The Unexpected iPhone - iPhones that Travel
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If you're looking for an iPhone you can take with you, you'll be more interested in one of Linksys' other three models. The base version of these is the WIP300. It supports 802.11g and the latest VoIP SIP protocols. As with the other iPhones, it boasts a high resolution display. Users can configure the handset using Secure Easy Setup (SES), which connects the iPhone to a Linksys Wireless-G broadband router. Other features include exactly what you'd expect from a cell phone, such as caller ID, call forwarding, call transfer, call history, and a phone book that can store 200 entries. You can even personalize it with your choice of ringtones and wallpaper. Of course, you pay a price for the increased portability; in this case, it's about $220.
The WIP320 uses Skype, not SIP. You can use the Skype service anywhere you have wireless Internet access - which is great in a city and many suburban areas, but not so great elsewhere. According to my sources, this phone is not yet available in Europe, Asia, or Latin America, but it is available in North America for around $200. It is projected to be available in the rest of the world sometime in the first quarter of 2007.
The WIP330 is Linksys' top of the line iPhone. You can use it to connect to VoIP service through a public hot spot or your Internet telephony service provider. It comes with a larger screen than the other models, and all of the features you'd expect from a good cell phone and more: peer-to-peer dialing, speed dial, 3-way conferencing, call waiting, call transfer, call forward, mute, hold and selectable ringtones. Of course it stores a call history covering the last 20 calls (which compares well with my own year-old Nokia) and can save 250 phone book entries.
You can also surf the Internet from this phone, thanks to its built-in web browser, and -- ironically for something named the iPhone -- this device runs on the Windows Mobile OS. The phone can receive live video, so you can set it up to link to a web camera and use it to monitor a location such as your home or office in real time. (Naturally, Linksys would be happy to sell you the camera to help set up the monitoring system). All of this functionality comes at a price, though: about $370. You can expect to pay that and more for a really good cell phone with just about all the bells and whistles though.
If you check Amazon, though, which is one of only three places you can buy the iPhone, you'll find lower prices (at least at this time of writing, which is admittedly just after Christmas). You'll also find competing products from Belkin, Infogear, and at least one other manufacturer. Even without Apple entering the arena - and you can bet Apple will be making a cell phone, not a VoIP phone - Linksys is going to have quite a fight on its hands to make headway in this market.
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