My New iPhone!

No, not the Apple iPhone.. I picked up a new Skype phone the other day from Amazon (my new favorite online shopping place). I bought a Linksys CIT400. This is one of the many Cisco devices being marketed under the name "iPhone" (though my box didn't say "iPhone" on it anywhere!).

It's not your typical Skype phone. Most of the ones I've seen require a computer and USB (I have both, but didn't envision them becoming a part of my home phone solution). I was looking for something that was both a landline (like my current phone) and could do Skype (the future in voice calling :), and, of course, was cordless.

There was a phone from Netgear that was similar, but didn't quite cut it (it didn't allow contacts that were only landline-based), along with a couple that weren't available yet (one from Philips comes to mind). I suppose that's just as well, everything else I own has a Linksys logo on it :)

The phone is cool - plug in a couple of power transformers (one for the phone's charger, one for the base station; note to Linksys - it would have been great if the base station had an integrated charger so there was only one power adapter), plug in an RJ11 cable (landline), and an ethernet cable; and you're off.

Voice quality seems pretty good, though so far I've only called my voicemail and listened to/left messages.

About the only downsides so far are:

1. The extra transformer; though I imagine there are some people who would put the base station somewhere besides their kitchen counter so they'd need a separate charging dock
2. The included ethernet cable was yellow. It would probably look good in a '70s kitchen; but I don't have a '70s kitchen (nor, I suspect, do many '70s kitchens, I suspect, have ethernet ports)
3. Additional handsets for the unit are not available yet - damn..
4. It doesn't double as a TV remote
5. It's not an Apple iPhone :)