Spurred by the news that it just got bought for $2+ billion, I finally tried out Skype last night. Charles gave me a hand trying it out, and with 10 euros worth of SkypeOut credit loaded up, I called the apartment. And hey, it worked pretty well. Charles' voice was very clear, albeit slightly delayed. My own voice could be understood, but the Axim's lousy integrated microphone made it pretty muddy. On the other hand, our 150 second call cost all of three cents — and if I had been calling another Skype user, it would've been free.

So it was pretty cool. All it would take is a cheap bluetooth headset to make it really cool. The only problem, from my perspective, is justifying this gadget. I've already got a VoIP phone for work. I've already got a cell phone with free long distance (but not many minutes). Neither of them have integrated bluetooth, meaning the headset would only be good for Skype — which, as I mentioned, solves a telephony problem I don't really have.

Well, screw it. I can always get one of these suckers to make my non-BT phones ready to play with the wireless headset. I've never been able to resist a sexy new gadget. Between this and the sidekick, I somehow seem to be extremely susceptible to marketing conducted via rap star product placement. Seems a bit odd given that I barely listen to any rap at all.