Here you have what I would consider to be a response to the demand–”just get me a phone that places calls on Yahoo”–and not much else. Here’s the deal on the $99 Yahoo phone.

It’s cordless, but you’ll need to leave the base connected to your Windows PC in order to place calls to your Yahoo buddies. Your Yahoo buddies must also be using the Windows version of Messenger.  On the rear of the base is a RJ11 receptable so you can plug in a phone line. This makes the phone a standard cordelss phone, too. It uses the DECT standard for digitally transmitting voice between the handset and the base, and Yahoo has gone ahead and taken the liberty of calling it a “dual mode” phone (though as far as the phone is concerned, it’s really just a DECT phone).  The use of the word dual stems from the fact that you can call Yahoo buddies and regular landline numbers.

What I like about this phone–
The wireless range is reasonable, and the talktime is fine (10 hours, they claim). The form factor and industrial design of the phone is acceptably consistent with other cordless phones you might see in a residence, though the keypad buttons were obviously designed for people with micro-thumbs. It is very easy to misdial because of this. But generally speaking, your girlfriend won’t think you’re a total dork if you have this thing in your apartment. The base is also very sleek-looking. Navigating the buddy list is a snap. 

What I don’t like about this phone–

Where to begin. This product screams peanut butter memo. This phone is basically the same as the Keyspan Skype phone, only with the nuisance of having to connect a phone line (a 911 lawsuit avoidance technique if ever there was one).  Then there’s Yahoo’s obtuse, big-headed insistence on developing everything for Windows first and by side-stepping open standards. This phone’s Windows-centricity comes courtesy of a crap licensing deal Bill Gates signed with the makers of the Truespeec codec ten or twelve years ago, and because Yahoo is either too cheap to license G.729 or too scared of losing their oh-so-profitable Yahoo Chat regime, we Mac users are stuck with a sub-par Yahoo Messenger, and an incompatible phone. Come on Yahoo, times have changed. Get with the program.
Then again, if you are a Windows user, looking at the Yahoo Messenger with Voice solution on this phone versus Skype, I would be half-tempted to say use Skype. The calls are cheaper, the user-base is larger, and Skype isn’t afraid of the big bad 911 litigation wolf.  Plus, if you ever switch between platforms, your Skype hardware, including the Keyspan I mentioned above, will switch with you.

Sorry Yahoo, your phone kind of blows.  Why not do something NEW instead producing a product which meets the bare-bones requirements of some stuffy boardroom guy who A) is never going to use it B) hasn’t been innovative since 1994 and C) sees the other guys doing it and yells, “just get me a phone that works on our system!”……