Ricoh, Socket Communications Partner To Bring Digital Phone Card to Internet-Ready Digital Cameras

Ricoh Corp., West Caldwell, N.J., USA, is now offering a digital phone card from Socket Communications Inc., Newark, Calif., USA, as a plug-in solution for adding wireless capability to the Ricoh RDC-i700 Internet-ready digital camera. Socket's card fits in the RDC-i700's CompactFlash expansion slot and connects via cable to a mobile phone. Built-in software enables the camera to use a mobile phone as a wireless modem to transfer images, send e-mail, and perform Web publishing and Web browsing.

The RDC-i700 is a 3.34-megapixel CCD digital camera with 3X optical zoom, 1 cm. (0.4 inch) macro capture, motion-picture mode, and sound recording capability. It includes two expansion slots, one for CompactFlash cards and one for PC Cards, which are compatible with Socket's digital phone cards, low power ethernet cards, and ruggedized serial cards.