Cellphones are everywhere! They rule! Indeed, the new James Bond remake, Casino Royale, (seen over the holidays) should have listed the cellphone as a character because the storyline revolved around the phone with at least three major plot points center on the mobile device. Kudos to Sony Ericsson for a one-second-too-long shot of the device with the logo in plain view. Then again, it certainly helps when Sony Pictures is distributing the movie.
And then in an unusual moment when life imitates art, the execution of Saddam Hussein was recorded on a camera phone and then posted to the Internet.
Alltel’s MyFaves marketing is hilarious. For a carrier with just over 10 million subscribers, Alltel is really sticking it to the big guys-at least in its ads. You gotta love the Alltel spokes-man-though he looks a bit too much like the American Idol host-taunting the Cingular, Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile USA reps.
We also need to give props to the advertisements from the big guys as well. If we are going to be bombarded with wireless advertising, might as well be funny. Though Sprint Nextel gets only modest kudos for its so far poor use of Ron Livingston. That guy is so money and Sprint Nextel doesn’t even know it. However, the carrier has since put the creative portion of its advertising account our for review.
Are phones becoming too powerful? Cingular was recently kind enough to lend us an 8525 smartphone to demo a Blue-tooth/GPS application. The app worked as expected though having to tote around a GPS receiver was a negative, but the 8525 was amazing. Though the size of a small brick, the phone packs Microsoft’s Windows Mobile suite with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard large enough to actually use, as well as Wi-Fi, GPRS/EDGE/UMTS/HSDPA connectivity with international roaming support, the previously mentioned Bluetooth and a 2 megapixel camera. I know slim is in, but the 8525 has enough features to replace four devices in a form that still squeezes into a pocket.
We also had the chance to fumble with the Sanyo M1. The device, available exclusively through Sprint Nextel, includes 1 gigabyte of internal memory that nearly balances out its less-than-stellar form factor. While not expandable, the internal storage and built-in media functionality should compare well with upcoming music-centric de-vices, i.e. Apple’s iPhone.
And finally, more props to the wireless industry for offering such a cool service. The Denver area, where RCR Wireless News is headquartered, was hit by a couple of snowstorms during the holidays. And while it seemed nearly every public service broke down at least once during the storms, cellphones reinforced their position as the new must-have safety device.
