Gadgets, hands on, v phone, voip, vonage

Vonage V-Phone Hands On

Vonage, the VoIP company with an incredibly annoying theme song ("Woo Hoo") just released the V Phone, a VoIP phone contained inside a USB thumb drive which we mentioned a few days ago. I've been playing around with it for a while and can state conclusively that, yes, it is a phone and, yes, it does work.

As the hype from Vongage suggests, it really is just a matter of plugging the USB drive into a Windows-based PC's USB port (again, us Mac and Linux folks get the shaft) and waiting for under a minute for the software to automatically run. From there, a simple GUI greets the user, where the only input field visible is the space for a phone number. I gave our favorite News Editor John Biggs a call and his sweet, soothing voice came through just fine. It doesn't sound as good as POTS, but since we've gotten used to cellphones that sound like 9s7f4m NES sound effects, the V Phone gets the job done. The included headphones resemble the earbuds packaged with the iPod and the mic works well enough for what it's tasked to do.

As an added bonus, I took to repeatedly inserting and removing the V Phone from the USB port without properly unmounting the drive first, just to see how durable it really is. Several insertions and removals later, it still worked, so there should be no problem if you forget to properly unmount the drive first.

The Vonage V Phone works as advertised, and if you're already a Vonage customer, the $39.99 price tag isn't unreasonable. But if you're not a Vonage customer, there's really no need to all of a sudden become one, especially since its much-touted portability is no match for that cellphone you've got in your pocket. – Nicholas Deleon

Product Page [Vonage]

11:46 AM on Thu Jun 29 2006
By Gizloco
7,379 views
9 comments

Comments

heh3d at 11:42 AM on 06/29/06
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So does this little bad boy work with my regular Vonage account, or do I have to pay them an extra $10/m for a "softphone" line in order to use it?
uhm...Bob at 11:56 AM on 06/29/06
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When they make a SD card version that can be used in Palms & Pocket PC's, then they'll really have my attention.
TheZodiac at 11:59 AM on 06/29/06
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I Want to buy one - and evne though I am signed into my Vonage account, there is an unavoidable option to sign up for another VOIP account. I guess I will have to call them.
crazybelgian at 01:14 PM on 06/29/06
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this is great! I travel to Europe all the time and with this thingy family could reach me there on my home phone number!
ninjamurf at 04:07 PM on 06/29/06
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my thoughts exactly heh3d. I'm still pissed at Vonage for "forcing" us to pay for an additional account just to use a softphone...the very REASON for the existence of VoIP! They've actually done the hard part, switching our regular old phone over to a digital router, but at the same time they've taken away our ability to use the computer to make those same calls?! WTF Vonage?!?!?
swolb-eganov at 01:56 PM on 09/14/06
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Two more great Internet-based ideas (VoIP and soft-phones) being mindlessly corrupted by a profit-hungry company. I can bitch and moan -- I'm a subscriber. I was really 'hoping and praying' Vonage's consistency would screw up their soft-phone idea by making us buy yet another account.... and they DID!

If you think they're messing up the free unlimited calls concept, try using their directory assistance or (so-called) customer service!

And oh, lest we forget, all the dropped calls we've had in the last 4 months! Their retarded corporate jingle isn't the only thing that's irritating.
waitingforvizzini at 10:10 AM on 09/16/06
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there is absolutely no reason to buy this device if you have to purchase another plan as an existing customer. if they force you to pay 15 bucks a month for it anyway. I called them and they are recalcitrant on this point
sdchap at 09:28 AM on 09/21/06
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I already have 2 Vonage accounts (home & biz).

According to the Vonage rep I spoke with, there is NO need to buy another account. The V-phone can simply be configured to work with your existing Vonage account(s).
ronscall at 03:51 PM on 09/22/06
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I presently subscribe to Vonage and recently got info about the V-phone. I tried to order one but the form would never accept my request. It kept routing me back to the offer page. I was "told" to go to my account for the order. There was NOTHING relating to the gadget on that page that I could find. I even called the special telephone number and got routed all over the place with no success. I wanted to send an email but could never find a message box to do so. The ones that I found addresed other subjects. You make it VERY HARD to buy one of these adapters. Not user friendly at all. Wow, I bet that you have already lost a lot of potential customers. Just found this site by accident.