My phone beeps to inform me I have a message. I wonder what key information the three lines of vowel-free text is about to impart. What I am not prepared for is an animated talking hamster informing me that my dinner is in the dog. I have just received my first true multimedia message.
From the way the networks are promoting it, you could be forgiven for thinking there was little more to MMS than using camera phones to take and send images. However, MMS has several potential applications, most notably adding animated video, images and sound to text messages.
The problem for most texters is that creating an MMS by combining sound and vision is far more involved than banging out lines of text.
This is where a British start-up company, Anthropics, hopes to step in. It has developed a technology called FaceWave that enables phone users to send digitally animated talking heads from one phone to another. Users key in a message, just as they would a standard text message, and then select one of a number of talking heads, which includes David Beckham, Kylie Minogue and, bizarrely, a hamster, to deliver their words.
By next year, users will be able to send talking heads of themselves. This involves first uploading an image to a website.
After trialling with four networks and ensuring that FaceWave is compatible with key MMS phones, Anthropics says it is ready to launch the system in time for Christmas. The cost has not been fixed, but if prices are in line with those announced in Europe, messages should set users back 30-40p.
Bluetooth and voice recognition are two of the most hyped technologies of recent years, though neither has been as successful as predicted.
Toshiba hopes to change that by marrying the two. Its Bluetooth headset is equipped with a microphone and a voice recognition system that converts speech to data. This is then sent wirelessly to a PC or home electronics appliance over a Bluetooth wireless network.
Toshiba claims the device has multiple uses. For example, in a connected home where all the electronics appliances are controlled via one main server, a user could operate their air-conditioning, lighting or home entertainment system by speaking commands into the headset. It could also be used for dictation, with speech being converted in to word processing files in a different room.
The headset can also be used for listening to music, with sounds stored on a PC or home server converted into data that is then sent to the headset. It weighs around 100g, and runs via rechargeable lithium ion battery with a life of five hours.
Toshiba hopes the headset will be available before Christmas. Its price is expected to be around £100.
