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Once a joke, belt phones, pen phones and wristwatch phones are now a reality. Article by Carolyn Duffy Marsan, Network World, 06/17/2008
One of the running gags in the hit '60s TV show Get Smart was the crazy telephones used by Maxwell Smart, aka Agent 86. Tucked inside ties, combs, eyeglasses, ice cream cones and, of course, shoes, phones were always ringing at the most inconvenient times for the bumbling spy. With the June 20 release of the movie version of Get Smart, we decided to see how many of these once-futuristic phones are available. Here's our list of 10 "Get Smart" -inspired phones that you can go out and buy today.
NEC's belt phone kicks accessorizing up a notch.In an episode of Get Smart entitled "Satan Place," Agent 86 uses several hidden phones in one scene, including a belt phone. Last year, NEC unveiled a leather belt with a built-in cell phone at the Wireless Japan 2007 Expo. Only thing odder looking than using this gadget would be lending it to someone else.
Pen phone mightier than a Bic.Bulky phone pens are available today, such as Haier's P7 Pen Phone, and even smaller pen phones are on the horizon. One engineering feat -- a cell phone pen only 8.7 inches long -- is still on the drawing boards.
Smart or too clever by half?A patent has been granted for a steering-wheel mounted cell phone that operates similar to the one in Get Smart: The device that looks safer is a cell phone holder for your seatbelt. With either gee-whiz device, it'll be a challenge for drivers to keep their eyes on the road.
You'll feel like a real spy using one of these cell phones.Several companies offer wristwatch cell phones for men and women, including Amazon. Available in waterproof, sports and office models, they cost between $150 and $200. Very cool!
More than credit cards if you own one of these babies.Wallet phones have been available in Japan for four years. These cell phones have built-in debit cards that allow users to pay for items with cash or conduct other transactions such as buying movie tickets and train passes. The latest versions also feature cameras, radios and MP3 players. As convenient as they are, wallet phones aren't expected to reach a critical mass until 2012.
Magnified demand seen for microscope model.A Cell phone/microscope combo is under development for use in telemedicine applications. The system would allow health workers in remote areas to capture microscope-quality images of diseases and transmit them to medical facilities for analysis. College students taking lab courses may find this prototype microscope add-on for their cell phones handy.
Turn your car into a veritable cone of silence.Agent 86 used a phone hidden in his car cigarette lighter in the episode, "Our Man in Toyland." You can buy a Bluetooth hands-free that plugs into the car cigarette lighter for around $89. And it's commonplace to recharge your cell phone with your car's cigarette lighter. Who says life doesn't imitate TV?
Gentlemen prefer this type of gadget.This device is retro and modern at the same time. It's a pocket watch with a computer inside that lets you check your voice mail, e-mail and text messages. What's missing from the one Max Smart used in the 1960s era TV show? A full-featured phone.
Never mind snuggling up with a good book.Max Smart had a headboard phone and a bedpost phone that he used in various episodes that showed his high-tech bedroom. We found a hands-free Bluetooth pillow for lying in bed and talking on the phone. Dubbed the perCusion, this device was shown at the 2007 CeBit show. It's supposed to be available for purchase in 2008.
Excuse me, sir, but I believe your shoe is ringing.Max Smart's shoe phone is infamous. To see how popular it is, just look at the contest YouTube is running for people to submit their funniest shoe-phone videos. While real shoe phones are unrealistic, there are novelty shoe phone's that you can buy, even a sneaker phone for a more casual look.
This Blog provides a cell phone comparison for two preferred business phones, the HTC Touch Pro and The Blackberry 8830. Cell Phone Comparison will compare the differences between these two popular cell phone models. Remember most people ‘cannot live without’ their cell phone so make sure you read my blogs before you buy your next cell phone!
So straight to it, what is so good about the HTC Touch Pro, firstly it’s touch screen response and of course it’s beautiful and compact design. It includes a 2.8-inch VGA touch screen with four times the resolution of most smart devices. It also has what I would call a full web browser in your hand making websites look similar on your handset and your PC.
