New PhonesOffer Fascinating Features (NAPSA)—What some maycall a revolution is setting a new tone for mobile phones right now. Mobile phones—once used only in emergencies and now used more and more often—are becoming much more useful devices than just makingvoice calls. The wireless world is embarking on an ever more exciting era as a result of new technology called Multimedia Messaging Service, or MMSfor short. What this means is that phones can show pictures, play games, do e-mail—all to enhance our communications with greater ease and morefun. The trend amongwireless users lately has been to customize their phones by changing phone covers to match their mood, outfit, or favorite team. MMSis takingthis trend further by letting owners personalize their phones to their hearts’ content. Parents can save photos of children as the background on their phones. A couple can have “their” song play as a ring tune wheneverone calls the other, or someone can have the theme song from “The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly” play whenever the boss calls. In addition to MMS, users can tailor what their phone can do for them by using Java, software that creates personalized settings and games. Images are not just for wallpaper or screen savers on these new phones, they can be sent back and forth between users much like e-mail is done today. Think ofit, in the past a woman might ask her husband to get a can of diced tomatoes from the store. He would call to say there were five different kinds. Today, she can send a photo of the can she needs plus a note—“please pick up two on your way home.” “ee * ai Cell phones today also serve as fashion accessories and multimedia receivers. Such phones are available today. For example, the Nokia 7210, compatible with MMS systems, has a radical new keypad with 4-way scroll to make navigating the high-resolution color display or accessing the built-in browser fast and simple. The 7210 has two games already installed, but others can easily be downloaded. In addition to games, other features that can be downloaded to the 7210 include a world clock, a currency converter and a bilingual dictionary. Users can also find a restaurant with the restaurant guide or book flight. Rather than an ordinary buzzer, the 7210 has a speaker, which vastly improves sound quality for the FM radio, melodious ring tones and sound files. There’s even an integrated hands-free speaker, which makes it possible to listen to the radio within a group.
