The thought of sticking it to Ma Bell and making free phone calls from our PC fills us with joy, so it's no wonder we welcomed Linksys' new phone with open arms. The CIT310 is a cordless phone that lets you make free PC-to-PC calls using your Yahoo Messenger with Voice account. The phone also supports Yahoo Phone Out (which lets you make calls to any phone number with rates that start at $0.2 cents) and Yahoo Phone In (which for $29/year lets you assign a phone number to your PC). We got our hands on the new CIT310 and give you our first impressions after the jump.

Design-wise the CIT310 is slightly bigger than your average cell phone, but more compact than a home phone. It comes with a Base Station that plugs directly into your PC's USB port. The Base Station also has a phone jack so it can be hooked up to make and receive regular calls over a standard telephone line.

The CIT310 has a very simple to use interface, but drilling through menus can be somewhat clunky since there are no left/right navigational buttons (only up/down). In addition, the screen also feels too small, especially with all the dead space sitting above it.

The phone is rated at 100 hours of standby time and 10 hours of talk. Pricing hasn't been set, but if you've already got a long list of friends on Yahoo Messenger and need to save some cash, the CIT310 is a quick way to get started with your PC-to-PC calling.

Linksys Dual Mode Cordless Phone for Yahoo Messenger

Linksys%20Yahoo2.jpg

Linksys%20Yahoo3.jpg

Linksys%20Yahoo4.jpg

12:18 AM on Thu Nov 9 2006
By Louis Ramirez
1,529 views
7 comments

Comments

actingtoorich at 08:44 AM on 11/09/06
Reply by Email
*

OR maybe you could just uy a headset w/mic, with a cord that is just as long.
actingtoorich at 08:47 AM on 11/09/06
Reply by Email
*

Or maybe you should just buy a headset w/mic. you said nothing about this phones connectivity to its base. 800mhz? wireless a/b/g/n????
Rain-man at 11:01 AM on 11/09/06
Reply by Email
*

Looks pretty cool. Interesting to see how this can compete with Skype. Oh, and spell check? "...lets you makes calls..."
works at 12:52 PM on 11/09/06
Reply by Email
*

How would spell check help with that?
Troy_Powers at 04:07 PM on 11/09/06
Reply by Email
*

This is great. I've switched to Yahoo Voice from skype. Skype likes to lock up my system periodically, and Y! is a few cents cheaper per minute on international calls. 'Bout time some cool gadgets came out to go along with it.
bigbill25 at 05:48 PM on 11/09/06
Reply by Email
*

Neat, but the big question: How much will it cost?
Hello_Newman at 09:37 PM on 11/11/06
Reply by Email
*

I'd just use this if you make lots of International calls. Locally, it sucks up bandwidth, not as reliable and sound quality isn't near a real line. Unlimited long distance is too cheap these days to use this just for calls inside you're country.
Of course if you do lots of International stuff, those prices are still nasty so you could save a lot of money.
Also having tried Vonage, if there's anything you need to use a fax or modem for (like a merchant account software or other things) I couldn't make a connection using it.
I've spoken with incoming calls on Internet phones so many times that break up that I usually won't even answer anymore when someone keeps calling on it and breaking off.

Usually having to upgrade your cable modem to 15mbit to handle your Internet and calling cancels out any savings from just getting unlimited long disatance. Our cable went out today and also the cable modem, if the phone went out as well I would have gone nuts.