Standalone cordless phones from Philips and Netgear coming up
Today, we announced with Philips and Netgear the first standalone cordless phones for Skype that do not require a computer.
There’s a variety of cordless phones already available that plug into your computer. The Philips and Netgear ones are different: they plug directly into your Internet router, so you don’t need an always-on computer with Skype. They also work as standard cordless phones, plugging into your phone line, so you can use them both for standard phone calls and Skype calls.
Neither device is available yet. They say the Philips one will be available for this year’s holiday season, so more news coming in a few months.
Here is a photo of the Philips VOIP841 phone, together with some screenshots.
Direct competition with Vonage now… game over for them! Skype must already have a much bigger userbase and now it will just spread exponentially
You say that Netgear Wi-Fi (only) is already available? Where?
will these phones support your SMS sending feature? If not, will the software on the phones be upgradable so it would be possible to add it at later time?
Where will this phone be avaible? Also in Italy?
Does it use an Ethernet port to connect?
donely – initially these phones won’t support SMS. it might be added at a later time.
zaffo80 – yes, it uses an Ethernet port. not sure about availability yet, watch the news.
And will these phones support at least the Skype chats? I could nowhere find any positive/negative info on this. I’ve seen a comprehensive set of 31 nice display “screenshots”, but the contact’s submenu was not completely displayed there to know for sure
Hi Jaanus,
Big disadvantage of Philips VOIP841: not supporting multi handset.
(you will miss the second-line call: if you are on skype, you will miss pstn call and opposite)
Can you make some petition to Philips/Ascalade this model to have at least two handset support.
hi dear
i couldnt understand how work at this site and how does it work and i have problem to download
akbar_2004@hotmail.com
Hi there!
I have questions about Philips VOIP321. I have problems with uploading it on my computer – I’ve tried to upload it on two laptops and it worked out well. I have no idea what’s wrong with it. I’m using Windows XP.
Thank you so much for your help and answers.
Irena