Monday, Jul. 21, 2003

A Cell Jukebox

By Anita Hamilton

It's a cell phone. It's a wireless music player. It's both. At the end of July, Sprint plans to become the first carrier to let subscribers play full-length songs on its phones, radio-style. Those who've signed up for the high-speed Sprint PCS Vision service will get to choose from 50 different songs from Sony and Warner Music. There's almost no delay before the tune starts playing, thanks to streaming technology. But we found the sound quality to be a bit wobbly on the phone we tried. If you like what you hear, you can download a 15-sec. clip to use as a ring tone for an additional $2.50. --A.H.