Yamamoto USB Phone 1025

It's now easy to make telephone calls over the internet, and using a service such as Skype it's possible to call other internet telephony users for free. However, it doesn't feel particularly natural to call people using a PC microphone and speakers.

The Yamamoto USB Phone 1025 is a replica telephone handset that plugs into a spare USB port and acts like a normal telephone for Skype calls.

It's the size and shape of a generic mobile phone and is sturdily made. Software installation was not hard, although the software needs to be downloaded from the internet.

Once installed, the handset controls the phone software and connects to Skype automatically. Numbers can be dialled on the handset and it can scroll through the address book. The call quality is good.