Slashdot Mirror
Siemens Sells Skype Adapters For Wireless Phones
prostoalex writes "In a recent Slashdot story on Skype CEO interview some comments expressed displeasure with the fact that you have to be tied up to your computer to make those VOIP calls via Skype. Not anymore - this adapter from Siemens plugs into the USB port of the computer and allows Siemens Gigaset S645, Gigaset S440/445 or Gigaset C340/345 phone models to use the Skype connection instead of landline. News.com has the story."
i wonder if this will bring competition down to a realistic level for the real phone rates.
i guess a man can wish, cant he?
There are several products that do exactly this with regular household handsets and with standard VOIP programs. Why is this news just because Skype is doing it? Oh yeah, Skype rhymes with hype. I see the connection.
--
WHO ATE MY BREAKFAST PANTS?
in the highlights seccion:
Display of Internet alerts (e.g. weather, stock market), Instant Messaging (IMS) on handset
Very nice. It would be nice if I could IM someone through a cell phone without being stuck in front of a computer.
Having a phone is relatively expensive here (at least compared to how little I actually use it). This makes it easier to switch to voip. :-)
IAAAL - I am actually a lawyer
So here's my dilemma. I look across the ocean and see that Eastern countries like Japan and Korea have VoIP integrated directly into the phone network. None of this "plug the doodad into the USB port and talk through the cheap Soundblaster microphone" crap. You actually just use the phone like your normal phone and it automatically uses VoIP for all calls.
The charges for long distance are apparently very low, though not eliminated, altogether. This is the only benefit I can see to strapping a headset on and sitting in front of your computer rather than walking around with a normal 2.4GHz cordless phone.
But what's the hold up? Why can't the Western countries get their technologies up to speed with Eastern countries? You can't tell me that it's a problem of "vast spaces" because this is a problem at the central switching network level, not something esoteric like bandwidth falloff.
You may think that the Asians are supreme copycats, but when it comes to technology, sometimes I wish that the West would copycat right back.
It's a slashvertisement :(
Online backup with Mozy, sounds like Ozzie, but more!
Heck, at almost no extra cost it could even include a small router(that could be disabled), so if the customer doesn't already have a router they just plug their computer into the box rather than the other way around. This just makes sense on so many levels, where as using a USB connection through a computer (and the required software that must go along with it) is really ugly.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
My latest credit card bill showed two charges from Skype, though I've never heard of them before (or used their services, to my knowledge)... Two separate charges, each for $32.34, on the same day.
This may not technically be on topic, but I'm hoping someone might be able to shed light on what might have caused this, apart from credit card theft/fraud. Anyone? (Help!) Thanks!
Weeks of coding saves hours of planning.
...Shadowrun, the pencil and paper role play game (ignoring the whole mysticism aspect), or read William Gibson's books?
VoIP communications proliferating around the western world, phones with 3D-accelerated chipsets, desktops with 3D environments, UI's that operate via trodes on the skin, WAN's LAN's and PAN's integrating hardware, software, and wetware...
The technology is getting very cool. Now if only we can keep the politics out.
I can see a day when your ISP will link to another ISP via Wi-Max (or an equivelant tech), and another ISP, and another... creating an independant Internet not reliant on a wired and "restrained by Big Brother" infrastructure.
Your phone calls will be over VoIP through either your PC, PDA, or mobile phone. Your email will be routed through independant nodes remaining detached from governmental or multinational corporate infrastructure.
The space program will progress to the degree where many more privately owned satellites will be launched into space and create a global network that overcomes the latency and dataflow problems of satellite sheerly through it's if not anything else.
People, technically minded ones, will drive for more "personally empowering" software - mainly communications software that increases the speed, scope, and deliverable nature of all manner of data.
We will encounter a "wall" where the government tries to grasp control of this exponentially growing network, and the wall will be broken through.
These are strange days for tech. Big companies are embracing technology for the soul purpose of squeezing every dollar, pound, and euro out of it, while the public and the publically minded private enterprises are pushing for person-orientated tech.
We are looking at the beginning of a technological cold-war.
It's between you who would use the technology available to you to better your life, and those who would have you remain ignorant - eating happy sound-bites and tasting media tidbits.
Good for Siemens. I like it when companies put out useful tech. Hopefully they will produce more of this kind of technology in the future.
His name is Robert Paulsen...
Props to Siemens for being the first to jump on this bandwagon, but why still use the 'plain old phone'?
e ts/65ff/
Nowadays, World+Dog has a PC with built in WiFi and Bluetooth support. Or else you buy an USB adapter at the local supermarket. Instead of using a telephone to access skype, use a Bluetooth headset like this one: http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/speakers/heads
It shouldn't be too hard to program a speech-to-text interface to allow you to "call" one of your contacts by speaking the name. And if you don't want to be caught speechdialing, there must be other alternatives. You could run a small program on your cellphone to control skype while walking around the house.
