I’ll have plenty more to say about Netgear’s SPH101 WiFi Skype phone in the near future, but wanted to share one tidbit now. I use Skype for most of my Instant Messaging needs and was hoping I could use the SPH101 for that functionality; sure it would be tough with a phone-based alpha-numeric keyboard but I figured for short messages it might work.
Unfortunately not as shown by the pic below. I signed in to our MobileTechRoundup Skype account and tried to send a text message to the Skype phone but got the message below. I’m not criticizing the product for not having the feature (it is a phone, after all), but did want to mention it for any Skypers that might be considering it. I joked with James this morning that maybe we’ll see a Sidekick-like Skype phone with a keyboard; they can call it the Skypekick. ;)
Thanks to Netgear’s CES Blogger in Residence for sending me the review unit. I’ll have more thoughts and impressions in a full review.

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