http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7777
Chameleon-phone
The cellphone industry is always looking for new must-have features
to encourage people to junk their existing phones and buy new ones.
Sony Ericsson’s latest idea is to sell phones which automatically
change the way they behave, depending on the time, date and place.
For example, the wallpaper display on the screen shows pumpkins when
the phone’s calendar sees the date is Halloween, and Christmas
puddings on December 25th. Network roaming, or GPS, can tell a phone
what country it is in, so the ring-tone might change to a reggae tune
as the plane touches down in Jamaica, for example.
A restaurant could use short-range Bluetooth signals to deliver the
specials menu direct to the phone's screen, and a cinema or church
could use Bluetooth to switch it to silent mode. Stockbrokers could
enable an option to display the latest share prices every 10 minutes
and golfers could use continually updated weather forecasts for
wallpaper.
Priority coding lets some automated controls override user settings.
So if you are a golfing stockbroker praying in church for sunshine
during a wet Christmas in Jamaica, the phone won’t interrupt the
sermon with a burst of Bob Marley.
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