When I recently wrote about the Belkin Skype phone, I didn’t realize I’d be writing about Skype again so soon. But when Skype releases an app for the iPhone, it’s worth writing about again.

Skype, for the unfamiliar, is a service that lets you make phone calls through the magic of the Internet, using a technology called “Voice over IP”, or VoIP for short. If you call someone else with Skype, the call is free; there is a small per-minute charge to call someone without Skype. (Skype itself is a free application.)

One important point to notice is that you can only use the Skype app to make calls when you’re in range of a wi-fi network; Skype does not use cellular networks, so you can’t use it in your car or other places that are out of range of wi-fi.

iPod Touch owners can also use the Skype app, but they will need to use headphones with an included microphone to make or receive calls, since the Touch doesn’t normally have phone capabilities.

CNET is reporting that the Skype iPhone application will be available Tuesday, March 31. I’m assuming the Skype app is free, although news reports don’t specifically state that information.

Research in Motion (RIM), the company makes the line of popular BlackBerry cell phones and smart phones, is ripping a page out of the iPhone playbook and adding applications and an application store to its phones.

RIM is expected to make the announcement of the app store, to be called App World on April 1. Similar to the iPhone, it will allow users to download and use a variety of third-party developed applications on the phone.

Initial reports say that most App World applications will be either free or $2.99. RIM has promised developers that they’ll make a greater profit than they will with iPhone apps, hoping to spur development on the BlackBerry platform instead.

The main danger to this, as I see it, is that most iPhone apps that aren’t free cost around one dollar. That’s about a third of the price of the average BlackBerry app, and users might not want to shell out three dollars per app. On the other hand, BlackBerries are normally used in corporations, and those users often are more affluent than the typical cell phone owner, so the premium price may not be a problem.

In any case, I’m a fan of competition among gadgets, so this entry is a good thing.

It’s often the case that the first product in a new category quickly becomes ascendant, so that it pushes out the competition and develops an unassailable position. It’s happened with Amazon.com, Netflix and other Internet legends.

That’s also happened, to a degree, with e-book readers. In this (still very narrow) space, most folks know the Kindle, also from Amazon. I wrote about the Kindle recently, but it’s not the only e-book reader out there. One of my favorite electronics companies, Sony, has its own version, called simply the Reader Digital Book.

It’s about $60 cheaper than the Kindle, but they’re both expensive.

One advantage of the Sony is that it looks better than the Amazon product. The Reader is much more minimalist, without the keyboard that feels tacked on to the bottom of the Kindle. Fewer buttons means a cleaner layout; and I’m not sure why you’d want a keyboard on an e-book reader, anyway. The point is to read, not type.

The Reader has enough storage, Sony says, to hold about 160 books. It also has storage card slots to add more books. One cool thing the Reader offers is access to the 500,000-strong library of Google public domain books. That should keep you busy for awhile.

One drawback of the Reader vs. the Kindle is that Amazon’s reader has access to its books, magazines and other content wirelessly, whereas Sony doesn’t offer any Internet connectivity. You have to hook it up to another computer and download your books. While this isn’t difficult, it is a multi-step process of which you should be aware.

The reading experience for the Reader gets solid marks from reviewers; you can also read Adobe PDF files and Microsoft Word documents on the Reader. Overall, Sony’s done a nice job with its Kindle competitor; it’s worth checking out before you plunk down your plastic on the “name” gadget, and see what the other guy has to offer.

One phrase you may have heard recently is “Voice over IP”, or VoIP, which basically means making phone calls via the Internet. If you have a fast Internet connection like a cable modem or DSL, you can take advantage of VoIP to save a lot of money on phone calls.

The most well-known service for doing this is Skype.  If you call someone else with Skype (which is free to download and install), the call is free. You can also call people on regular landlines and mobile phones, for a small fee.