The solution Siemens offered here is a nice way to cut costs on long distances calls, but not really groundbreaking. I'd like to see a company build an 'out-of-the-box' remote solution for Skype.
In fact, this is more generally a DECT interface for computers, with the SDK, you can basically make software to run on your (siemens) portable phone and only be limited by your imagination.
...
If only there was linux drivers
#include "coucou.h"
yeah, if you like outrageous fees
Using a Senheisser wireless microphone,
and matching receiver (likely used for
either surveillance or performance?),
we get the user's voice to Skype.
Computer's speakers get the remote user's
voice back to the local user (eg, in a
family or workgroup/meeting setting).
More on this (dated) Senheisser gear:
Transmitter has built-in mic, receiver
has mono line-output; each is the size
of a small pack of cigarettes, contains
a short (1.5 - 2") antenna & uses 6 x AA
cells. Apparently crystal controlled freq.
(around 46 MHz? Freq likely varies with
country / market.)
I guess a cheap stage-ready wireless mic.
& FM radio with line-output would work.
Any better ideas?
I've been reading about Skype recently but have not got around to installing it. I believe it was written by the same people who wrote Kazaa. That set off a few alarm bells for me. Anyone know of any security/spyware issues? What are your experiences of running it on Linux?
Of course, they also have those phones that plug into the USB port... since long time ago. Or run a fax machine in the second port (up to 3 devices with Packet 8).
So, how is this news or better from what has been available for quite a while?
There are open standards for Voice over IP, and Skype does not use them - they try to "hijack" the VoIP-market with their own proprietary standard.
There is one thing, however, just one thing that I crave so bad for that I can't get over here: QUALITY TURKEY GRAVY!!!!!!!
You see, you just need to use:
http://www.qualityturkeygravy.co.jp
instead of:
http://www.qualityturkeygravy.com
Your hybrid is not saving the environment. Its purpose is to make you feel good about buying something.
I know that some of those Siemens phones are actually standard DECT devices which in theory means they can interoperate. In other words, once a handset is registered to the base, it can be used no matter who it comes from.
Quote from skype.com:
"I knew it was over when I downloaded Skype," Michael Powell, chairman, Federal Communications Commission, explained. "When the inventors of KaZaA are distributing for free a little program that you can use to talk to anybody else, and the quality is fantastic, and it's free - it's over. The world will change now inevitably."
Fortune Magazine, February 16, 2004
This has been around for months. And is not bound to proprietary standards, having a computer running, or even being at home! I am so fookin tired of all the Skype hype! "As Seen on TV" used to be the phrase. Now it is more like "Ware doo eye klik?"... ooh, pretty colors!
Why would this affect your cellphone bill? This device is for DECT phones, not for cell phones.
A DECT phone is just an ordinary phone, but without that annoying cord that keeps getting twisted and never seems to be long enough.
Back in the dark old days of before JFK to date (got to use something the US folks understand (grins)), the GPO (General Post Office) in the UK ruled everything. They could if they wished walk into your house and take away your tape recorder (reel to reel of course) or anything else if they thought you were
transmitting something they didnt approve of. Even if they were wrong, you'd normally get said kit back mangled because they weren't the nice guys (there I did say that nicely don't you think (grins)).
So, here we are expecting PTT's to do the innovative thing. Not likely.
That's the model across many countries. Monolithic, mind dullingly soviet comms monopolies.
The asians and others have the luxury that they are starting from scratch, so VoIP is a great idea
which will grow really fast...
I for one like SkyPE. Just started using it a couple of days back, had some really good chats with folks in Finland, Taiwan. Giggles. This is almost better than being G8VUP (not active now)
If you know that you want to talk to somebody (say in a collaboration about business or software Skype is close to perfect - and the voice quality
is much better than most reviewers want to admit)
But: watch out for worms that piggyback since its from the Kazaa people. You are leaving your net open since it's P2P.... Watch those ports like a hawk, and keep up to date from the usual sites.
- No encryption support now, none planned.
Skype uses 256-bit AES encryption, which, if implemented properly, should be secure enough for just about anyone.
- No compression on the audio, bandwidth hog.
The speech codec used by Skype outputs a compressed stream which cannot be compressed further; try zipping an MP3 and you will see what I mean.
- Skype rhymes with hype.
How is this relevant?
The other points can be debunked by those who actually use Skype.
Use ISO 8601 dates [YYYY-MM-DD]
one company, Free, started doing it a couple years ago. Unlimited calls between their subscribers and from their subscribers to any national land line.
