Dell delivered my Dell Axim X51v pocket mainframe, today. Runs MS
Windoze Mobile 5.01 on a 624 Mhz Intel PDA processor. Bluetooth won't
talk to any BT headsets for my Skype, but it's sitting here as I type
this playing KPIG's 128Kbps MP3 streaming audio off my wifi router full
speed. The audio lacks bass, but what can you expect from a speaker
that's only 1/4" across!...(c;

Skype for Mobile 1.2 is now available for free from skype.com's website.
Just download the .cab file directly off wifi to the Axim and click YES
when it warns you it doesn't know this guy and do you want to continue to
install it. You put in your skype name and password and it goes and gets
your contact list from Skype's server, same one you use at home. Turn on
echo cancellation as the Axim's mic and speaker make a helluva great
hands-free phone if you don't mind everyone listening to your call.

The Wifi transceiver and Bluetooth transceiver are first class and very
sensitive. I sat on the seawall at home talking to a friend in Hawaii on
it this afternoon on Skype. Should have no trouble connecting to the
marina wifi to give you cheap/free phone service on the boat. Even if
your boat is too far from the wifi hotspot....just carry the PDA "pocket
phone" down the dock to make those calls. You don't need to be tied to
the laptop.

There's a freeware media player TCPMP available from the genius hackers
who write its code and codecs to play Divx/Xvid/MP4 movies and all the
audio codecs. That's the player playing KPIG as I type this....

WinMobile 5 has all kinds of GPS and Bluetooth GPS support. I haven't
had time to research the nav aspect of it, but on a powerful processor
like this it'll be great. There's a few bugs in Mobile 5 Windoze, of
course, it's Micro$oft, you know....

$374 from Dell, direct. Others said $350 net price. It's a lot of power
at this price. I found a 4GB SD memory card for it for $78 on the
net....not the $130-250 Circuit City wanted....



--
There's amazing intelligence in the Universe.
You can tell because none of them ever called Earth.

Larry wrote:
Dell delivered my Dell Axim X51v pocket mainframe, today. Runs MS
Windoze Mobile 5.01 on a 624 Mhz Intel PDA processor. Bluetooth won't
talk to any BT headsets for my Skype, but it's sitting here as I type
this playing KPIG's 128Kbps MP3 streaming audio off my wifi router full
speed. The audio lacks bass, but what can you expect from a speaker
that's only 1/4" across!...(c;

Skype for Mobile 1.2 is now available for free from skype.com's website.
Just download the .cab file directly off wifi to the Axim and click YES
when it warns you it doesn't know this guy and do you want to continue to
install it. You put in your skype name and password and it goes and gets
your contact list from Skype's server, same one you use at home. Turn on
echo cancellation as the Axim's mic and speaker make a helluva great
hands-free phone if you don't mind everyone listening to your call.

The Wifi transceiver and Bluetooth transceiver are first class and very
sensitive. I sat on the seawall at home talking to a friend in Hawaii on
it this afternoon on Skype. Should have no trouble connecting to the
marina wifi to give you cheap/free phone service on the boat. Even if
your boat is too far from the wifi hotspot....just carry the PDA "pocket
phone" down the dock to make those calls. You don't need to be tied to
the laptop.

There's a freeware media player TCPMP available from the genius hackers
who write its code and codecs to play Divx/Xvid/MP4 movies and all the
audio codecs. That's the player playing KPIG as I type this....

WinMobile 5 has all kinds of GPS and Bluetooth GPS support. I haven't
had time to research the nav aspect of it, but on a powerful processor
like this it'll be great. There's a few bugs in Mobile 5 Windoze, of
course, it's Micro$oft, you know....

$374 from Dell, direct. Others said $350 net price. It's a lot of power
at this price. I found a 4GB SD memory card for it for $78 on the
net....not the $130-250 Circuit City wanted....



Tuesday, I received a call from my buddy in the British Virgin Islands
on Skype. He was raving about it.. how cheap it was etc. His voice
sounded just a bit different, but otherwise very clear.
He tried to convince me to sign up, but I don't make very many LD calls.
Not sure if it would be worthwhile.

In places like Tortola where Cable & Worthless charges outrageous fees for
LD Skype is a life saver at 2 cents/minute to a POTS line and free Skype to
Skype. I especially like the video feature. I was down last week having
diner with some friends and we decided to call some other friends in Dallas.
Spent 30 minutes video conferencing for zero dollars.