What’s also cool is that you can use Skype even if you don’t have, or are not near, a computer. Belkin offers a wi-fi phone for Skype that lets you make calls to anyone, as long as you have access to a wi-fi network. You can find them almost anywhere nowadays — they even have one at my local Safeway!

The thing to remember about this phone is that it’s just that — a phone. This isn’t a device for browsing the Web; in fact, it doesn’t even have a Web browser. It is a phone, plain and simple. On the other hand, you don’t have to download the Skype software to use the phone, as it comes pre-installed, and you can sign up for a Skype account through the software.

Many folks use Skype to make VoIP calls. If you get this phone, ask those you call frequently to sign up for a Skype account, and save money — for yourself, and whomever you call.

You’ll notice a lot of chatter on this and other PriceGrabber blogs about the iPhone. The reason I write about it is twofold: First, it’s incredibly popular, and its owners (like me) tend to be intensely interested in any news related to it. Yeah, many of us have an unhealthy level of attachment to our devices.

Second, the iPhone is just about the greatest gadget of all time; and since this is a gadget blog, anything related to the iPhone is relevant.

One of the reasons the iPhone is enormously popular is the App Store. Thousands of applications, most of them reasonably priced and many of them free, is what separates the iPhone from the competition.

If you’re a PriceGrabber fan and iPhone owner (or prospective owner), you’ll be interested in a new application coming soon. It’s the PriceGrabber iPhone App. Details aren’t available yet, but you can be sure it’ll help you comparison shop for the best prices to be found on the Web.

Yet another way your iPhone makes your life better. Keep checking PriceGrabber for more information, or provide your e-mail address to be notified immediately of the application’s availability.

If you’re one of those people who’s wanted an iPhone for years, but didn’t want to be locked into a two-year service contract, next Thursday is the day you’ve been waiting for.

According to the Associated Press, AT&T, the sole iPhone carrier in the United States, will begin selling the iPhone next Thursday with the ability to opt out of the two-year commitment. It comes at a price, however: those iPhones will cost $400 more than the ones that require a commitment. That means an 8GB iPhone will cost $599 and the 16GB model $699, instead of the $199 and $299 rate with the plan.

Ultimately, the choice of whether or not to pay the upfront premium is up to you. You will still have to pay for the $30 per month unlimited data plan, so keep that in mind.

This is a good deal for consumers, in my opinion. Having more choice is always good, and this gives us more choices. Now all Apple needs to do is open up service to multiple carriers, to make it even better.

OK, be honest here — how many of you actually back up your computers’ hard drives on a regular basis? If you don’t, you’re playing with fire. Your hard drive will die one day, trust me. It’s a fact of computer life. When that happens, how much data will you lose — days, months, years?

It’s a shame, too, because modern operating systems, like Windows Vista and Mac OS X, make it easy to do regularly-scheduled backups. To do that, though, you’ll need an external drive to store your backups. In my case, I have a 1 Terabyte (TB) drive to which I back up my data every hour. That peace of mind is good to have.

When I bought my drive, it was more than $300. It’s good to see that prices for that much storage have dropped significantly. Take, for example, the MicroNet G-Force External 1TB Hard Drive. It’s about a third of what I spent, for the same amount of storage.

One TB of storage is equivalent to 1,000 gigabytes — that’s a lot of space for your pictures, documents, videos and other assorted stuff. In my full-time job, I work with a lot of large files, so I have serious space needs. The drive I use for backup isn’t nearly full yet, meaning if you’re an average user, it will take a long time before that drive fills up.

This drive works with both PCs and Macs; any computer with a USB 2.0 connection. It’s a strong value for something as important as backing up your vital data. I wouldn’t skimp on an item like this any longer, if I were you. You’ll regret it if you do.

I recently blogged about a basic high-definition camcorder that comes at an entry-level price and can do basic point-and-shoot. If you’re looking to go to a higher-end model, consider the Canon’s VIXIA HF-10 AVCHD.

