
Siemens Gigaset C-class-and-above cordless phone owners who purchased their units after fall 2004 will
soon have an option to use their formerly landline-only handsets for free and reduced-rate VoIP telephony as well. The
Gigaset's new trick is achieved through the use of a USB adapter called the M34, which plugs into a PC and transfers
packets with select Gigaset base units using the
DECT (Digital
Enhanced Cordless Telephone) standard. Siemens has teamed up with Yahoo! to offer the search giant's Messenger w/ Voice
service for use with the M34, which will allow Gigaset owners to enjoy Skype-like benefits and even listen to Internet
radio (rather poorly, we'd imagine) right from their cordless handsets. The M34 USB adapter should available in Q3 of
this year, although no price has been announced as of yet.
This has been available for quite some time in Germany. There it sells for €79.95 (around $95). Here's a link: http://gigaset.siemens.com/shc/0,1935,de_de_0_69566_rArNrNrNrN,00.html
David
Skype and Siemens offer the same solution and have for over a year.
http://www.skype.com/company/news/2004/siemens.html
Which handbag fits your personality? Classic? Hobo?...
VTech has one for each as well...
Yahoo:
http://www.vtechphones.com/vtechui/store/products/dsp_7200.cfm
http://messenger.yahoo.com/accessory_handset.php;_ylt=Am3U4kLHmiNkxq15cTltooh7AM0F
Skype:
http://www.vtechphones.com/vtechui/store/products/dsp_7100.cfm
I bought one over a year ago. I could never get the damn thing to work. Support and drivers were horrible. Also it required you to install a special "siemens-version" of skype. After a few weeks I decided to sell it on ebay...
I've installed an M34 USB just recently and it works perfectly with Skype. The only downside is, that it requires a specific version of Skype (1.x) and it has not been updated so far. I've bought it just before christmas for 80 Swiss.
BTW: http://www.engadget.com/2004/11/10/siemens-gigaset-m34-usb-adapter-for-skype/
It's been around on mainland Europe for a year or so. Poor to non-existent ongoing website support from Siemens AND you have to install a retro version of Skype (What is that all about?). Much better surely is the Olympia Dualphone http://dualphone.net/Default.aspx?ID=391 or plug any old cordless into an Internet Phone Wizard http://www.internetphonewizard.com/. Mind you, neither of these are gonna give your Mac any love.
can use Vtech USB7200 for yahoo with voice, with its PhoneIN & PhoneOUT services?cuz only pc to pc are mention