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3 SkypePhone

Apple iPod Touch (hopefully coming soon)

Apple iPhone (hopefully coming soon)

LG Viewty mobile phone

Nokia N810 (coming soon)

Nokia N95 8Gb (hopefully coming soon)

According to the 3 SkypePhone Forums, if, on your 3 SkypePhone, you go into Launcher -> Messenger, you’ll find Windows Live Messenger is now supported on the 3 SkypePhone.  3 have confirmed that although this will remain “Free for Life” for Pay Monthly customers, those on PAYG need to note that Messenger is “Free until end of 2007″.

Also, Matt from 3mobilebuzz has mentioned in the forums that there’s a possibility of allowing you to sync your phone at some point in the future. He commented when asked “How about google calendar? I would find that pretty useful.” with “3 are looking at expanding the Google offering, but they are unable to reveal further information at this point.”

Here’s a handy tip that not a lot of people know about. There is a Skype robot which allows you to post to your Twitter account from within Skype, and it even works on the 3 SkypePhone. Here are the simple instructions:

1. Add twitter4skype as a contact.
2. Type the following as a single chat message to twitter4skype:
   /account (shift+return)
   yourtwitteraccountname (shift+return)
   yourtwitteraccountpassword (shift+return)
3. The system should return: twitter4skype Registration complete!
4. The next time you write a chat message to twitter4skype, the entry will appear on your account and you’ll receive your friends’ twitters in Skype.

Another useful way of using the free Skype IM facilities on the 3 SkypePhone.

Please note, this service (as best we can tell) is not provided by either Twitter or Skype, and so you are providing your Twitter account details to a third party, who UK Gadget Blog do not endorse in any way. Make you own mind up, before using this service.

Thanks to Robert at pacificIT for the content, and 3mobilebuzz for alerting us to it.

If you look at the CD that comes with the 3 SkypePhone, you’ll discover you can install USB drivers that allow you to use the phone as a modem via usb. This will result in you getting a nice fast internet connection wherever you can get a 3G signal. You can also connect via Bluetooth to achieve the same thing.

There are a number of payments options open you to for Internet access. If, for example, you have chosen the PAYG 3 SkypePhone, then you can use your £10 topup (which is needed every 30 days to keep Skype working) for the Internet Add-ons, which are:

• £5 per month if you are a regular user
• £2.50 for a week
• 50p for a day

Now, 50p is nothing compared the charges for WiFi, unless you are a regular traveller, in which case you will either have an unlimited WiFi package, or a 3 USB modem already. Any spare credit you have, you can use to make calls (12p/min) or send SMS texts (12p/text).

Remember, without the Internet Add-On, Internet Access is £1 per Mb, so even the 50p per day is very worthwhile.

However, despite the fact that people are using their 3 SkypePhones this way, and despite the fact that people have mentioned this in the 3 SkypePhone forums, we should point out that the conditions attached to the Internet Add-Ons state you cannot use it as a way of getting Internet access on a laptop (ie another device tethered to the phone, whether via a wired or wireless connection). As such, please be aware this method is likely to be against 3’s T&Cs.

Update: Having said that, if you buy the 3 SkypePhone on contract, you can add X-Series or Broadband Add-Ons to the service, of which some of these options seem to allow use of a tethered device. Please confirm this directly with 3 though, as we have been unable to confirm this so far.

Thanks to Chris at Tamebay for the inspiration for this article.

3UK providing some useful information at the bloggers update session today. Firstly, 3 announced that they will soon be releasing a PAYG (Pay As You Go) USB Modem. This will be useful to occasional travellers fed up of paying for and relying upon hotel WiFi systems that don’t work as well as you like and never quite reach the bedroom.

Also more interesting was Adam Davis’s comment on the 3 SkypePhone. Adam is “Head of Marketing and Product Management UK Handsets” at 3UK, and said the following; “The important thing next year is improvements to the phone. The problem is different things are wanted in different territories, but we are looking at things like improving the camera, HSDPA, SkypeIN/OUT. But the bottom line is the price must not increase.” For some of us, the idea of SkypeIN and SkypeOUT would make the phone an interesting proposition on top of our normal mobile phone, and hence we believe once these features are available, 3 could be selling even more of these devices.

On that point, it’s worth pointing out that the iSkoot Skype product (which 3 use on the 3 SkypePhone) supports SkypeIN / SkypeOUT, so iSkoot already has the knowledge to get these things working.

Thanks to Ken at UK Mobile Report for some content.

As expected, the 3 SkypePhone has a fair use policy, which is 4000 Skype minutes per month. This doesn’t sound too bad, until you remember that a normal phone, such as the N95 on 3, when purchased with a £5 X-Series Silver option, has 5000 Skype minutes per month.

Although the 3 SkypePhone is a very interesting proposition, you may be better looking at the X-Series range, albeit with a higher monthly charge (but more facilities and minutes thrown in too).

Right on cue, the 3 SkypePhone was announced this morning. Skype-Skype calls and Skype Instant Messages will both be free as long as you remain on contract, or you topup your PAYG (Pay As You Go) account (*). It will also be able to access the rest of 3’s Internet Services.

(*) Minimum topup of £10 every 30 days will keep Skype services running.

Although we originally said it would be available in 4 countries, it’s actually going to be available in the UK, Australia, Austria, Denmark, Hong Kong, Italy, Ireland, Macau and Sweden. For the UK, it’s £49.99 on PAYG, and free as part of a new contract, and should be available on 2nd November (this Friday) in 3Stores, with other countries following in due course. It is available for Pre-Order from tomorrow.

One thing few people are reporting on - it’s rumoured the phone will not support SkypeOut…

More details and full specifications in the rest of the article.

(more…)

It appears in advance of being launched on Monday, a few details of the SkypePhone are starting to leak out….

• 2 megapixel camera
• MP3 player

Also interesting is the news it will be available on a new £12 Mix’n'Match 100 Tariff (and this will be the only phone allowed to use this tariff).

Photo courtesy of Skype-watch.com