The HF-10 is a very small form-factor camcorder, making it portable in just about any type of camera bag — or even in your pocket, if you’re in a pinch. It also has some manual controls for those who like more options in their shooting, and a very, very nice 12x optical zoom lens. It’s rare to see an optical zoom of that length on a camcorder in this price range. Since it’s an optical zoom, that means the picture quality won’t degrade as you zoom in closer.

One of the camera’s biggest selling points for me is its flash memory. It has 16GB of memory built in, enough for storing up to about two hours of high-quality video, and about six hours of lower-quality video. It also contains a slot for SDHC removable flash cards. It works the same as a memory card in a digital camera; if you need more recording space than available on the internal hard drive, just pop in an SDHC card, and fire up the camera.

In my mind, this is a big advantage. Many camcorders can record straight to a CD or DVD. That makes them bigger and heavier, however, and flash drives are much more portable than CDs or DVDs. They’re also coming down a lot in price.

Finally, it’s a Canon. I’ve been the proud owner of a number of Canon camcorders, and find them to be outstanding in terms of quality and features. Canon is famous for the quality of its lenses in particular, and few things are more important in capturing great images than a good lens. In all, this camcorder offers a lot, for not a lot of money.

OK, my kids love the idea of writing about their gadgets, so here’s another one: 12-year-old Patrick reviews his Sony PlayStation Portable handheld game console.

“I got my PSP in 2006. The first game I ever got was Daxter, one of the best games available for the PSP.

The first time I saw the PSP I thought the analog stick was a speaker. Well, it turns out that it’s not. The PSP is the first portable game system ever to have an analog stick on it. The analog stick is a huge upgrade from the D-pad. It really helps you move around better.

I didn’t expect the graphics to be very good, but I had my hopes. So, I loaded up Daxter; when I saw the in-game graphics, I just said “Wow.”

The graphics for the PSP are incredible. There exactly like the ones on the PlayStation 2 (PS2). I have many games and all of them have wonderful graphics. They look so life-like.

There were two things I wasn’t impressed at all by: The sound, and the brightness of the screen. Even with the sound all the way up it was hard to hear, but thankfully Sony fixed the problem by coming up with a sound enhancer. The screen is so dark there’s almost no way you can play it outside on a sunny day.

Sony has come out with the PSP slim, which is lighter, but still had some issues. With the new release of the PSP 3000, all the issues are fixed.

The battery life is very long; on one charge; it’s run for about 1 ½ days. The fact that you can store music, pics, videos, watch movies also impressed me.

I wish they would put a camera ability in there so you could take pictures. With the newest update you can get the PlayStation store, which you can get loads of demos from. You can also download games directly to your PSP. Online play isn’t very good, because you can only go online if you have Wi-Fi near you.

Overall, the PSP is a wonderful system. If you’re looking at handheld game systems, you should definitely get this instead of the Nintendo DS or Wii or something.”

Thanks, Patrick!

If you’re a regular reader of “Gotta Have,” you may be aware that I have children (many, actually!) And since children these days are big consumers of gadgets, I thought it might be helpful to have them tell you about their gadgets from their point of view. That way, you can get a sense of what they like and don’t like about gadgets, rather than just what I say.

Therefore, I present today the first of the Ward Kid Gadget Reviews. First up is my 14-year-old daughter Erin, who reviews her iPod Video Nano.

There are several things that I like about the video Nano.

First is a feature called “cover flow”; it’s the ability to scroll through your albums and see the covers of each album. Then, if you click on an album, you can see all the songs in that album.

The second thing I like is the ability to watch movies, TV shows and music videos.
When you watch a video, the picture is very clear and the sound is great. The only downside is the size of the screen.

Also, when listening to songs, the sound is 100 percent great.

You also get the ability to play games, and all the games I have played work well, and have never frozen.

You have the ability to put podcasts on your iPod as well.

And for me, Apple is a very reliable company. You won’t be disappointed.

Thanks, Erin. Great job! Look for more Ward Kid Gadget Reviews in the future.