IPEVO S0-20 WiFi Skype Phone

My recent searches (see the December 2009 blog entry about the ASUS SV1TS) for a Skype phone replacement for the Netgear SPH200D brought me to IPEVO’s S0-20 wifi Skype phone. This is an all-in-one wifi phone from Taiwanese company IPEVO. It has a form factor of a regular cell phone and is extremely light-weight – just 80g including the 3.7V Li-ion rechargeable battery (rated at 900mAh)! The phone connects to 802.11 b/g networks.

After charging the battery initially for a few hours, the phone was a breeze to setup – walk through a few setup screens to choose and connect to the wifi network, and then sign-in to Skype. I was able to place my Skype test call in under one minute. The phone automatically downloads contacts as well account information. The phone charges in a cradle which comes with a 100-240V 50-60Hz charger, making it suitable for international use.

The phone can also be charged via mini-USB (USB cable not included in the package). IPEVO also provides periodic firmware updates which can be applied by putting the phone in a special mode and connecting it to a PC via USB. I was able to upgrade the firmware without a hitch but the process takes 18 minutes.

Call quality with the phone is excellent. The light weight and small form factor makes it an great phone to carry around, especially if one is in neighborhoods with free wifi. The phone is available at Amazon in a one-pack for $128.50 and a two-pack for $229.95.

Well worth the price and portability!

Comments

Migrating from Palm Calendar to Google Calendar and iPhone

Here are the free steps to migrate from Palm's date book (or Pimlico's DateBk6 ) calendar to Google calendar for full iPhone sync. First, sync Palm with Palm Desktop . Next, open Palm Desktop, select the Calendar view, navigate to File | Export, select Export Type as Date Book Archive, Range as All and provide a file name. This will export the calendar data as Date Book Archive (.dba). There's a paid tool called DBA2CSV that converts .dba files to .csv files. However this can be done for free using Yahoo Calendar. Login into Yahoo Calendar and via Settings/Import, import the .dba file. It helps to have an empty Yahoo Calendar. Via Settings/Export, export the calendar as .csv file. Login to Google Calendar (also works with Google Apps For Your Domain GAFYD Calendar) and import the .csv file into any of the calendars. It is a good idea to create a test calendar and test the import before importing into your real calendar. That way if anything goes wrong, you can delet...

AD-5526 Digital Multimeter

The AD-5526 is an ancient multimeter from A&D but for $10 one can’t complain. Has all the basic features one would expect from a multimeter and at 5.2 cm X 9.5 cm X 2.6 cm, it’s quite compact. Uses a LRV08 12V alkaline battery – not a common battery in the USA.

Lead Tide SIM Reader

I recently came across a cheap little device for reading SIM cards . It was available from Meritline for less than USD 5 with free shipping. Curious to see what it was like, I ordered one. The device came in a small package along with a mini CD containing drivers. The packaging advertised the device as the LEAD TIDE Sim reader . Like most things these days, it's made in China. The device has a USB 1.1 interface. There was no product code or number anywhere on the packaging. Installing the drivers for the device turned out to be harder than I expected. The mini CD's autorun installed some stuff but Microsoft Windows XP couldn't install any suitable driver for the device. The mini-CD had several top level directories with what appeared to be product codes but I couldn't match any to the device itself since it had no product code. Google searches revealed that I wasn't alone in my endeavors to get the device working . Further digging revealed pointers to some thir...

Technobabble

Search This Blog