Why are those Skype phones taking so long to come out? Promised by Belkin, Netgear, etc. Available on pre-order from Amazon since the Spring. STILL not out. What went wrong?

From our own experience with a pre-release model of the Belkin WiFi Skype phone, we can say these devices are 95% of the way there. The only issues holding it back are delay when calling Skype-out, intermittent sign-offs, crashing during calls and call dropping. Some significant problems there.

We posed the same question to Belkin and Netgear. Their responses after the jump.

Belkin:

We're set to ship our Wi-Fi Phone for Skype in October. The reason for the delay is that there a number of complications involved with making an embedded Skype device communicate correctly with the Skype network.

Belkin gives us some info, but doesn't really get to the heart of it. Why are they delaying their release until October, whereas the SMC WiFi Skype phone, an OEM of the Belkin one, is available on eBay already? Logitec is also getting into the OEM game and releasing their own version of the Belkin phone soon. Are SMC and Logitec setting their bar lower?

Netgear:

...

Yes, Netgear never bothered to get back to us. We'll assume that their answer is similar to Belkin's, and that getting an embedded phone device to work on WiFi and Skype is quite challenging. Their manufacturing and product design is all done, it's just down to the software and firmware on the phones. Once that's all done—by October, hopefully—we'll be Skyping like we've never Skyped before.

Do you have a question for Gizmodo? Send it on in and we'll do our best to answer it. – Jason Chen

I am an admin at a small college and I am going to deploy some Mac Minis in an unattended lab. What is the best way people have found to tie the minis down so they don't get legs and walk off?

This is my first experience with a notebook lock and maybe I just don't have enough experience with these, because it took me a while to figure out how to set the combination, but that is my lone complaint about this device. It required a coin to twist an extremely difficult-to-turn notch to set the combination. After I got the combination down it was time for a true durability test.

The sharp object test was in favor of Kensington. Both scissors and a small knife were not able to cut through the metal cable. Unfortunately with a sharp enough of a weapon or enough time, any kind of metal cable will be able to be severed. The only durability conflict that may occur is breaking the lock out of the Mac mini. The plastic back paneling of the mini would break before these durable cables snap from forceful pulling.

Kensington also has this lock available with the key-locks rather than combination. It just depends on the preference of the user. For a lab environment such as the one George is putting together it would be a tossup. If more than one admin knows the combination, there could be security concerns and key locks may be the better way to go. But for individual uses, the combination lock should be sufficient. Kensington has a variety of locks available with prices beginning at $40 each, maybe less with a bulk purchase, George.

For other security concerns, George, we suggest tying together the cables coming out of the Mac mini to help prevent any kind of peripheral theft. Zip tie all of the cables together immediately coming out of the mini. Now this isn't a full-proof 100-percent theft prevention method, it will at least help and not allow someone to easily unplug the mouse or keyboard and take it for their own.

Hope we were able to help, George. And good luck with your new Mac mini lab. – Travis Hudson

Kensington Lock Product Page [Kensington]