Subject: [NEXTEL-1] New social menace: a talking mobile phone

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2003 04:11:22 -0400

New social menace: a talking mobile phone

By Daniel Dasey
April 20 2003
The Sun-Herald

They sound like a recipe for disaster. The new-style mobile
phones that chirp out cheeky voice messages from your
friends instead of ringing have been launched in Britain and
could soon be in Australia.

And manufacturers want Australian mobile-phone carriers to
alter their networks to cope with the push-to-talk phones,
some of which are audible from several metres away.

Promoters believe businesses as well as young people will
be interested in the instant voice messaging service as an
alternative to the short messaging service (SMS).

Anthony Petts from handset manufacturer Ericsson said
push-to-talk technology evolved in the US in the 1990s and
proved a success for phone company Nextel.

Mr Petts said to send a message a handset-user scrolls
through a database of friends with compatible phones. An
icon indicates which ones have their phone switched on.

The user pushes a button to record a brief message that is
then instantly conveyed to a friend or several friends.

While not all handsets are the same, often the recipient's
phone doesn't ring or beep as it does when an SMS arrives.
Instead, the voice of the sender choruses from the phone
announcing messages such as, "Happy birthday, Snookums"
or "You're running late. Where are you?"

The technology's main downside would seem to be its
potential to embarrass users riding on public transport or
waiting in crowded places, such as doctors' surgeries.

To address the problem, the phones feature a silent mode
which lets users decide in advance whether to hear
messages or store them for later.

Most major US carriers are looking at introducing
push-to-talk services by the end of the year and a push-to-talk
service was launched earlier this month in Britain.

Mr Petts said manufacturers Ericsson, Siemens and Nokia
had established an international standard for the phones.

British Telecom researchers working on "active skin"
technology have predicted calls could be made from tiny
mobiles embedded in stickers or tattoos in the skin.

Scientists said that users would have a keyboard on their
forearms, which would be virtually invisible until lit up. They
also predicted that music players and screens with TV and
internet access could be implanted into arms and legs.

The same technology would allow the altering of tattoos.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/04/19/1050172799695.html

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