--
Glenn Ashmore

I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com
Shameless Commercial Division: http://www.spade-anchor-us.com

"Don White" wrote

Tuesday, I received a call from my buddy in the British Virgin Islands on
Skype. He was raving about it.. how cheap it was etc. His voice sounded
just a bit different, but otherwise very clear.
He tried to convince me to sign up, but I don't make very many LD calls.
Not sure if it would be worthwhile.

On Thu, 26 Oct 2006 10:56:09 -0400, "Glenn Ashmore"
wrote:

In places like Tortola where Cable & Worthless charges outrageous fees for
LD Skype is a life saver at 2 cents/minute to a POTS line and free Skype to
Skype. I especially like the video feature. I was down last week having
diner with some friends and we decided to call some other friends in Dallas.
Spent 30 minutes video conferencing for zero dollars.

Glenn, I'm curious on what your opinion is on Skype vs Vonage.

I have no direct experience with Vonage but my impression is it is a
replacement for the regular POTS phone. You pay a monthly fee and it is up
all the time regardless of what your PC is doing.

Skype is PC based and turns your laptop or Larry's new gadget into a
telephone. It does not work with your regular telephone and your PC has to
be running to make or receive calls. It was originally for PC to PC VOIP
then they added Skype Out so you can dial a POTS phone for a couple of cents
per minute. You prepay $10 or so and talk until it is used up. PC to PC is
still free. Long distance to a regular phone varies from 2 cents to about
15 cents/minute depending on what country you are calling so 2 cents from
the BVI to the US beats the heck out of the $2.50/minute Cable & Worthless
charges. Calling a phone in the BVI costs 12 cents/minute.

You can get a regular phone number for a small monthly fee (no long term
contract) so POTS phones can call you. The caller pays what ever his normal
rate is to your home area code and Skype forwards it to where ever your PC
happens to be. You can also set up a calling order so that if your PC
doesn't answer it will call your land line. If that doesn't answer it will
call your cell phone and finally send it to your voice mail.

It has been especially helpful to me as I spend my life in front of these
damned computers fixing problems for clients. Being self employed I can
never be to far from communications. Last week I was helping a friend move
into his house in Little Apple Tortola. I set my laptop up on the deck,
plugged in my EUB-362 wifi adapter and cranked up Net Stumbler. Found the
strongest unsecured AP in the area and checked my voice mail. Called the
client, logged on to his VPN and worked on his system while talking to him
about the merits of Presidentes over Red Stripes and Caribes. :-)

Skype also handles video now so you can see who you are talking to. One of
my side projects is testing the coliform load at Cane Garden Bay to counter
all the flames about bareboats polluting the bay. One of my petridishes was
showing some unusual results so sitting at the bar at Myett's in Cane Garden
I plugged in the USB camera, Skyped a biologist friend at the CDC and showed
it to him.

I am looking for a Bluetooth handset now to replace my USB handset so I have
less wires to deal with.

--
Glenn Ashmore

I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com
Shameless Commercial Division: http://www.spade-anchor-us.com

"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 26 Oct 2006 10:56:09 -0400, "Glenn Ashmore"
wrote:

In places like Tortola where Cable & Worthless charges outrageous fees for
LD Skype is a life saver at 2 cents/minute to a POTS line and free Skype
to
Skype. I especially like the video feature. I was down last week having
diner with some friends and we decided to call some other friends in
Dallas.
Spent 30 minutes video conferencing for zero dollars.

Glenn, I'm curious on what your opinion is on Skype vs Vonage.

Don White wrote in news:Ll20h.10632$cz.164981
@ursa-nb00s0.nbnet.nb.ca:

Not sure if it would be worthwhile.


ER, ah, how can anything that is FREE be "not worthwhile"??....unless it's
painful, somehow...

He's trying to get YOU on Skype so HE can call YOU without having to incur
SkypeOut charges from there to NB. Skype-to-Skype is always FREE!

So, to recap:
Softwa FREE
Skype-to-Skype calls: FREE

Is there a downside you can see I don't?....(c;



--
-- (shameless tagline) --
If you're sending someone some Styrofoam,
what do you pack it in?

Larry wrote:
Don White wrote in news:Ll20h.10632$cz.164981
@ursa-nb00s0.nbnet.nb.ca:


Not sure if it would be worthwhile.



ER, ah, how can anything that is FREE be "not worthwhile"??....unless it's
painful, somehow...

He's trying to get YOU on Skype so HE can call YOU without having to incur
SkypeOut charges from there to NB. Skype-to-Skype is always FREE!

