Comdex: Play MP3s on your cell phone

From...

by Tom Spring

(IDG) -- LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- "Excuse me, are you talking on your cell phone or listening to music?"

Finally there's something to keep mobile phone users from yammering in public places, thanks to Samsung and Sprint PCS. The two companies have partnered to build a $400 cell phone that plays digital audio files; they're showing it here at Comdex and selling it now.

Called the Samsung Uproar, this cell phone lets you download MP3 files from a PC directly onto the handset. Uproar also has a personal organizer with a calendar, to-do list, and microbrowser for viewing Internet content and navigating audio playlists.

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The musical phone includes 64MB of internal Compact Flash memory, which holds about an hour of music. A lithium ion battery provides 10 hours of life (with no calls) for audio playback, and about 60 minutes of talk time or 16 hours of standby time. The logic behind the pricey device is to merge a high-end cell phone and an MP3 player to save money and pocket space for anyone who would otherwise buy and carry two separate devices. Other Samsung products combine digital imaging with a phone or MP3 player.

Two-for-one trend

The double-duty cell phone is representative of a trend here at Comdex of dual-purpose mobile phones that integrate cellular capabilities into personal digital assistants or vice versa. Handspring is showing off its VisorPhone attachment that lets you make a phone call with the Palm OS-based Visor PDA. Meanwhile, Ericsson is demonstrating its $700 R380 cell phone, which incorporates a PDA based on the Symbian operating system. Still, Samsung claims to have the first cell phone that plays digital music files while helping you keep track of appointments.

By its outward appearances, Uproar is an ordinary cell phone. It has a boxy silver exterior with a standard-size LCD and a flip-down panel. It also has standard inputs and outputs for the charger and headset, and it has an added Universal Serial Bus port to import music from a PC. Included is a stereo headphone cord equipped with a specialized control that can play, pause, and skip tracks.

MORE COMPUTING INTELLIGENCE

IDG.net home page

PC World home page

Samsung adds images to music player

Sprint PCS bringing music to your ears

Samsung phone ought to be in pictures

Reviews & in-depth info at IDG.net

E-Business World

TechInformer

Sprint and Samsung have partnered with several companies to help you obtain, manage, and download digital audio onto the phone. One partner, HitHive, lets you store and download your music online at a new Web site called Sprint PCS My Music. Storage is free for one year and costs $10 monthly after that. RealNetworks' Jukebox software will be bundled with the phone to help you organize and manage your music collection on a PC.

Eventually, Sprint plans to let you stream music directly from the Sprint PCS My Music site to the phone. But wireless MP3 streaming and downloading won't arrive until Sprint deploys its next-generation, high-capacity wireless network--expected in the first half of 2002.

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Samsung mobile phone lets the music play
(PC World)
Samsung phone ought to be in pictures
(PC World)
Samsung adds images to music player
(PC World)
What the Sprint plan means
(The Industry Standard)
Sprint seeks to grow wireless, focus more on data
(IDG.net)
Sprint PCS bringing music to your ears
(The Industry Standard)
Users are not flocking to converged services
(NW Fusion)
A war of wireless inches
(The Industry Standard)

Samsung
Sprint PCS
Handspring
Ericsson
RealNetworks

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