More evidence of the increased attention on VoIP, Panasonic has announced the release of their first WiFi phone built specifically for the Skype network. The Wi-Fi based phone, dubbed the KX-WP1050, comes with a wireless router for attaching to a local network or a computer, and can also integrate itself in any other open wireless network. It does support encryption and protection such as WPA and offers some QoS technologies to improve quality. It's a tiny thing, weighing in at 4 ounces, and looks almost like a cell. Other specifications make it look like quite interesting too, and make it seem more portable than you'd expect a first-gen WiFi VoIP phone to be:
According to the manufacturer, the 730mAh lithium-ion battery can provide up to a 55 hours standby time, and 4.5 hours talk time, and can be charged with the included travel router, or from a USB connection on a PC. T
Unfortunately, it definitely is not cheap, with an opening MSRP of $399. However, it joins many other VoIP products and likely we'll see many more of these in the future from various manufacturers.