WITHOUT A MANUAL, we figured out how to pop off the back cover of the newest gadget in my wife's purse (see the phone at left) and then to do fun things. The newbie, a SonyEricsson W910i, replaces the first generation Walkman phone that we bought more than two years ago. That first gen Walkman phone is one of the fastest-selling mobile phones in County Tipperary. The W910i is much slimmer than its predecessor, is techno black (easy to misplace under papers) and includes an accelerometer. The last bit means you can flick through music by tilting the phone right to go to the next track or tilt left to go to the previous track.
We rip and store music on the phone. Unfortunately, the W910i's dedicated music keys are not as large or intuitive as on our long-serving W810i Walkman phone. You cannot shift your iTunes tracks onto the phone and expect them to play. I have a work-around for that snag and hope to share my technique on that topic later this month.
I also hope we can set up the W910i with a Bluetooth music network that we are building in our home and garage. Sony Ericsson's MBR-100 Music Receiver would let us stream music from the W910i to our hi-fi. We are looking at several Bluetooth headsets that are on the market, giving us wireless music without missing a call.
For those interested in the W910i, a music receiver and a Bluetooth headset that gives you track information, you need to set aside around €410 with your mobile phone agent.
Donncha O Caoimh reviews the W810i and he doesn't like it as much as us.