Keyspan VP-24A Cordless Voip Phone Skype Compatible for Mac Or Pc

If, like us, you have replaced a landline with Skype, you may be looking for a way to hear an incoming call around the house, so a mobile handset seems nice. Don't bother with this product. Its ring is just the Skype tone coming through the earpiece. So, unless you have your ear close to this device all the time, you won't hear incoming calls. And since the USB has to capture the computer's sound I/O you won't hear your computer either! We are returning ours....

The VP24a does not work at all on the most recent Mac 10.5.7 release (Intel processor) regardless of what version of Skype software is being used. I contacted Keyspan CS (actually Tripplet) and they responded that they will pass the issue to the manufacturer of the product. The phone will function on Motorola machines running 10.4.11. It worked initially with my 10.5 system but only as a remote headset. After the first Mac update, the phone became very buggy and with the next update, it doesn't operate at all.It does function perfectly using Windows XP. So if you are a Windows user, I would give it a 4 star rating. It loses a star because it is so small it is very difficult to talk and hear without moving the phone up and down. Mac 10.4.11 rates a 3 star as it does work but without any of the Contact functions. 10.5 and above gets a 0 star since it just doesn't work.

I like this phone, despite a couple of issues, but only gave it three stars because of a serious problem - it doesn't ring for an incoming call on the Mac. Makes it almost useless except to make outgoing calls. Another reviewer stated that they've spoken with Skype and this bug will be addressed in a future update, but I've been promised that before by software manufacturers...The phone itself works pretty well and the sound quality is actually very good with no echo, fading or dropouts experienced even two floors away from the transmitter on the computer. The phone itself is a bit on the smallish side. Especially given its purpose (a house phone), it really sacrifices ergonomics needlessly to make it more pocket-size. But overall, it appears well made (as well made as most modern consumer electronics that is) but the phone interface is not exactly intuitive.Another gripe is that in installing it on the Mac, it requires your Administrator password. There's absolutely no reason for it to require root access. Unfortunately, that is a shortcut that many companies porting applications over to the Mac are taking. So while I'd rather not give it root access, I'll begrudgingly allow it as it's better than having to install it on a PC.So overall, it's not bad at all for the price (assuming that Keyspan fixes the incoming call ring issue), but if you don't need one right now, I'd wait and see what else comes along.

Sound quality for the most part is fair to good. Instruct your contact to turn off their camera when on a voice only call improves sound quality. The wireless phone does not always connect to the receiver unit when installed on a Mac (OSX), PC (XP,SP2) no problem. However on the PC the phone number, not the contact is displayed in the contact window. Inconvenient for lookups, remembering a lot of numbers can be troublesome. When the unit connects on the Mac the contact name appears in the window. Restarting Skype sometimes completes the connection to the receiving unit, annoying when it does not connect. All in all a good unit, but the software needs work

With the explosion of voice over IP applications, new devices appear everyday to supposedly ease our digital life, but the abundance of "standards" and protocols makes it difficult for the end user to figure out exactly what each product can accomplish.My biggest gripe with this specific product is that despite its name, it's NOT a VoIP phone. A real VoIP phone contains everything that's needed to hook up to a TCP/IP network (wired and/or wireless) and implements a telephony protocol such as the open standard SIP or the proprietary Skype. For instance, the Zyxel W2000 can connect to a SIP server though an ordinary WiFi access point without the help of a computer, because it has an 802.11b wireless interface and implements the SIP protocol.Instead, this Keyspan phone is just a wireless USB handset, which requires the use of a computer to function. Many similar products have been available for over a year, but they only work on Windows. This one supports both Windows and OSX.The small box contains the phone, a USB dongle smaller than an iPod Shuffle, an installation CD, a USB to mini-USB cord and three AAA rechargeable Ni-MH batteries. To recharge the phone, you plug it into a powered USB port. Keyspan does not provide a separate charger, but this is a minor issue since this mini-USB connector is becoming increasingly common.The Macintosh installation adds a small application named WirelessUSBPhone, and a USB driver. The application bridges the Keyspan phone with the Skype application through the use of the Skype API.To start using the phone, you need to pair it by pressing a tiny button on the USB transmitter while the phone is in close proximity. Once this is done, you can scroll through the contact list on your phone and call them, or you can also dial numbers directly. When calls come into Skype, the screen lights up and displays the caller name.The sound quality is excellent. The range is also particularly good, considering the tiny size of the components and the lack of external antennas. In my informal tests it is equivalent to that of a recent good quality cordless phone. Finally, the battery life is also very good: I would estimate it to be at least 4 days of stand-by and several hours of talk time, and since it uses standard AAA batteries it's easy to keep a backup set around just in case.If you're looking for the Skype equivalent of a SIP phone, i.e. a standalone phone that works without relying on a computer, don't buy this product. Otherwise, if you use Skype a lot and wish you could use it without being tethered to your computer, this phone is the perfect answer. Unlike competing products it comes with very high quality software and offers a Macintosh version (Keyspan is well known for the quality of its products and software). Installation could not be easier and the software functions flawlessly and transparently. After a few days with the phone I'm very pleased with my purchase.

This thing was a useless piece of junk. It was awful. I hope the newer skype phones work better than this thing... I cannot say how useless this thing was enough. It did NOT work at all, felt like crap, and was a total waste of money.It did not function properly (or how I expected it to) and it felt like such awful quality. Keyspan... what a let down.