So, to recap:
Softwa FREE
Skype-to-Skype calls: FREE

Is there a downside you can see I don't?....(c;



Yes, There is a downside that you don't see. Down island the cost to
connect at the internet cafe's is sometimes $6.00 for the first 10
minutes and $1.00/min after that.
krj

"Glenn Ashmore" wrote in
:

You can get a regular phone number for a small monthly fee (no long
term contract) so POTS phones can call you. The caller pays what ever
his normal rate is to your home area code and Skype forwards it to
where ever your PC happens to be. You can also set up a calling order
so that if your PC doesn't answer it will call your land line. If
that doesn't answer it will call your cell phone and finally send it
to your voice mail.


Skype In, with your own phone number, is $US28/YEAR...a princely sum most
can't afford. Your Skype In number doesn't HAVE to be where you live,
either! One of my neighbors is a master sgt in the USAF at Charleston
AFB across the street. HIS Skype In number is in Cleveland, OH, back
home where all his calls come from. When his friends want to call him,
they just dial his Skype In phone number...in Cleveland, a local call.
That way, his parents don't ever have to play the musical long distance
chairs scam the phone companies run. He'll keep his Cleveland Skype In
phone number, even when he is transferred to Okinawa or wherever because
Skype plugs into the internet and doesn't really care where he is....his
Skype In calls will come in wherever the system finds his Skype (or more
than one Skype) running under his username. If he's on Guam, Mom will
call his local Cleveland number and his Skype on guam.net will ring just
like it does in Charleston.

Vonage sucks. They're in such trouble that Circuit City has a Vonage
interconnect device that they are selling for $50...WITH A $100 REBATE!
I think you have to enslave yourself to Vonage for a couple of years to
get the rebate or we would have been rippin' off CC for $50 by the
carload...(c;

BTW, your computer will run 24/7/365 for about 30 years between
failures....at full power. The servers do all the time. Mine hasn't
been shut down in years! I wear out the keyboard, first. A priest also
told me it was NOT a serious sin to leave it running, even
downloading....


--
-- (shameless tagline) --
If you're sending someone some Styrofoam,
what do you pack it in?

Larry wrote:
snip..

BTW, your computer will run 24/7/365 for about 30 years between
failures....at full power. The servers do all the time. Mine hasn't
been shut down in years! I wear out the keyboard, first. A priest also
told me it was NOT a serious sin to leave it running, even
downloading....


Don't you blasheme!

Thanks.

===============
On Thu, 26 Oct 2006 17:09:06 -0400, "Glenn Ashmore"
wrote:

I have no direct experience with Vonage but my impression is it is a
replacement for the regular POTS phone. You pay a monthly fee and it is up
all the time regardless of what your PC is doing.

Skype is PC based and turns your laptop or Larry's new gadget into a
telephone. It does not work with your regular telephone and your PC has to
be running to make or receive calls. It was originally for PC to PC VOIP
then they added Skype Out so you can dial a POTS phone for a couple of cents
per minute. You prepay $10 or so and talk until it is used up. PC to PC is
still free. Long distance to a regular phone varies from 2 cents to about
15 cents/minute depending on what country you are calling so 2 cents from
the BVI to the US beats the heck out of the $2.50/minute Cable & Worthless
charges. Calling a phone in the BVI costs 12 cents/minute.

You can get a regular phone number for a small monthly fee (no long term
contract) so POTS phones can call you. The caller pays what ever his normal
rate is to your home area code and Skype forwards it to where ever your PC
happens to be. You can also set up a calling order so that if your PC
doesn't answer it will call your land line. If that doesn't answer it will
call your cell phone and finally send it to your voice mail.

It has been especially helpful to me as I spend my life in front of these
damned computers fixing problems for clients. Being self employed I can
never be to far from communications. Last week I was helping a friend move
into his house in Little Apple Tortola. I set my laptop up on the deck,
plugged in my EUB-362 wifi adapter and cranked up Net Stumbler. Found the
strongest unsecured AP in the area and checked my voice mail. Called the
client, logged on to his VPN and worked on his system while talking to him
about the merits of Presidentes over Red Stripes and Caribes. :-)

Skype also handles video now so you can see who you are talking to. One of
my side projects is testing the coliform load at Cane Garden Bay to counter
all the flames about bareboats polluting the bay. One of my petridishes was
showing some unusual results so sitting at the bar at Myett's in Cane Garden
I plugged in the USB camera, Skyped a biologist friend at the CDC and showed
it to him.

I am looking for a Bluetooth handset now to replace my USB handset so I have
less wires to deal with.