The Android OS is so commonly found in mobile phones and tablets that it’s easy to forget its other uses. Archos’ 35 Home Connect and Smart Home Phone serve as reminders of the OS’s adaptability.
The $US150 Archos 35 Home Connect is akin to a Chumby, minus the cuteness. It’s not portable enough to be a tablet and not big enough to be a computer; it’s more at home sitting on a nightstand, playing tunes from one of its 50,000 internet radio stations. Other features include an alarm clock app, weather forecasts, and video calling. Since it runs on Android, it could potentially be hacked to do a lot more as well. We’ll see once it hits store shelves in late September.
The $US160 Smart Home Phone is a bit more like a smartphone. In fact, it pretty much is, minus the cellular connectivity. Instead, it connects to a landline and performs like a normal DECT wireless phone. Except with apps and stuff. It’s kind of silly but not entirely useless. Imagine the following scenario:
Imagine you’re sitting at home and want to use apps but your actual smartphone that you carry everywhere happens to be wedged deeply in the pocket of your skinny jeans. Rather than having to stand up and dig it out, you can reach for your conveniently placed Smart Home Phone and solve all your problems! [Ubergizmo]