News

Asus launches Skype videophone; no pictures!

It was one of the better PR stunts ever: the launch of the new V4.0 of Skype, together with live tests on the Asus video Skypephone. Well, it would have been...

The new Skype release: well, we're still planning to test that properly. But our official trial run got off to something of a rough start: the audio, supposed to be a breakthrough, was awful.

"Ah, that's because the call was set up by our PR guru," explained a cheerful Skype exec. "And because of the snow, he's at home, and his broadband is down, and so he's had to set up the conference call using his mobile." Everything was going through the mobile, he said. It sounded like it.

So, plug in the new Asus Eee Videophone AiGuru SV1

What if it doesn't work? Ah... Here's the problem: you can set the thing up manually... but only if (and after) you've got it connected. If you can't connect, then you can't access the setup menu!

Indeed, unless you have it connected, you can't even reset it, because the reset control is soft - it's one of the "advanced" menu items on the main setup screen. And - as you can see from our photo [top, right] our review sample wouldn't connect.

Not only was it adamant about Ethernet (Eee, no!) but it wouldn't log onto our bog-standard Linksys wireless a/g access point either. "Bad password," it said. And that was that.

We're waiting for tech support to come up with a magic wand. It's possible that the Ethernet cockup is an incompatibility between the NewsWireless network switch - an Edimax Fast Ethernet - ES-3116P. It works with almost every bit of IT we have - except one antique Research Machines Tablet PC, and now, this AiGuru. We're looking for replacement hardware - but it will take a brave  PR bunny to volunteer their client's kit, won't it?

And we might as well replace the antique Linksys. It's not exactly obvious why it would say "bad password" but until we've done that, we can't change the WPA passphrase, because it's such an out of date bit of kit, we can't find the config software!

In the meantime, if you want to talk to us, use the phone, or the IRC channel (see below)...