trailer, Macbook RSS fixed, bought my first Blackberry, my Xbox360 has its own blog

November - interviewed for MacNewsWorld, Gears of War, Guitar Hero II and Elite Beat Agents all released on same day, turned 28, XBL Video Marketplace released, subscribed to Netflix and Gamefly, bought an HD DVD

December - Geekdrome dead, started reading comics again, finally found out what all the hype about Battlestar Galactica, Veronica Mars and Greys Anatomy was all about

Remember those free Flickr Minicards from Moo a few weeks ago. After one lost shipments and a couple emails, I finally received mine today. Very nice alternative to business cards. My photos didn’t come out that great which I attribute to all of them being taken with my old shitty HP Photosmart 315 camera. The Skype Minicards looks really cool too but while I have a Skype account, I do not have a SkypeOut account.

Just received an email from Skype stating that all call within the US are now free. This includes to all landline and cell phones. This is AWESOME considering they just released a Universal binary for OS X last week. Only downside to this is that its only good for the rest of the year. Its still a good solid 6 months. I’ve been toying with the idea of switching to Skype for my landline for a new months now and now this plus the universal binary for OS X has pretty much made my decision. Next I need to look at Skype compatible phones and make the switch.

Here are what I’ve been using as replacements for my Windows apps:
WindowsXP>OSX

Web Browser: Firefox>Safari
Email: Outlook>Entourage
Bittorrent: utorrent>Azureus
IRC: mIRC>Colloquy
Blogging: ecto>ecto
Flickr: Flickr Uploader>iPhoto/Flickr Export
Comics: CDisplay>ComicBookLover
MP3 Tagger: Tag&Rename/Musicbrainz>Media Rage/IEatBrainz/Export Artwork
Music: Winamp>iTunes
Last.fm: Audioscrobber for Winamp/Last.fm Player>iScrobbler/Last.fm Player
P2P: Limewire>Limewire
Office: Office 2003>Office 2004
Compression: WinRAR>Stuffit
PSP - PSPWare>iPSP
DVD ripping: DVDShrink>Handbrake/MactheRipper
FTP: FlashFXP>Transmit
Video Player: Windows Media Player>VLC
Xbox: Qwix>Xbox Browser
Burning: Nero>Toast
IM: AIM/Google Talk>iChat/Adium
Webpage: Nvu>Nvu
Finance: Quickbooks 2004>Quickbooks 2006 for Mac
VOIP: Ventrilo/TeamSpeak/Skype>Ventrilo/TeamSpeex
Todo list: Google Desktop with Todo Plugin>High Priority
Text: Notepad>Textmate
Photos: Pisaca>iPhoto

Some cool new programs:
Coverflow
GarageSale
MyMySpaceMail

Favorite Widgets:
I was never a fan of Konfabulator,now Yahoo Widgets. I never found anything really useful to me but I got to say I’m loving Dashboard. Here are some of my favorite non-default widgets:

Now Playing (Tivo)
TV Tracker
Bloglines Notifier
EasyEnvelopes
Stats for Adsense

Issues:
Ventrilo and Teamspeex can only use Speex codec, default is GSM, Have to change it on the server to work.
Quickbooks not up to par with Windows Version, tho i haven’t tried QB 2006 yet.
Skype not working on Intel Macs.
Office 2004 sluggish, Rosetta
ecto sluggish. Rosetta
Needed to used a patched version of Azureus
Firefox not Universal Binary yet, sluggish, Rosetta

Things I can’t do on Mac I can on Windows (so far):
Update the firmware on my MPx220 cell phone. Updater is Windows only.

Upgraded to the new Wordpress 2.0 late last night. Upgrade went pretty smoothly with no problems. Most new stuff looks to be under the hood but new admin console is nice as is the new “Write Post” editor. Noticed a few little AJAX additions that look to be a nice time saver. Took the time to remove the “Skype Me” button as i don’t have Skype installed atm. I may add it back in if i ever start using Skype again. Added a “My Diggs” sidebar section which displays what I’ve been digging on Digg.com. Last i changed from the WP-Scrobbler plug in to Scrobbler. Was getting tired of the section being blank when i had nothing in my Recently Played on Last.fm. Scrobbler handles it a little nicer by adding a “Not Listening” when my list is empty.