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Weird Skype science - Polycom replaces speakers and mic with...?

Can you improve Skype? Well, Skype is a great product. You plug a microphone into your PC mic socket, and talk. The system speakers play back in pretty good-fi sound. And then, for privacy, you go and buy a pair of headphones. And Polycom just came up with an upgrade: it produced something to make the headphones redundant.

Upgrade? That's the theory. Exactly why someone with a pair of speakers would want to spend £100 odd on an extension loudsqueaker with a built-in extension mic is hard to fathom, but that's what the Polycom Communicator is.

The depressing point about the Communicator isn't the fact that it's an over-priced piece of useless technology. If you want to know what really shows off the high journalistic standards of the online news industry, have a look at Polycom's own press release:

"Polycom Communicator gives you the ultimate hands-free Skype experience. Based on the same technology used in Polycom’s legendary line of triangular SoundStation conference phones, the Skype-certified Polycom Communicator enables crystal-clear, natural conversations when using Skype. Enjoy the freedom of not wearing your headset for hands-free Skype calls, or plug into the built-in stereo headphone port for private conversations."

Pretty ordinary sales puff? You're right. Now load up Google and search for "Polycom's legendary line" and see how many hits you get. For example, you'll find JKC's praise hauntingly familiar... actually, completely word-for-word identical.

On the face of it, the product is an expensive device which does very little except, perhaps, make it marginally easier to conduct a group interview over Skype.

A slightly more balanced viewpoint can be found at ZDNet UK, which remarked: "Polycom's Skype-orientated Communicator has its uses, but is unlikely to have a general application where it adds real value compared to alternative solutions."

Tags: Skype, speakerphone