Very low prices to most places in the West, though by looking for bargain-basement scratch cards, you can find lower. 29.90EUR/month gives you ADSL2+ limited to only what the physical medium can support, with IP, voice and digital television (in "eligible" areas, which means where they unbundled), or 2048/128 IP and voice only where they're using the monopoly's DSLAMs.
Now, there are at least 3 competitor ISPs supplying this kind of service too (all of which, unlike Free, are also traditional telcos, which means a lot, especially if you notice that the former monopoly is one of those three ISPs and is obviously a strong traditional telco player), with another half-dozen me-toos in the starting blocks.
Remember that unmetered calls is something really new here; save for a few "week-ends and evenings providedthatyoudontleaveournetwork" GSM, Free's voice offer is the first unmetered offer on the market. They have now 900K+ subscribers...
So there is a phone compatiable with Skpye now? big deal. Just use SIP and one of the millions of phones out there compatiable with it.
There are some companies offering USB adapters for any handset and any computer: http://www.geekzone.co.nz/content.asp?contentid=36 71
The Siemens model works only with a few handset models made by Siemens only... Pretty close I'd say.
The summary lists a bunch of Siemens handsets that this adapter is compatible with. Siemens' website doesn't mention any compatible phones. Does anyone know whether it would be compatible with my Gigaset 8800? It's part of an expandable phone system, so maybe not.
If not, where could I find a RJ-11-to-VoIP converter for my base station? The system has 2 lines, so I could convert one to VoIP and use the other as a normal land-line. Cool!
There's a company called Telio that offers VoIP, at least in Europe. I just ordered my box. For about US$20/month, I get unlimited free calls to any land-line phone in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Great Britain, Ireland, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg, Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, USA and Canada. I get 100 free minutes every month to land-lines in Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Greece, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Japan and China. After the 100 free minutes, I'll have to pay about US 7c/minute to those countries. The remaining countries are at 25% below Telenor at any time.
The system comes as a small box, where you connect your LAN on one side of the box, and a standard analogue phone on the other side, so no computer is required, and no phone line is required. All you need it broadband in any format, as long as you can plug in an RJ-45 and talk TCP/IP.
And the beauty of it. Next time I go to Canada, I can take the box with me, plug it into my friend's LAN (w/Broadband connection), and voila - my Norwegian home phone number is activated at no extra charge.
Looking at the current comments, I think the point that a lot of people are missing is that Skype isn't just a another VoIP service provider but due to it's SkypeOut service, it also allows a lot of us people internationally to call landlines from our PCs at highly discounted rates with amazing sound quality (and the service just improves as more people use it since it's based on a P2P protocol). Using hardware like that available at www.phoneconnector.com I can now pick up my 2.4 Ghz wireless phone and make calls to other friends who happen to use Skype or calls to landlines internationally at amazing rates. The great thing is it even works with dialup so as a heavy international traveller, due to business, I can make amazingly cheap calls to whoever I want in the world (landline or otherwise) with just skype on my laptop wherever I may be (at an airport in transit, hotel, or even just sitting in the park near a wireless hotspot). Skype has reduced the phone bills of many people, myself included, to almost 25% of what they used to be.
(To Skype itself, not the accessory.)
It must meet these, Skype's current basic functions:
I'm very tempted to give up my cell phone over this. We have no landline phone here, either. My wife has a cell phone, just in case.
(Side note: why doesn't /. allow the cent sign (AKA option-4)?
Would be all you need in conjunction with this IMO real cool device!
DECT Phones like Siemens Gigaset are really common here in Germany.
Olymia DU@Lphone, actually manufactured by RTX
Allows to do both Skype and land-line calls, implements DECT standard.
Base station intrefaces via USB to PC and RJ-11 to PSTN. Better than Siemens product in the way, that it does not require a separate DECT base station to do PSTN calls.
As well as Siemens Gigaset M34 USB , does not have drivers for anything but Windows. I don't think the drivers will be available, because unlike Siemens RTX does not have a signed partnership with Skype.
Said to be available in December, pre-order ~100euros.
Now I wonder if it would be possibe to reverse engineer the thing and make it work with Skype in linux. Hmm, where do we start...
Does anyone know how the software for the Siemens works in Wondows? Does it involve any userspace soft dialer like all those PC/USB-to-RJ11, or the is a direct interface SkypeSiemens USB driver? I would hope for the later....
I can't see much of an advantage to the Skype-to-Landline service as opposed to a cell phone...except for cheap international calls...
In the US, most cell phones come with unlimited nights and weekends. $45/month on a national plan with Cingular/AT&T (one of many that offer the same kind of plans) will get you about 300 minutes of daytime minutes per month. And some companies are already offering free incoming calls...
Most people are either working or in school during the day, so the limited daytime minutes are never going to be a big problem...
