I found this while looking at Planon's handheld scanners.

WebRacer Link

I've not heard of it before, but this post about it is from over a year ago.

640x240px screen? ugh...I feel queasy, especially after all their boasting about not having to browse on squashed or side-scrolled web sites like on tiny smartphones.

And no WiFi, then forcing you to use their pay-service through cell-phone-bluetooth only. Again, I have a bad feeling in my stomach. Bluetooth is a good idea since it means the device isn't tied to the same carrier as the phone, but having to use their server (for pay) reminds me of the sidekick.

I like the form factor and the fact that it has a keypad, but it just seems like they took everything I like about the 770 and made it more restrictive.

"Finally! Mobile Surfing The Way It's Meant To Be!"

Someone should tell Nokia, apparently it's supposed to suck.

Ten years ago the Psion Series 5 had a 640x240 touchscreen in a clamshell with a keyboard that was (and still is) miles above anything else. And a browser. Too bad they chose to give in to Palms and PocketPCs before they got around to add colour, USB and Wifi...
Symbian OS and its apps were faster in 16 megs of RAM and a 66 Mhz CPU than modern PDAs of all makes and kinds.

Look at price... They forget to say it is only WebRacer $200, but you need mobile phone, another $300 if unlocked, what is the difference between the Nokia 9500?

I think the main thing they were advertising over other products was their proxy service, to speed up downloads. I agree that proxies, like Propel, do speed up downloads, but they usually end up messing something up. Like Sprint's image proxy, it really compresses the images to the point of not looking that great.

I don't necessarily see the WebRacer to be a widely popular product, but I could see it eliminating the hassle of going through the PPC or PDA phone route, for those who just want a nice phone that doesn't need periodic soft resets or whatever, and only want to check the internet for specific purposes, without push email. In a sense, the WebRacer would have been pushed out by the Blackberry at the time of its release.

In general, I think this is a small company that is trying to break through, and that their pen-style scanners are getting a lot more attention and continue to not have any direct competitors, surprisingly. I don't think Planon has advertised their scanners or the WebRacer; their scanners are slowly pushing their way into the consumer market though, while the WebRacer is sitting there on the Planon website, for anyone who stumbles across it. The scanner is a much better product in a more neglected market right now, while jamming internet connectivity into mobile devices is all the rage with the big electronics corporations.