HP unveils smart phone at 3GSM

A correction was made to this story. Read below for details.

Hewlett-Packard will offer its own smart phone with voice command and remote-access features this spring, the company announced Monday.

The iPaq 500 smart phone--unveiled by HP at the 3GSM World Congress 2007 in Barcelona--will run on the new Windows Mobile 6.0 platform and come with voice over Internet Protocol compatibility, push e-mail, Microsoft Internet Explorer and Outlook Mobile.

The iPaq 500 connects to the Internet via GSM/GPRS/Edge networks, as well as via Wi-Fi that can be protected with Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 security. Designed for business users, the phone can be accessed remotely, so that companies' IT managers can delete or erase data from stolen or lost phones and also provide updates and fixes.

While the HP iPaq comes only with a numeric keyboard, it has speech translation so that users can listen to e-mail and text messages, and can use voice commands to work the phone. The 20 voice prompts programmed into the device allow the owner to do things like navigate phone functions, open applications and use its calendar features. People also can send voice replies to e-mails.

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Going mobile at 3GSM

More news from the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, one of the world's largest showcases of cutting-edge wireless technology.

The phone features Bluetooth, 64MB of memory and 128MB of storage with a micro SD card slot to expand memory. The rechargeable lithium-ion battery offers about six hours of talk time and over seven days of standby, HP said.

The iPAQ 500 also allows users to play music and videos, store photos and play games on the device.

The smart phone will be available this spring in the U.S. directly from HP and authorized dealers. The company has not yet released the phone's price or disclosed which carriers will offer it.

 

Correction: This story incorrectly stated the iPaq 500 series cell phone's Internet access method. The phone connects via GSM/GPRS/Edge networks and Wi-Fi.

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