Razr's Edge

ID: 050628.0814

The Motorola VS GSM Razr includes a camera, with the ability to send muiltimedia messages containing pictures, animations, sounds, and videos, as well as a Bluetooth wireless connection enabling it to send and receive objects from other Bluetooth-enabled devices such as other cell phones and computers. You can text-message, chat with IM, send email, faxes, and other data, play music, and access the Web with its built-in browser. In addition to games, the Razr's Office Tools include a calculator, dateboook, address manager, voice recorder, and alarm clock. You can of course, also send and receive cell phone calls.

Hello, Moto!

In a June 22, 2005 article for BusinessWeek Online, Dial R for Radio on Your Cell, Olga Kharif reports on trials of Motorola's iRadio service, to be released at the end of this year, that will make radio broadcasts available to cell phones. Sprint has been offering the service since December 2004. With radio being the camel's nose under the tent, the cell phone as MP3 player isn't far behind.

Watch out iPod?

Last year, a July 16, 2004 John Borland CNET News story, Apple strikes cell phone music deal, reported Apple and Motorola agreed to allow "customers of the iTunes music store [to] transfer songs onto the next generation of [Motorola] MP3-enabled phones." Steve Jobs was quoted as saying "The mobile phone market … is a phenomenal opportunity to get iTunes in the hands of even more music lovers around the world."

The ability to download music to cell phones, means downloading audio files in general, including audiobooks. Because cell phones already send and receive text, they can download and be used to read text-based books as well. A February 17, 2005 AP story, Book publisher enters phone text market, reported Random House purchased a significant minority stake in VOCEL, and "reached licensing arrangements … to provide cell phone access to the publisher’s Living Language foreign-language study programs and Prima Games video game strategy guides." In Japan, full-length Cell Phone Books are being read by tens of thousands, where local supplier Bandai offers 150 cell phone book titles.

Mercora is now offering software "that turns every cell phone into a radio station. Each phone then broadcasts its owner's songs to other users over the wireless network." This is similar to Carnegie Mellon University's work on providing motorists with a mobile ad hoc network to "broadcast music to any other vehicle [equipped with compatible hardware and software] within a 30-mile radius." (See my June 3, 2005 blog, More Than Music.)

A James Kanter story in today's International Herald Tribune, French firm bets on TV service for cellphones, reports "the French pay-TV company Canal Plus Groupe, which is controlled by Vivendi Universal, plans to give subscribers … access to about 20 television channels over their phones." Live sports events and recently released films will be excluded.

A Bruce Meyerson June 18, 2005 AP story, Cell Phones Now Playing Role of Wallet, reports "all that's needed is to embed phones with a short-range radio chip to beam credit card information to a terminal at a store register." Three million Japanese are already using their cell phones as credit cards. C-SAM Inc. offers a "set of products and services for consumers and merchants with mobile phones," referring to mobile phones as "transaction platforms." Nokia Corp. and Motorola Inc. are both developing mobile handsets that integrate payment chips with their phones.

According to a June 16, 2005 AP story, Paying Meters With Cell Phones Tested, Coral Gables, Florida is the first US city to allow subscribers to "dial in from their cell phone, punch in the number assigned to their parking spot, and the required costs [are] billed to their credit card. When leaving, subscribers call back and end the billing cycle." The service is provided by a Toronto-based PayPal-like company named PayMint. A similar service, Park & Phone, is in operation in Europe.

In another June 16, 2005 AP article, Phone-Based Time Clock Works, Brian Bergstein reviews Timecard, a service that "lets remote employees clock in and out on their cell phones. With a few clicks, workers can signal that they've started the day, gone on break, ended a task, started another or signed off altogether." There's no provision however, to assure the user's veracity. One wonders however, if lie-detection can also be built into cell phones.

If this all sounds like the Swiss Army knife school of innovation, check out the Swiss Army knife (Victorinox) products website. There you'll find Swiss Army knives such as the SWISSMEMORY that includes a USB storage device, the Voyager with digital clock, alarm clock, and timer, the Victorinox Altimeter that obviously includes an altimeter, and the CyberTool "especially developed for our times when computers and electronics rule the day."

Now, if they could just figure out how to use one to make a phone call …

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