Nokia's 5510 Music Player, FM Radio, Messaging Machine, Game Platform and Phone

Unless you're a really chatty person, carrying a cell phone can make you feel as though you're tethered to an electronic leash. Adding entertainment capabilities to the things is a pretty good idea - especially since it can reduce the number of gadgets you carry around. Nokia's 5510 looks like a step in the right direction in combining business and pleasure. Besides serving its purpose as a cell phone, it features a digital music player, stereo FM radio, games, and enhanced messaging capabilities. Shipments of the multi-function phone are scheduled to begin in Q4 of this year. The Nokia 5510 has an integrated digital music player for AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) and MP3 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer III) music files. You can record music with the integrated digital music recorder and store up to two hours of music in the phone's 64 MB memory. The Nokia Audio Manager PC software and connectivity cable provided in the package let you rip music files from your CDs and download them to the Nokia 5510. You can listen to music on the music player or the FM radio while you play games on the device. The 5510 includes a full (but small) keyboard and functions as a game platform with controls for two hands and keys located on either side of the screen. It comes with five embedded games: Bumper, Space Impact, Snake II, Pairs II, and Bantumi.