But he also said "just about everybody else I know uses Verizon..."

Joe, do you get internet service from MSN?  You have a bandwidth and
latency issue on your internet connection.

I have Skype installed, with full motion color video, on a laptop at a
local electronics warehouse store linked through the store's open
wireless router, 24/7 because they never shut any computer off when they
close.

I got into a conversation about Skype with another customer as we were
standing there and he had had similar results as you long ago.  I logged
the little laptop onto Skype with my username, not the freebie I
installed at the store when noone was looking, so we'd have
POTS/Cellphone access on my Skype In and Out for calling his cellphone.

I gave him my Skype In local phone number and he dialed it on his
cellphone.  We could hear the combination short delay of his digital
cellphone and the Skype system by listening to our own echo.  Then, I had
him call my Alltel cellphone in my pocket for comparison.  Cellular to
Skype had LESS delay, very noticibly less delay, than listening to our
own echos from cellphone to cellphone!  The call was clearer on Skype as
we were only using one slow codec, his cellphone.

I called a local number from the Skype laptop that always puts music-on-
hold on the line while you wait and wait to talk to the lady at the
electric company.  We listened to the elevator music..yecch..on Skype and
noted its fidelity.  Then we called it from his Cingular cellphone and my
Alltel cellphone, both on different digital schemes to compare.  The
Skype rendition of the same music-on-hold was MUCH better.  That stands
to reason because as anyone knows music on digital cellular just SUCKS
because of the awful slow codec cellular uses to increase traffic.  The
nice HP speakers in this store laptop sounded really hifi for a telephone
music machine.

What do your traceroutes look like to www.skype.com or some other IP
address outside your ISP's system?  What are the ping times and how many
pings are lost?  How busy is your system processor when you're using
Skype?  Is this an old machine with a slow processor?  Skype warns it
will not work properly on slow machines as they add a lot of local
latency processing Skype's encryption and AtoD/DtoA conversions.
Encrypting your audio takes quite a bit of computer power.  Unlike your
cellphone, government bureaucrats aren't listening to what you say on
Skype, to another computer, until it comes out into the POTS phone system
or to another cellular user.  

Something is wrong with your setup.  Skype to my buds in Iraq in a tent
sound just like they're sitting in the room with me....I can even hear
the MORTARS and RPGs go off!

Larry

I'm with you man, I love everything I can do with my XV6700.  I think I saw
some statistics recently that the majority of people don't like convergence
either, but there is definitely a market for it, and you can surely charge a
premium for it.

When I first heard of cell phones with a integrated camera I thought the
idea was just about the worst idea of all time.  When I saw the pictures
take with a cell phone then I was sure that a camera cell phone was the
worst idea.

Then I finally found the *perfect* use for a camera phone no matter how
bad the picture quality is...

When you park in a large ramp with many many many levels it is often
hard to remember exactly what level/area where you parked.  Just use the
phone cam to take a pic of the sign that states what level and space
your parked in.

There you go...the perfect use for a camera cell phone.

Ted Novak
TRA#5512
IEAS#75