Also a main feature that cell phone comparison loves about the HTC Touch Pro is that it includes a full slide out 5-row QWERTY keyboard which can be easier to use then qwerty touch screen keyboards and much easier then the tiny buttons of a blackberry. It also leaves room on the screen for your message rather than just a few lines of text. Another feature of this baby is the integrated GPS which is a great feature in any phone, although can sometimes be slow and unresponsive. It is also a windows based device, meaning that it is similar to a computer which is great for the business world. Overall Cell phone comparison think that this handset gives a beautiful angle on business and communications, but is it enough??
Next, onto the Blackberry 8830, a blackberry which is apart of the 8800 series, some say it is stylish and sophisticated. Although honestly Cell Phone Comparison believes that this blackberry isn’t as stylish as the HTC range. But some still stick to the blackberry talents; it does have a more well-known name for itself then the HTC model and is well know for a business handset. But even then blackberry is using advertising for this cell phone that states that this handset would help you “stay connected to work, life and everything in between”. For cell phone comparisons this handset is seen as a work only phone, something that wouldn’t be whipped out to check your emails on while on the beach in Hawaii!
Either way, this handset does have a sleek and powerful design which includes the great ultra bright display. It has a full QWERTY keyboard but small buttons provide user difficulties, although it also includes a track ball which does make navigating easier if you enjoy this method. Of course the blackberry includes email and internet on the go, great for anyone these days. But this device does have a poor camera at just 2.0 megapixels. All in all, Cell Phone Comparison favourite feature is the security of the device which does make up for its down falls. It includes Password protection and keyboard lock, FIPS validation and Support for Triple DES or AES Encryption when Integrated with BlackBerry Enterprise Server.
So which do we prefer, well Cell Phone Comparison would never be able to stand the Blackberry at home. This is why the HTC is a phone designed for ‘work and play’, but saying that, if you are keeping the handset at work, the blackberry can be a better model suited to the work place. Overall they both possess similarities, both great for email and surfing the web. But the HTC is more stylish and includes great music players and a larger screen, where as the blackberry has that added security if you needed to keep your emails a little more private. Whatever your need be you can buy your preferred handset at the links below, both handsets have great use in the work place and if you take my advice you can’t go wrong. Plus check out the price of them online!! It’s easy enough to buy them both today! Happy Hunting!
Cell Phone Comparison will compare the differences between today’s most popular touch cell phone models. With cell phones becoming a very important material object, that some ‘cannot live without’, is important that we choose the right cell phone that meets all of our needs. This post is comparing the HTC Touch Diamond, to the Samsung Omnia, both of which are designed to be stylish touch interfaces.
The HTC Touch Diamond™ signals a giant leap forward in combining hi-tech prowess with intuitive usability and an exhilarating design of brushed metal and flawless faceted edges. This handset includes a sharp 2.8-inch touch screen with vibrant TouchFLO ™ 3D touch-responsive user interface, a 3.2 megapixel camera and 4GB of internal storage.
It has ultra-fas t HSDPA internet connectivity giving you a rich online experience to rival a notebook computer, allowing you to interact with Google, YouTube, and Wikipedia. But cell phone comparison favourite feature of the HTC Touch Diamond is its Touch FLO, album artwork which shows your contacts, messages, music, videos and photos as interactive images that launch at your fingertips rather than uninspired text.
So now to the HTC’s competitor in touch style, the Samsung Omnia. Some would say the HTC Touch Diamond is still more attractive, but if the world was going for just looks you wouldn’t be reading this blog would you. Cell Phone Comparison would recommend the Samsung Omnia as a handset that has so many features you just can’t stop talking about it. Starting from Samsung’s patented TouchWiz user interface which makes finding and accessing applications simple. The touch screen gives you tangible vibrating sensations when items are selected so it feels like an actual button is pressed. The screen can be turned in the landscape position for the qwerty keyboard to appear on the side providing larger buttons and better usability.
It includes a great 5 megapixel camera which allows you to take stunning, professional quality photos whenever you want. It has High-speed internet access and easy email with the ability to view common attachments such as Word, PDF, Excel and PowerPoint. State-of-the art GPS technology makes the Samsung Omnia an indispensable part of city living. You can also network your home Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) embedded software that allows the Samsung Omnia to share and r eceive multimedia sources with other technologies such as computers and televisions.
