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Voice over Symbol Pocket PC doesn't impress geeks ...

Ungrateful lot! Symbol has announced a pocket PC which does wireless (WiFi) voice over IP, includes a Bluetooth option, a bar-code scanner, a full colour screen - and you can even drop it without breaking it. Is anybody grateful? No!

The 8146

So far, pretty much the only reaction has been an appalled and sarcastic: "Soon enough Symbol will become the chic Pocket PC to have. We'll all be lugging around these huge, grey Pocket PCs that last longer than our cars" - from Geek.com.

Symbol's own announcement shows that the PDT 8100 Series is no style victim's toy.

It "bridges the gap between pen-based and key-based mobile data collection solutions," says Symbol.

Nonetheless, there are going to be geeks who buy it.

Built-in WiFi means even with its rugged construction, it's actually not much bigger than an iPaq with its PC Card "jacket" and its XScale 400 MHz ARM-derived processor is as fast as anything around. More to the point is that it has a separate voice processor to handle voice calls over the IP network.

And it takes a CompactFlash card expansion, for storage and other functionality, when normally, a Pocket PC forces you to use either one or the other expansion system.