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Blogging ’bout my sparkling new Skypephone!
In case the page-spanning image and not-so-cryptic title didn’t quite explain the subject matter of the post, let me explain further: I bought myself a brand-spanking new Skypephone the other day and it is, to use some local slang, fit to fuck.
I’ve been meaning to buy one of these ever since I first heard about them on the internets but have kept putting it off for some reason or other. Why did I want one? Interesting question inquisitive reader, as I am not an active Skype user and really only have one contact. Of course, this happens to be my girlfriend so I have already found myself using it a lot, but the main reason for me wanting a Skypephone is that it just looks so damn pretty – as I think my own amateurish attempts at gadget pornography would attest.
Fortunately for my stretched finances, I have already been able to find a use for the little white and blue lump beyond simply photographing it and writing a blog post about it. Interestingly, this is the first low-end phone I’ve owned in about three years, having been wrapped up in various contracts and bogged down with hugely overpowered ‘mobile devices’, and it’s the first that I’ve actually felt inspired to explore. Maybe it’s the relatively cheap internet access fee, or it could be the fact that the central feature – the Skype connectivity – gives it a greater sense of internet integration than any other handset I’ve owned, but I’ve dived into the WAP/wireless features with far more aplomb than before. And I don’t do much of anything with aplomb.
So, in the last couple of days I’ve been browsing the web (nothing interesting there), watching mobile TV, downloading music videos (although the quality wasn’t sufficient enough to enjoy Cheryl Tweedy’s rack to the extent I would have hoped), and checking the weather – and I’m almost seventy-four percent positive that I will carry on using the phone for it’s range of online features.
Another bonus I didn’t expect to enjoy is Skype chatting. In the future, I strongly believe that every phone should display text message conversations in the standard IM format as this just makes everything sooooo much easier. The fact that chatting doesn’t cost me any extra money is quite cool, but nothing compared to the fact that you actually feel like you’re engaging your friend in a discussion rather than blurting disjointed 140 character long shout-outs.
Finally, I’m happy to say that it is the nicest looking phone I’ve owned so far and the interface is nicely stylised in a minimalstic fashion. The Planet 3 parts are typically garish as you would expect, but I’ll forget they existed as quickly as I did with Orangeworld on my other mobbies. Speaking of which, I’m not making any attempt to replace my existing Sony Ericsson with the Skypephone – simply because I can’t be bothered to go through the hassle of changing my number. As such, the shiny, new dude is still finding it’s role in my multi-digitised lifestyle, but there’s plenty of room next to my Eee PC in my man-bag so I’m sure it will either float or sink in time…
One thing that will make this an indispensable tool in the arsenal of my life 2.0 is if I could hook it up to act as a USB modem on my Eee PC (which is not a name that is growing on me by the way). Anyone know how to do this?
More images at my Flickr gallery by the way – special thanks to my Nephew Joe for taking the device through its paces…
