Toshiba e805 Designed for Voice over IP
By Ed Hardy | Editor-in-Chief
Oct 2, 2003
Among its many other abilities, Toshiba's upcoming e805 will allow its user to wirelessly make low-cost phone calls over the Internet.
The e805 will come with Voice over IP (VoIP) software that will allow it to call other VoIP devices for free. Or the user has the option of subscribing to an inexpensive service that will allow the device to call any phone. The device has built-in Wi-Fi so the user won't be tied to a wall when making a call.
While this certainly won't be the first Pocket PC with this capability, the e805 has been designed to facilitate its use as a phone. It has a built-in speaker and microphone so the user doesn't have to use a headset, though a headset jack will be included.
If the user isn't available when a call is coming in, the handheld will work as an answering machine.
Because the e805 will have to be in range of a Wi-Fi hotspot in order to use the phone functions, it won't be a flexible as a cellular-wireless phone, but it will be less expensive to use.
Toshiba gave the Wall Street Journal a quick overview of this device. During this, the Japanese electronics giant highlighted the e805's VoIP capabilities.
An Overview of the Toshiba e805
Toshiba hasn't officially announced the e805, but the FCC has already given its approval. Normally, this would mean a fairly complete picture of this device's features would be available. However, the user manual filed with FCC disagrees on almost every point with information in a leaked PowerPoint presentation on this device. To add to the confusion, a pair of web retailer briefly listed this Pocket PC on their sites, and the descriptions they gave disagreed with the other sources.
There's no way to be sure which of these sources to trust. It isn't unusual for the documents on the FCC site to be out of date. Companies have to file these months in advance and sometimes devices get modified in the interim. And a leaked PowerPoint presentation isn't a reliable source of information, either, and neither are accidental slip-ups by web retailers. Unfortunately, the Wall Street Journal briefing didn't cover much beyond the VoIP capabilities. Therefore, it is too early to say what the e805's specifications will be.
One of the hottest areas of contention is this model's screen resolution. The leaked PowerPoint presentation says it will be the first Pocket PC with a 480 by 640 pixel (VGA) screen. But the user manual says nothing about this.
About all that is definitely known about the e805 at this point is that it will have Wi-Fi and dual slots: CompactFlash Type II and SD/MMC.
Toshiba told the Wall Street Journal that this handheld will be launched later this month. According to J&R and Amazon.com, Toshiba's suggested price for the e805 will be $599.