Not only that but cell phone comparison favorite parts of the Samsung Omnia are the touch music player which smartly organises your music into categories like albums, songs, artist and genre. This baby really is a movie maker’s dream where you can record all those precious moments and create homemade videos with the ability to edit them on your phone too! It has an 8GB hard drive with 16GB expandable memory so it has the ability to get up to 24GB of memory.
But if you ever get bored of your phone always looking the same as everyone else's you can customise your menu and desktop by using shortcuts and widgets for speedier access to the applications you use most frequently, a fantastic feature! Lastly some things that cell phone comparison finds really cool about this handset is its ability to reads business cards and turn them into contacts. Plus it’s Etiquette Mode which is used for meetings when you forget to turn your cell phone on silent and your Samsung Omnia starts to ring simply place it with the screen facing down and it will instantly go on silent.
When it comes down to it, Cell Phone Comparison favourite device is the Samsung Omnia because it is just so much more user friendly and has some really innovative features. But if you are looking for a touch phone to show off to your friends, something that is original but maybe not so user friendly, then the HTC Touch Diamond is the one to use. You can buy your favourite handset at the links below, both are great so you really can’t go wrong! Plus they are so cheap online; it’s easy enough to buy one a day! Happy Hunting!

With today’s now large range of mobile and cell phones it can be hard deciding what cell phone is right for you. So how do you decide? Do you go into a store and pick something that looks pretty? Do you search the internet and read all as many reviews as possible? The reality is, no matter what you prefer to do, cell phones are become ‘our life’ in more ways than one. So really having the ‘right’ cell phone to fit your needs is becoming essential to the way we work on a daily basis. This is where a cell phone comparison suited to different groups of people really comes into play.Today all I am going to do is compare three phones for a business person. This essentially means someone who needs their cell phone for receiving and making calls (of course), but also primarily for email, notifications and reminders of appointments, something like a computer in your hand.The three business cell phones I will compare are the Nokia E71, the oh so popular iPhone 3Gs and a typical Blackberry Bold 9000. So firstly as these business cell phones need to basically be small computers the main thing I am concerned about is the difference in keyboards. A QWERTY keyboard option really is a must for a cell phone in business; trying to type an email with 8 buttons for 26 characters really isn’t ideal. The Nokia E71 and the Blackberry Bold 9000 both have qwerty keyboards, although the qwerty keys on both models seem tiny and look impossible to use, but surprisingly once you start to use it the keys are quite easy to type on, especially with the Nokia E71, making this keyboard a positive for use as a business cell phone.The iPhone 3Gs also does include the option of a qwerty keyboard, but because the iPhone 3Gs is touch screen, for most the other keyboards were a preferred option, although of course because the iPhone 3Gs does have the ability to swap keyboards it can be quite user friendly. The next problem business cell phones face is email on the device. Email on your iPhone 3Gs is surprisingly very easy to set up, especially if your computer is an apple mac. But even if you use outlook the iPhone 3Gs is all about being user friendly. The Nokia E71 and the Blackberry Bold 9000 on the other hand are both made for email and have easy wizards on the handset to help you set that up but it seems to be just that extra little step in setting it up.The last problem with a business cell phone is its ability to be user friendly. Nokia is a common phone model and if you are familiar with a Nokia you will really love this handset. Blackberry still has some users following it, but seems to be limiting itself and the Nokia E71 has started to overtake the blackberry market. The iPhone 3Gs on the other hand has the ability to really do whatever you want. Just find and download the application and you are off. The business owners of today are saying it is the best phone they have ever had. But really the business question is… will you be able to handle the sometimes annoying touch screen, because honestly it really isn’t for everyone.All in all, all three of these phones are great examples of some of the brilliant business cell phones out there today and honestly no matter what you choose the reality is it will haunt you day in and day out for the rest of your ‘phones life’, because in this modern era, cell phones are a large part of our daily life.