The trickle of mobile phones featuring multimedia messaging and photo messaging looks set to turn into flood. Motorola and Nokia announced new handsets last week, which will join existing models from Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Sharp.
Motorola's first MMS handset, the T720i, is to launch within the next two months. It's a revamped version of an existing Motorola handset - the clam-shell designed, silver-finished T720. Like the Sony Ericsson T68i, it comes with a camera attachment. It can take 160x120 pixel images for sending as photo messages or 640x 480 pixel images for sending as email. These are stored on the phone and can be viewed on the handset's large-ish colour display. The phone supports Java for downloading games and applications from the web. It also features general packet radio service for speedy access to Wap pages. No news on price yet.
In France last week, Nokia unveiled its most hi-tech mobile. The 3650 is the company's second MMS photo messaging phone in Europe and will be the first of its kind to launch in the US.
Its key feature is that its integrated camera can record moving as well as still images. These can be sent by the user as MMS messages to MMS- compatible phones. A Real One player is also included to enable the user to download or stream video content. Video and images can be stored on the phone (it has 4MB of storage) or on a removable memory card.
The 3650's styling is radically different from existing Nokia handsets. It has a curved design with its buttons clustered in a circle at the bottom of the phone.
The phone runs off the Symbian operating system, features Java for downloading applications and has an XHTML web browser. Other features include Bluetooth compatibility and triband capability.
The phone, which weighs 130g and has a battery life of four hours' talk time or eight days' standby, will go on sale early next year.
Nokia also introduced an upgrade of the 3510 - the 3510i. Due on sale by the end of this year, the model features a colour display, Java and Wap over GPRS. It weighs 106g and has a talk time of 4 hours and standby time of 13 days.
A cheaper way of keeping in touch is offered by the walkie talkie watch, which has proved a huge success on www.paramountzone.com and www.gizmos-uk.com. A pair of watches, which cost £29.95, can communicate for up to 250 feet. Wannabe spies talk through a small microphone and then listen via the earpiece.
