Surprise 'hits' at the cell phone show
Posted: Wednesday, October 24, 2007 4:34 PM
Cellufun |
In this round it's Hillary vs. Rudy
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There aren’t many scintillating new items being displayed on the show floor at the 2007 CTIA Wireless I.T. and Entertainment expo in San Francisco.
But one new game being displayed there did catch my eye.
From the “picture-is-worth-a-thousand-words” department, there’ll be a new game available soon for your cell phone called The Mobile Ring.
As you can see, this game from Cellufun lets you pit any U.S. presidential candidates of your choice in a knock-down battle—in a boxing ring.
The company suggests you can let candidates throw punches like never before – or just let them beat each other up.
This new game is sure to be a big hit with users (pun intended).
Mobile Ring will be available next week. It’s free and will work on a huge number of cellular phones. The long list is available on Cellufun’s Website.
I knew that if I looked hard enough that I would find a terrific new phone to tell you about.
So, I was happy when I spotted the soon-to-be-released Nokia 5310 XpressMusic phone. It’s a tri-band GSM world phone with a 2-megapixel camera on the back.
Nokia |
Nokia's handsome, new 5310 music phone.
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The XpressMusic phone a very small, very thin sliver of a metallic black handset with either red or blue controls for its music functions. The skinny battery inside is reportedly good for up to five hours of talk time or 20 hours of music playback.
Music files are stored on microSD memory cards. Think in terms of being able to store as many as 3,000 songs on a 4GB card. The new 8GB cards now coming to market should hold twice as much.
You can synch and play MP3, AAC and WMA music files by using Windows Media Player 10 or 11 or with Nokia’s new PC Client software available later this year.
The phone also has a built-in FM radio that you can listen to via wired headphones, stereo Bluetooth headphones or plug-in speakers.
What impressed me most is the size and overall feel of the handset. It looks like a terrific phone. Expect to hear more about the 5310, and any possible U.S. cellular carriers, early next year.
I’ve also been very impressed with the quality of a new Bluetooth wireless headset from the West Coast firm Aliph. Their Jawbone device is the first wireless headset I’ve tried that keeps extraneous noise out of my cell phone conversations.
Jawbone uses what they say is advanced, military-grade noise-cancelling technology to enable clear conversations even in extreme environments. The device also continuously adjusts microphone and earpiece volume levels throughout your call.
In early tests, I can report that it does quite well here in San Francisco. It will also have to pass my midtown Manhattan test when I get home.
Jawbone is available in attractive metallic black, red or silver colors and retails for $120.
