Mobile Phone News:

Ooh, new technology story, count me in! I found a story from Reuters today, about a brand new player in the mobile phone world. Called Modu, they are bringing a whole new concept to mobile phones.

Specifically, it’s a modular concept. The basic Modu phone unit (which is reaaaally tiny) is sold as what amounts to an incomplete phone. The killer feature is that it’s dead easy to get new content, and useful new features, just by putting that phone unit into a different “jacket”.

Or, to put it in a more sci-fi way, you can put the brain into loads of different bodies…

Now, that might sound like a gimmick, and to be fair, it is a bit, but it’s a hell of a good one! Imagine being able to take that main inside bit of the phone, and putting it into a standard mobile phone jacket. Voila, you have a mobile phone. Then, put it into a music player jacket. Voila, you’ve got a wireless music player. Or put it into a digital photo frame, to instantly show your photos, without messing about with a memory card. I can even foresee things like “need a new camera? Just buy a new jacket!” or “want mobile broadband? Get a USB Modem jacket!”

What remains to be seen, though, and what will be the clincher, is how good it actually is… although having said that, since SanDisk (one of the biggest names in the memory card business) are backing Modu, it’s got a fairly good chance of working rather well.

No word on when, or even if, it’ll reach the UK, as it’s only going on sale in Russia, Italy and Israel, but rest assured, I will be having a play with one if and when I get the chance!

[EDIT: The Modu has now officially entered the Guinness Book Of Records as the smallest, lightest phone ever, which is quite an achievement, so well done to everyone at Modu. Read about it here.]

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