EQO goes Mac and Nokia 9300
Today the fine folks at EQO (pronounced “Echo”) unleashed their Mac OS X client on the world, thus allowing Mac owners to utilize Skype from their mobile phone. You can read my previous thoughts on EQO if you want to find out what it does.
For kicks, I also loaded the latest EQO client on my Nokia 9300. I realize this isn’t a supported phone, but what the hey, it’s worth a try. While the applet did not take advantage of the large screen real estate on the 9300, the application works, albeit with some quirks. The initial password entry must be done with the numbers, which seems kind of odd when you have a full keyboard. Also, the softkeys are “shown” in the wrong place, though the top and bottom softkeys can be used as the left and right softkeys respectively. The fonts are also a little “big” given the way the app is displayed, though it is still usable.
As part of my testing, I both IMed and initiated a call to John Lieu, the Director of Product Management at EQO, from my Nokia 9300 via Skype. Those functions worked fairly well. Whenever I typed a message on my Nokia 9300, it would show up on my Mac right away. Furthermore, when John responded to me, it showed up on my Nokia 9300. Initiating a phone call worked too.
The good news is that they have designed their software in a way that it is relatively easily to adjust the “cosmetics” of the application to a specific phone’s form factor. This helps them support a wide range of mobiles easily. Obviously this doesn’t help as much for non-cosmetic issues, but it cuts down the time it takes to claim “support” for a phone.
Since the issues with the Nokia 9300 are cosmetic, it should mean that support for this phone and it’s cousin the Nokia 9500 aren’t too far off. Of course, the folks at EQO didn’t commit to having support for this at any particular time, nor would I expect them to. Even so, the applet seems usable right now.
