Thursday, October 09, 2003

Mobile entertainment.

This column is not only about PDAs although it looks like, it is about other stuff that I found interesting and I found that my cell phone could be an incredible source or entertainment.

I just upgrade my wife's phone from a LG5350 to a Samsung VGA1000 (A620), this affect my view of cell phones a lot, first I got my wife's old cell phone which provide me for the first time with an opportunity to really explore Sprintpcs Vision service, at first I wasn't that impressed, yes I can check my emails since Yahoo and MSN allows you to do this and yes you can download content like ringers and screensavers but I found the ringers and screensavers expensive since there are lease not bought and I can find a ton for free in the internet. I though about using the LG5350 as a modem for my Palm but Sprint explicitly prohibits this and since I have an awesome plan I don't want to jeopardize loosing it. So much for the "advance" SprintPCS network I said, but then I discovered two services that I love and I can see a future for the carriers that offer these services.

First I found RealOne, yes you read correctly, an streaming service for a cell phone, I though I won't like it and at first I found it expensive ($5 per month) but now I can't live without it, since RealOne is focusing this service on news I found incredible convenient to get my news from my cell phone, it doesn't matter where I am, I can get updates of the NFL scores, news, etc. Last weekend I was at the movies and I wanted to check the scores, not a problem, I just open the RealOne application, select the sports update and bingo knew what was going on. I can imagine that soon we will have those videophones that were promised to us long time ago. Now audio quality is so-so but doesn’t matter because the idea is to get your news, not to listen to music, I hope that future upgrades to SprintPCS network will allow music streaming, I'd love to use my Rhapsody service from my phone.

The second service I found worth it was SprintPCS pictures, which allows my wife to send me pictures to my email account from her cell phone (VGA1000) which is camera enable. This is so much fun plus convenient, she wants to ask my opinion in something she wants to buy, she sends me a pictures, a process that takes no more that 1 minute, plus when she is visiting family in the west coast she sends me pictures so in a way I share her vacation and help me not to miss her too much.

I know that there are multiple privacy problems with the camera phones, but let me tell you it is worth it. If you like gadgets and you can afford it, buy a camera phone you will not regret it.

Gabriel Castellanos

PS: My guide has been just published in PalmSource website, you can check it at: TimeTracking Guide