Olympia DUALphone

$220

The Cordless DUALphone is a cordless telephone that can be connected to a normal telephone socket and a USB port on a PC. The display shows whether your friends who also use the free Skype VoIP system, are online. If they are, you simply have to press the appropriate green button and talk to them for free – no matter where they are in the world.

If their PC is switched off, or you want to call someone who doesn't use Skype, you can simply press the other green button and call via the standard telephone connection. Alternatively, you can use the SkypeOut service, which allows you to call most standard telephones in the developed world for less than 3c a minute.

Walking around the house, talking on a portable skype phone for free gives you a certain air of smugness, as if you are you are thumbing your nose at the big telco carriers who have had you by the proverbials for years charging exhorbitant fees. With products like this, in the not too distant future, you might even get the chance to tell them that they have been disconnected for overcharging.

Available from Mobion or DUALphone.