WiFi Phone Announced

igrp writes "Zyxel just announced its Prestige 2000W VoIP Wi-Fi Cordless Phone. It's designed to work with 802.11b networks, implements QoS and IP-to-IP call functionality and uses 128-bit WEP encryption. It also scans for 'available APs in [the] hand set's environment'. War driving just became a whole lot more interesting."

Comments

end of wiring

[pvt_medic]

with everything going wireless, will we even need to wire houses of the future (well i guess power might be necessary)?

Re:end of wiring

[rusty0101]

You will still need to wire an internal distribution network for power within your house.

So far the only solutions that I have seen to provide power to a device, without running wires to it are induction platforms that require that the device being powered be placed "on" the induction platform. This may be OK if you want to use it as a place to drop and charge your Cell phone, MP3 player, PDA, Laptop, whatever else has batteries that need to be charged, but probably isn't going to help with the TV, Refrigerator, or Microwave Oven.

-Rusty

Re:end of wiring

[Dare nMc]

>still need to wire an internal distribution network for power within your house

good point.

In the end it is always wired. for the WiFi/cell phone/TV/cordless phone the antenna (a wire, usually) feeds more wires, which run to a CPU, that runs a wire to the Analog device (be it speaker/crt/flat panel...)

I get satalite TV, it runs via wire to all the TV's. I got a WiFi Access,point but my PC's are wired eithernet together (Wifi for laptop/pda's).

In my ideal neighborhood, not connected to the Power Grid but solar, I would wire my neighborhood houses together, so I could get some momentary suplemental power, without battery losses from those people, out of town,etc with fully charged batterys, and some special needs juice.
(also dense neighboorhoods, would need more than their rooftops with solar panels, so a central power unit, especially for sunless days...)

but not a nation-wide grid 3* connected, running giga watts over mega volt lines, at least not so large as to have to cover household use also.

re: end of wiring

[lo_fye]

Nikola Tesla developed *wireless electricity* in 1900, and perfected it in 1904. He was able to illuminate lightbulbs around the world using a single power source in New York. Unfortunately, he couldn't get funding to roll it out nationally because there was no way to meter usage (and because it would upset the international power balance).

Can't buy

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd be happy if I could buy VoIP hardware without having to pay 50-100% extra for shipping to Europe. Does anyone know a European retailer of Sipura VoIP adapters?

Re:Dont touch those phones!

[Anonymous Coward]

with the state of today's wireless network configurations, this is kinda like giving free untraceable phone service to anyone wanting to buy the phone initially...

MMmmmmm radiation

[Anonymous Coward]

How wise is it to stick a 802.11 transmitter right next to your brain for extended periods of time?

RF Safe

"According to Dr. Brown, the real danger is the proximity to the transmitter because the transmitter sends out the waves that could heat up human tissue if close enough to the antenna. "

"Moving from one inch away to only one foot away from the Wi-Fi antenna weakens the signal by a factor of 100. So unless you're hugging the antenna, or leaning against it, you're being exposed to very little radiation."

D'oh... Better have a "hands free" option so that I can place the transmitter next to my genitals instead of near to my head.

Crypto software.

[sabri]

Now it's a matter of time before someone implements a software version of the Cryptophone for these wifi-phones.. I really wonder how LEA's will deal with this. Afterall, wiretapping a phone will be fairly impossible :-)

Nokia 9500 communicator

[throwaway18]

Nokia recently announced the next version of the nokia communicator.
Triple band, edge, GPRS, bluetooth, infrared, wifi, qwerty keyboard,
browser, organiser, telnet, ssh, plays mp3s, 80MB memory, camera, 640x200 colour screen.

A highly desirably toy, though judging by previous communicators there will be a dozen firmware updates and you will need the extended warranty
because they often break.

thank you VoIP gods!

[photovoltaics]

I can't believe more people don't have more VoIP phones already... Something like Vonnage offers. I can have a local phone number, travel to Hong Kong, and still have a local number to my home town. Having a wireless option makes it that much better. Telephony service costs too much already, and this may help more people switch to VoIP phones, too... thus making it even more inexpensive. As timothy pointed out, this certainly does take wardriving to a whole new level. Sweet.

NAT

[v_1_r_u_5]

When these phones can get around the need for a central server if both parties are behind NAT, things will get real exciting. As it is right now, though, if both parties are using NAT, there's no direct way for them to connect unless through a central server, which is not a good idea for numerous reasons. Maybe with the new IP protocol...

Yes, but how do you use it at starbucks?

[hebcal]

All of those pay-to-play Wi-Fi APs in coffee shops and airports need to talk to a browser to authenticate your NIC. It's not clear how you can do that with a phone.

Re:War driving attention span

[Your_Mom]

*shrug*
I dunno, myself and one of my friends have killed many a hours on multiple outings doing it. We always fall into the "Just X more signals"-trap. I guess its better with a friend, as I can see doing it by myself would be rather boring.

Of course, I'm a 'spark' (one who likes to go to fires) so I'm used to the whole cruising around waiting for a call to come over the fire radio.

Re:War driving attention span

[scum-e-bag]

I actually had some great fun with it. Weeks and weeks of joy for me. I got myself a job as a taxi driver and stuck a laptop with external GPS and external 802.11 connected to the roof for good reception. After a days work I'd pull out the laptop and see where all the networks were and when I had been driving all day.

Not forgetting to mention that when I get bored I can just whip out the lappy and recompile my kernel for fun...

I can only just begin to imagine how much fun and how useful this new device is going to be for me.

Sounds good on first read...

[Leomania]

But the 2.4GHz spot in the frequency spectrum in a typical household is so crudded up already. I mean, I already have these in use in that space:

o 802.11b network (2 APs, 4 clients)
o Cordless phone
o X10 video camera (for baby monitoring)
o Microwave oven

The X10 camera goes mostly unused nowadays due to interference from the APs. The telephone has some very annoying pops and clicks when the microwave is in use. I'd be hard-pressed to shell out many buckazoids for one of these until I was certain it worked better than my existing phone that's using that spectrum.

Assuming there's enough recovery for corrupted packets when interference is occurring (tried to read the article to get more info, but can't get to the site as usual), I can see where it might work better than my existing phone in the presence of such interference. But I won't be in a big hurry to go buy one just yet.

- Leo

Been doing it for a while

[zapp]

It's called a Pocket PC, a WiFi adapter, and WiFive

Wifive can connect to other wifive users or netmeeting, and if you have an IP-PSTN service, you can place calls to regular phones as well.

Cool though that someone made an actual phone to make the process easier