Phones let you smile and dial New cell phones are camera-ready and idiot-proof

Susan Cheney wanted to send pictures of her 10-year-old son,Christopher, in his football pads to her father, who lives inDownstate Bloomington. But she couldn't figure out how to e-mail theimages from her high-end digital camera.

But using new-generation equipment, Cheney found it easy to snappictures on a detached $69 camera, upload them to a $299 Samsungwireless phone and then dispatch images via e-mail to her dad. Shealso keeps albums of pictures online, where she can edit them and addcartoon-style comments in bubbles.

"It's close to being idiot-proof," she said of her experiences insending images over the phone.

As area vice president of Sprint wireless phone group in OakBrook, Cheney had extra motivation to learn how to navigate the newphone. But she isn't alone.

Camera phones--call them smile-and-dial--are being made byMotorola, Nokia and all the other major phone manufacturers and beingpromoted this holiday season by Sprint, AT&T Wireless, T-Mobile,Verizon and other major wireless carriers.

The slumping phone industry is betting that new features willpersuade new customers to sign on and existing customers to upgradetheir phones.

Some other new features consumers will find on the new generationof phones include:

Color displays. Cell phones are evolving from black-and-white tocolor displays, just as TV sets and computers did years ago. Abouttwo-thirds of phones sold over the next year are expected to havecolor displays.

Short messaging service. Cell phones long have offered calling ande-mail services. SMS is a third path of communications, enabling aperson to send a brief, often preset message from his phone toanother cell phone. SMS is cheaper and less disruptive than the olderformats. SMS has especially caught on with teens. Since the spring,SMS users have been able to send missives to friends using differentcell phone carriers.

Screen savers. Consumers can download a favorite photo or acartoon and make it a screensaver.

Ringtones or ringers. Unhappy with the traditional phone rings?Choose one that suits you for $1 or so, such as a sound effect orfavorite song. The ring tones are so popular in Europe that Web sitesrun weekly hit parade lists of the most popular ringers. Ringtonesand images can be combined: When Cheney's 13-year-old daughter,Jennifer, calls her from her mobile phone, a digital image of thegirl pops up and the phone plays Britney Spears' teen anthem, "Oops,I Did It Again." Screen savers, ringtones and the appearance of thephones themselves can be coordinated to create theme phones, such asone for diehard Bears fans with a team helmet as a screen saver andfight song as a ringer.

Music. Phones have improved sound engines, making it possible todownload and play MP3 tunes and to listen to FM radio.

Games. Scaled-down versions of video games, such as SpaceInvaders, Missile Command, Centipede, Asteroids and Pong, can bepurchased for a nominal fee. A wireless phone version of Etch ASketch is available on some phones.

Next year, game players will be able to play each other over cellnetworks. Gamers can use the phones to "kill time" during car ridesor plane trips. (Be sure to show the flight attendant that the phoneservice is in the "off" position.) Multimedia phones are available: T-Mobile is featuring a $150 Sony Ericsson T300 "digital entertainment"phone with a color screen, a detachable zoom lens camera, a slew ofAtari classic games and high-end speaker that enables the user to notonly download but also to compose tunes.

Web browsing. Phones for several years have had cumbersomeInternet connections. But it's getting easier to go online and getnews and to engage in "m-commerce," mobile commerce to buy productswhile on the run.

Nick Saidiner, director of consumer product marketing for T-Mobile (formerly VoiceStream) in Seattle, said the new generation ofcell phones can offer new features because of greater computing powerinside as well as access to bigger pipes of data.

"This makes possible color displays, better images and morecompelling sound, with movement," he said.

Technology is enabling new marketing directions and new ways tothink about phones.

Steve Lalla, senior director of product and business operations atSchaumburg-based Motorola Inc., which pioneered cell phones, said hisindustry and consumers are moving away from mass-marketed phones."People now want phones to reflect their personality," he said.

He said new phones also meet people's need to communicate in newways, such as with digital pictures and short messages. In additionto people looking for fun, Lalla said architects, contractors andinsurance adjusters all may find camera-phones beneficial as well.

Motorola has upped the ante with a new phone with a built-incamera to take, display and send still shorts or even video. Thecamera is aimed at some foreign markets with more advanced phonenetworks and not expected in the United States for some time.

But different phones for different folks.

Chicago technology attorney David Jacobson, for example, has nouse for the camera phones. "It's a solution where there isn't aproblem," he said.

But he has a $400 Treo "smart phone" that has replaced his cellphone, an organizer and a wireless e-mail device. "I love (theTreo)," said Jacobson, who runs the First Tuesday tech networkinggroup.

He said he enjoys going to a park near his Sears Tower office toread e-mail and return phone calls. He writes responses to e-mail onthe long rides in the Sears Tower escalator system.

"You can be totally untethered from your desk," he said. "I amevery bit as productive from the park bench as I am from my desk. Ican make calls, send e-mail and look at my to-dos."

He said the Treo's tiny keyboard "looks impossible to use, but isvery usable. You're not writing Gone With the Wind on it." He said heappreciates the Treo combining all his e-mail addresses and phonenumbers for 2,500 friends, relatives and business contacts.

Competing smart phones are available, such as those based onBlackBerry and Pocket PC, with versions of Windows-based software.

Now, Jacobson joked, "I have only one device to lose, instead ofthree."