Digital Common Sense

Those of us who use the N800 have been consistently impressed with the Gtalk and Gizmo clients for VoIP. But now there’s also Skype. An easy installer comes ready to run on the latest firmware upgrade.

Gtalk works great, but it’s a smaller network offers limited use. It’s a great IM tool for N800 users, but its penetration into the user community is somewhat limited. Gizmo has greater penetration and the huge advantage of being a real SIP solution. VoIP junkies like myself really love Gizmo, and it works great on the N800.

But Skype still represents a huge user base that lives inside the walled garden of Skype’s non-interoperable protocol. Skype has done a dismal job of penetrating into the mobile handset space. Most of us don’t believe they’ve tried. But with this latest firmware release putting Skype on the N800, anywhere there’s WiFi, there’s a variety of VoIP, including Skype.

For anyone who’s used Skype on a PC, the interface and setup is clean, intuitive and simple.

Here’s the main screen once you start Skype running.

While there are slight differences in the screens because of the N800 form factor, it walks and talks and looks just like Skype.

When you’re in a call, the screen is very basic. No information is really needed with a one-to-one call in progress.

If you have SkypeOut credits and want to dial out to a PSTN number, you get a simple dialpad interface shown here.

The history tab brings up all history info just like the PC-based client,

And there’s a full set of configuration screens,

And, adding contacts is as simple as it ever was.

Those of you who know me know I’ve struggled finding relevance in Skype for my own use. After many years of loyal use, I uninstalled it and quit using it. I’m not convinced it’s fully relevant to my needs. I’m confident I can do just fine without out it. Yet, being able to stay in touch easily via Skype on the N800 was enough to make me eat my words and come back to the fringes of Skype at the very least.

In part, this is driven by my keen interest in social networks and the tools we use to manage them. And one thing we all notice is that we use the tools our friends use, not always because we like them or need them, but because they’re where our friends are. As walled gardens go, Skype still keeps some of my friends and colleagues behind a wall that Gtalk and Gizmo can’t yet penetrate. I hate that, yet Skype on the N800 gives me a tool to keep in touch.

Technorati Tags: N800, Skype, mobility

Filed by Ken at 11:32 pm under Mobility & Handheld, Portable Pleasures - PDA/Smartphones, VoIP/Unified Communications