Ricoh's i700 Gets Another Blade

NEWARK, CALIF. — Ricoh has packed on yet another piece of functionality onto its "Swiss Army" i700 digital camera with the recent announcement that Socket Communications' Digital Phone Card will serve as a plug-in solution for adding wireless capability to the Internet-ready digital camera.

Socket's card fits in the RDC-i700's CompactFlash expansion slot and connects via cable to a number of popular mobile phones. The RDC-i700's built-in software allows the new camera to use a mobile phone as a wireless modem for applications such as remote image transfer, email, instant Web publishing and Web browsing.

When connected to a mobile phone, the RDC-i700 allows users to take a picture while on the road, convert the image automatically to Web format and publish the shot instantly to a specific Web page via an FTP-transfer utility. Users can then browse the page to make sure it looks good. The camera owner can also send an e-mail message to up to 50 pre-stored addresses to announce that the new image has been posted.

Ricoh said that it is targeting consumers who want to broadcast images from special occasions such as weddings, sporting events, or vacations, as well as professionals in the insurance, real estate, retail sales or construction industries.

The i700 is currently available for a suggested retail price of $1,299.