Sizzling summer technology

Media Credit: MCTNew summer technology is sweeping the nation, leaving consumers with an even bigger craze for new gadgets and devices. Samsung has developed an innovative new phone available through Sprint called the Upstage. It's dual-sided, with one side resembling a phone and the other resembling an MP3 player. The phone side is limited with a tiny display, but it does cram in the date, time, signal strength, battery life and even photo caller ID. There's only one speaker on the side of the phone, which has a mediocre output-especially since it's turned away from you when you're looking at the screen. But don't let that deter you; the flip side is much better with a large, bright 2.1-inch screen still following the trend of sleek, thin phones; and a headset can give you better sound quality.The Upstage's features are impressive. It's an EV-DO phone with support for Sprint's 3G services. It is Bluetooth compatible with a 1.3 megapixel camera and a video recorder. There are various media dimensions including Sprint Music store with streaming music from Sirius Radio, Sprint Movies with full-length pay-per-view movies, Sprint Power Vision including Sprint TV and mobile podcasts. With Sprint Music Store you can download music simultaneously to your computer and your phone and you can use the included USB cable to transfer songs from your computer to your phone.What makes this phone remarkable is the amount of memory it contains. It comes with 70MB of memory and a 64MB MicroSD card also comes in the box. Still want more? The UpStage can accommodate up to 2GBof memory.Another great feature is that the phone's case serves as a battery charger that doubles the life of the battery. Radio Shack store manager Thomas Mitchell said that the battery life stands up better than any other cell phone on the market. Mitchell also says it's a great phone for college students or anyone who really likes music. The Upstage is priced pretty nicely at only $99 with a two-year Sprint service agreement. Of course this summer's most anticipated item is Apple's new iPhone. The iPhone was released on June 29th to eager crowds that had been lined up for hours outside of Apple retail locations across the country. The iPhone's sleek design includes a 3.5 inch touch-screen display which allows you to make calls by tapping a name or number in your address book, a favorites list of your most frequently made calls, or a call log. And the phone doesn't just look good-its features are also attractive. It is a phone, wide-screen iPod, and Internet browser all in one.