DOUBLE DOWNLOAD
Feb 1, 2007 12:00 PM, Markkus Rovito
Finally, American networks are starting to support 3G, the mobile-phone standard that's dominated Europe and Asia for a while. This means new features and faster connections to the wireless Internet and e-mail. But for media junkies, the most important advancement is faster downloads of music and video, as well as enhanced features. As a cool early adopter of 3G, Samsung's BlackJack i607 ($449 before contract discounts and available rebates) partners with Cingular to support the 3G Cingular Music and Cingular Video services.
Cingular Music includes the standard digital-music playback from the 128 MB internal memory and from MicroSD memory cards (64 MB card included, expandable to 1 GB), but also adds 24/7 streaming music stations, MusicID and syncing music subscriptions from Yahoo! Music and Napster (60 free days of Napster are included with a subscription). The MusicID service lets you dial a number, hold the phone up to the music and receive a text message telling you what the song is ($0.99 per use) or buy special MusicID software for the phone ($3.99 a month). Cingular Video is an integrated service for downloading videos from a plethora of sources, including Cartoon Network, iFilm, CNN, ESPN, HBO, Fox Networks and a large selection of music videos.
With all this, no doubt Samsung hopes the BlackJack becomes so addictive, it'll be known as the CrackJack. But there's much more in the cards for this device. It runs Windows Mobile 5, including Internet, e-mail, IM, Excel and Word, with a full QWERTY thumb keyboard for typing. A 1.3-megapixel camera and Bluetooth 2.0 round it out. The slim model is less than a half-inch thick and weighs only 3.5 ounces.
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