By Alexander Villafania INQUIRER.NET
Image by giiks via Flickr
MANILA, Philippines â Fi lipinos are no stranger to novelty phones. But these devices come and go, most often without a successor model (think the Smartphone by Smart Communication se veral years back). Still, there is a market for novelty phones as they have a c ertain catchiness when being shown by their owners.
One new novelty phone is the modu (spelled with in small caps), offered in the Philippines by Globe Telecom a few months ago. The modu, created by Israeli fir m modu , is identified as the worldâs lightest phone by the Guiness Book of World Records. The compan y has been making its rounds worldwide and reaching the Philippines through Glo be.
Globe introduced the modu primarily as a fashion phone. No wonder since all of the accessories, officially called âmodu express jackets,â are essentially face plates with different designs. More on the express jackets later.
Size does not matter The modu is exactly 72.1 millimeters long, 37.6 mm wide, and 7.8 mm thick. It a lso weighs approximately 40 grams. Itâs half the size of a credit card and is j ust as thick as plastic case for CDs. Because of its small size, the number of keys that operate the modu are greatly reduced. There are only seven keys and e ach one having at least two types of functions.
A SIM card slot is on the left side of the modu, which can be mistaken for a mi croSD (unfortunately, not available⦠yet). Once a SIM is inserted, it will be hard to pull it out. To do so requires pushing a tiny button on the right side of the modu using the tip of a pen or paper clip. The SIM is pushed out a bit u ntil it is easy enough to be pulled out with the userâs fingers.
Even the screen is small at only approximately 36 mm by 33 mm, or just about th e same size as the screen of an LCD wristwatch. Whatâs good about the screen th ough, is use of OLED technology, which is double the brightness compared to ord inary LCD screens.
Controls Despite its small size, the modu is a fully functioning phone that can do
Image by giiks via Flickr
both voice and SMS. The red and green function keys on either side of the modu are t he Power/Exit and Dial/Menu. Using the 5-button navigation key, a user can brow se through the moduâs other functions, including choosing the number to call in the phonebook. Other functions include a picture gallery, an alarm clock and a calendar
Sending text messages on the modu can be very tricky, especially for people who are used to an alphanumeric keypad or even a QWERTY phone. Instead of pressing individual buttons, a user must navigate an on-screen alphanumeric keypad for the needed letter. This essentially triples the number of times a person has to press on the phone to type a message, compared to alphanumeric phones. It take s a while to learn to type on the phone (in my case, itâs about two days). Even after getting used to the strange keypad, a user may take longer to finish a m essage than on a traditional keypad.
It has a T9 predictive text capability, but knowing how Filipinos type in short hand, the phonesâ predictive text might not work for most users.
Multimedia The unit comes with an internal 2 gigabyte memory, expansive enough to contain mostly music, though the modu can also serve as an external drive via a micro USB connector (which also serves as the connector for its flimsy earpho nes). It can only play MP3 and MIDI formats, which is ok since most digital son gs are in this format.
Surprisingly, the unitâs speakers are loud for its size. It can be used as a sp eakerphone for voice calls or for listening to music. If you donât want to crea te a ruckus, better wear the earphones but be warned that the comfort level of wearing these is lacking. Hopefully there would be more earphones that would ha ve micro USB ports that can be alternative to the moduâs standard earphones.
Less wireless Most new Bluetooth devices use either the 2.0 or 2.1 version that allow for con nectivity to nearly all types of Bluetooth devices. Most importantly, Bluetooth allows users to synchronize their devices to PCs and wireless earphone.Surpris ingly, modu takes a step back and instead uses Bluetooth 1.2, which means it ca n only connect to Bluetooth earphones but not on any device.
I tried connecting the modu to three mobile phones, two notebook computers, and two wireless earphones (a Sony and a Jabra earphones), with only the latter de vices being able to connect.
