HPCs as phones

As someone who uses my HPC a lot and my cell phone occasionally, I've thought it would be neat to use the J720 as a phone. Have the incoming voice on speaker or through earphone jack, and use the microphone as my voice input. Is it even feasible?

MEW (Is that off-topic enough?)

Hi there,

I've got a Nokia Phone Card 2. You can't run the sound through the speaker or use the Jornada's mic but you can use it in handsfree through the headset. I am told you can use it to connect to the internet as a standard modem but I am yet to find a UK ISP which is compatable with Windows CE. But anyway the best place to look for one would be eBay. The drivers and headset will probably not come with it but you can get the headsets in Maplins (www.maplin.co.uk) RadioShack should have them though (you need a headset with a 2.5mm plug (the standard nokia i.e. 3310 headset will not work.) I got mine for £4.99 in Maplins. The drivers as I belive you had to pay extra for when the Phone Cards were being made I''ve got them listed on my website (www.nickcharlton.org.uk under the Windows CE link) please feel free to download anything from there!

Hope this helps

Nick

I am not sure if it can be used as a GSM phone (not aware of such software and card) but it can definitely be used as a VoIP phone. I've personally tested SJ Phone v 1.13 (H.323 or SIP) which is (was) free. And Microsoft Portrait should work, too. Anyway, you need a GPRS or WLAN card for such purpose.

One obstical could be that the sound card is only half duplex. I have not looked into this myself so am interested to hear what you discover on your quest!

The sound from Jornada to PC was excellent. The other direction was very not good but distorted because I only had an incompatible microfon (works with any sound card - written on the box. I'll repeat test with another good working mike.

i've thought about this before, but a cellphone has to be small and very pocketable, so that you can have it with you even when you're going to the convenience store across the street in your PJs (you get the point).

an HPC however needs to be large enough to be usable, like the jornada.

only when technology is advanced enough to reduce the hpc's size to as pocketable as a cellphone, and still make it fully functional as an HPC, we can replace cell-phones with HPC's. maybe in the next 10-20 years something like this will be announced.

but i think it'd be a good idea to have wireless high-speed internet connection on the HPC, like EDGE or better.

check this out: http://www.sierrawireless.com/ProductsOrdering/AC775.asp

Msafi, I say that on one hand you are right, on the other hand you are wrong. Yes, Jornada is too bulky to be used as a cell phone. But imagine yourself on a business trip to another country (or continent) and you have a Wi-Fi access or constant GPRS connection. If you have a VoIP client running on your Jornada you can connect to your corporate network as if you were currently located in your company. Phone calls with you co-workers are free, while local phone calls are charged to your company as local phone calls.

And - as a special bonus (if you call in next 15 minutes - you have a small computer which can be used for typing reports, preparing presentations, checking and answering your e-mail, playing music, readin e-books, recording memos...

Using Jornada as a cell phone (if possible at all) would be charged as normal cell phone. But using Jornada as a VoIP phone having a Wi-Fi access can be completely free of charge.

Those who know exactly what I want to describe shall forgive me not mentioning some dirty details around this story...

Can a J7xx last a whole day with a cellular modem activated, so you can receive calls any time?

No

I have re-tested: PC running NetMeeting and Jornada 720 running SJPhone 1.13. Both way quality was excellent, G.711 A-law (64 kbit/s) was used. SJPhone obviosly can handle the half-duplex issue, using Voice Activity Detecetion.

When in full flow though are you going to be missing out on vital data in the audio stream for the half-duplex, what was it like in your experience?

Do we have to say "CQ" a lot

Haha NetMeeting itself is a good reason for a long round-trip delay. I'll have to re-test it with a more decent IP Phone.

You get used to it, so no QRS-es or K-s It was usable.