It's a safe bet that as technological miniaturization continues, cellphone makers will stuff anything they can into their handsets.
Pairing some features, such as music, with cellphone calling is understandable. Others, however, are mystifying. (What's the appeal of micro-TV when Hollywood is making films for high-definition screens?)
One cellphone that represents considerable advances in "cool" technology is the Belkin WiFi phone for the Skype Internet phone service. Retailing at $269.95, the phone makes calls using the voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) service without a computer.
It's about the size of a "candy bar" style phone, with a glossy front, and works without the need for installation -- well, after three hours of charging time -- as long as the user has access to a WiFi network and a Skype identification.
The phone allows you to register for a free Skype account, or to use an existing Skype name.
All contacts associated with an existing Skype ID will be loaded automatically when it connects to the WiFi network. But therein lies the trick: To use the phone, you must be near a WiFi hot spot that does not demand browser-based authentication; that is, your home or a free public wireless network, of which there are not very many.
Anyone who uses Skype will know that the quality is not yet at the level of land line or simple cellphone calls; it's getting close to that kind of quality with Skype-to-Skype calls, but SkypeOut, the system of Skype-to-land-line calls, involves a minor delay or a bit of an echo.
It gets worse if your Internet service provider is overloading its trunk lines, and you're fighting peer-to-peer traffic, which competes with Skype.
And that has led to some complaints about dropped calls, although this did not happen in our tests.
The Belkin WiFi phone for Skype is certainly not a replacement for a regular cellphone or land line in any way, except that the VoIP system allows users to save a lot of money by avoiding many cellphone and land-line charges and also subscription-charge traps by cellphone providers.
For Jack Kapica's full review, go to the Personal Tech section of globetechnology.com
