Archos is bringing its Android-based "smart" home phone to the States.
Last week the Archos 35 Android-based "smart" home phoneshowed up on the FCC website, indicating that the device may finally arrive here in the States early next year.
According to the Archos 35 specs, the device offers the "smarts" of a typical 1 GHz Android-based smartphone but stays rooted to the local old-school telephone line, shedding 3G and 4G connectivity. But it also keeps users "connected" thanks to integrated 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi support, granting access the internet for downloading apps and (possibly) making cheap international calls using Skype.
"With its sleek & stylish design and its 3.5 inch touchscreen the ARCHOS Smart Home Phone is finally a home phone that you’ll be proud to leave on your coffee table," the product description reads. "Its charging dock is separate from its wireless receiver so there’s no need for a huge dock right next to the phone line. And it’s compatible with any ADSL box or phone line and uses standard DECT protocols so it’s compatible with your standard DECT handsets and bases.
On the hardware side of things, the Archos 35 sports a 1 GHz TI OMAP3630 SoC with an OpenGL ES 2.0 graphic accelerator, 8 GB of internal memory and a microSD card slot for adding additional storage. The touchscreen measures only 3.5-inches and features a resolution of 272 x 480 -- sorry, no HD content support here. Video playback includes MPEG-4 AVI and most common video formats, and music playback includes MP3, FLAC, OGG and WAV.
Powering this home phone is Google's Android 2.2 "Froyo" OS, but there's no indication that users will have access to the Android Market or other Google services. The device also comes packed with a front-facing VGA camera for making video calls as well as your basic telephony features like a caller contact display, hands-free mode, GAP compatibility, an intercom for calling another handset, and more.
So far there's no word on pricing and actual availability, so stay tuned. Still, does anyone even have a land line anymore?
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