Another surprise is that I cannot stream music from the modu to the Bluetooth e arphones. I can only make voice calls through Bluetooth. It would have made the modu a good multimedia device if one can attach a Bluetooth stereo headset and stream music to it.
Future add-ons Globe only carries at least five modu express jackets (a Globe plan will includ e the modu and two jackets starting at P7,000), which turn the modu into a full mobile phone upon insertion. The jackets come in different designs and have fu ll alphanumeric keypads so users can become comfortable typing.
For some, a tiny phone with limited functionalities would have been scoffed at by some users, except fashionistas looking to flaunt a tiny device. But the cre ators of the modu phone are already working to put out some new express jackets as well as what they call âmodu matesâ that are devices with specific uses. Th ese can range from basic music players with home theater speakers, GPS location and navigation, video players, among others. There are also modu mates that ha ve QWERTY keyboards and would seem to compete against Blackberry-like devices.
The modu website features at least 8 kinds of these devices. So far, none have been launched yet. Perhaps when these are available, users of the modu would fi nally get to fully utilize their phones.
spelled with in small caps?? seriously? if it's spelled MODU, is it big caps??
I have not heard or see this phone in the market.
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This is really an amazing phone. I think everyone should get one of these. I think this is really interesting and fun.
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This is so amazing how small this phone. My wife would love something like this. The technology is getting so good. silver eagles
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This is one of the better phones that you will buy. I cannot believe that they are getting this small. I do not know how much smaller it can get.
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Modu comes with a jacket that will make it a full functional regular phone. Just pop the Modu phone in to its jacket and voila it become a regular phone with full keypad and has normal size.
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This is really an amazing phone. I think everyone should get one of these. I think this is really interesting and fun.
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This is great for home and also travel. Now a days people are lazy are want tiny things. SEO Expert
These phones are wonderful tools and entertainment centers. These devices make sense for personal or business. PetzLife
The phone to look a lot or more promising but it is not very sure how well the phone will work in the long run because many mobiles that come up with such an extensive range of features will give up in a very short span of time, a reason why the many phone enthusiasts are not that keen on purchasing feature rich phones like this. - jordan
Perhaps the most perplexing omission from the modu phone is vibration, a basic feature included on even the most inexpensive mobile phones. The MP3 player is also basic, and it's let down by modu's insistence on a USB headphone connection rather than a standard 3.5mm jack.
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This new phone is so amazing to see. The technology for these phones is getting so good. The phones are going to get smaller each year. I think this is such a great trend. Engagement Rings
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A SIM card slot is on the left side of the modu, which can be mistaken for a mi croSD (unfortunately, not available⦠yet). Once a SIM is inserted, it will be hard to pull it out. To do so requires pushing a tiny button on the right side of the modu using the tip of a pen or paper clip. The SIM is pushed out a bit u ntil it is easy enough to be pulled out with the userâs fingers.
Even the screen is small at only approximately 36 mm by 33 mm, or just about th e same size as the screen of an LCD wristwatch. Whatâs good about the screen th ough, is use of OLED technology, which is double the brightness compared to ord inary LCD screens.
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A SIM card slot is on the left side of the modu, which can be mistaken for a mi croSD (unfortunately, not available⦠yet). Once a SIM is inserted, it will be hard to pull it out. To do so requires pushing a tiny button on the right side of the modu using the tip of a pen or paper clip. The SIM is pushed out a bit u ntil it is easy enough to be pulled out with the userâs fingers.
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I have not heard or see this phone in the market. Best regards, Katya, CEO of movie burner, freeware iscsi target
This new phone is so amazing to see. The technology for these phones is getting so good. The phones are going to get smaller each year. I think this is such a great trend. -Amanda
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very nice phone.. is it good for those of us who have thick fingers?
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The phones are definitely getting a lot smaller. I think this is so good to see. You be able to fit all phones in your pocket before long. There is so much upside for phones in the future - let's hope technology continues to evolve like this!