So, while I can see the IP-to-IP thing, I simply don't understand the advantage of IP-to-Phone for the average person...businesses maybe, but not home phones...
That's all I gotta say.
Dumbass.
I agree, you really should have used something the US folks understand. I get the "Back in the dark old days" part, but then you have something like a compound prepositional phrase, "of before JFK." To me, "of JFK" would suggest the dark old days were during his time in office, whereas "before JFK" would suggest the time leading up to that. I suppose there could be arguments that either time period was "the dark old days," with preference to the latter for most people. Then, the phrase "to date" is used, which is entirely inexplicable. If you mean "from that time until now" you imply that we are still in the dark old days, which were introduced as a past period of time. If you are referring to JFK's legendary expoits with women, then something is missing, such as "before JFK was old enough to date."
In any case, the goal of understandability has been missed.
Language students: Don't try to learn English here. This ain't it.
The news.com story goes on to point out that these cool things are only being sold in Europe (ESP US$129) right now. Bummer. Cordless would have been great. Skype's http://www.skype.voipvoice.com/shop/default.html USB phone isn't the same.
Skype (with this setup) is largely (let's face it) for calling POTS users. But is there a way to make a call from one of these Gigaset handsets to a Skype user, so you don't have to pay anything, or does it only have a number-pad, so you're locked into paying the 2.x Eurocents per minute?
In France we have a cable company called free.fr. For around $20/month, from one box you get 10MB/s Internet, dozens of TV channels, and free land-line calls across the entire of the country (calling both VoIP and normal fixed lines) using any off-the shelf phone which you can plug in. Calling internationally bills at 2 cents / min.
:-(
The UK are lagging behind, BT offering free calls nationally including fixed-line but using their crappy software and a computer mike/speaker
Phillip.
Property for sale in Nice, France
DECT (digital enhanced cordless telephony) is the ETSI (european) standard for cordless phones (roughly, it describes two 64K channels (I think?), and an authentication "pairing" mechanism -- in fact, Bluetooth adopted some of the architectural features of DECT).
The great thing about DECT/GAP systems is that they are interoperable: so you buy a base station, and can pair additional handsets: even if the handsets are from another manufacturer -- it really works. In the UK, a single handset DECT handset/station will set you back less than £30-50. You'll find that about 70%+ of cordless phones are DECT.
What I've been waiting for is a USB DECT dongle which acts as a DECT Fixed Part (i.e. the base system), and allows Portable Parts (i.e. handsets) to pair with it. Not only would you be able to buy off the shelf mass produced handsets which are inexpensive, but many of these handsets are stylish and fully featured. DECT chipsets are cheap and quite integrated: the physical landscape wouldn't be very large either.
This would be a very cheap and effective way to get existing and new consumers onto VOIP because it solves a large part of the problem: the existing VOIP phones are either expensive (i.e. WIFI or IP based) or ugly and cheap (i.e. USB based , etc).
Further more, because DECT architecture allows for multiple channels to be active at once (e.g. in a house, you can conference between two handsets and the channels are proxied via. the base system, kind of like HostAP mode on 802.11), a clever USB DECT could even proxy calls back to landline based upon routing profile. You could set up your VOIP router to send all local calls back out your physical land line, and it'd be transparent to you. Of course, the downside is you'd need an always on PC, but that's okay for those of us that have 24/7 low power DSL gateways (i.e. VIA or soekris).
Skype uses 256-bit AES encryption [skype.com], which, if implemented properly, should be secure enough for just about anyone.
I think 512 would be secure enough for just about anyone...
mrahahahaha... anyone draw the parallel
There are already a dozen Vonage clones in the market. Skype is doing something different that meets different needs. Since Skype doesn't require any hardware, they got millions of users in a short time. Now stuff like this Siemens gizmo allow people to use regular phones to talk to all those Skype users.
Asterisk is a soft PBX; normal people don't have PBXes, thus normal people would never install Asterisk.
If you want to call other people for free using the Internet standard SIP protocol, FWD provides some free, apparently easy-to-use software to do it. If you want to call real phones, several non-shady VoIP companies offer SIP softphones, although it looks like most people who are paying for SIP service prefer to have a hardware ATA.
If your point is Skype doesn't require any hardware and that matters to someone, then they stick with the PC and software solution. But if Skype is going to offer hardware, it should be a full hardware solution that takes the VoIP data and can connect to any other VoIP system. And yes, I knew there were other hardware solutions, but to my knowledge they don't work with with Skype. My point is that Skype would be better served by the software solution complimented by a hardware only solution that didn't require a PC and a USB port to always be there to support it.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
You can already use mJabber on a capable phone, but I use Chatopus on my PDA, since I can't stand the tiny phone screen.
Karma: It's all a bunch of tree-huggin' hippy crap!