As she negotiates her way through the traffic, instead of breaking her concentration to look at the phone, she continues to drive and lets her mobile read out the new message to her.

"You have a new message!" her mobile tells her, and it then reads the entire message out loud.

Letting your mobile phone talk to you is no longer a far-fetched dream as mobile phone manufacturer Nokia has included new text-to-speech features into its latest mobile handset, the Nokia E50.

Text-to-speech is an application to help convert text into speech, allowing users to hear all the text instead of reading it.

Siri Neelawattanasuk, head of product marketing at Nokia (Thailand), said that apart from the text-to-speech function, the new phone also provided what it called the "in-device search" function that users apply to search by using key words from the applications of the mobile phone. 

"Normally we can search only in the phone address book, but this function allows users to enter the key word or file name once only and the system will look for what they want amongst contacts, e-mails, messages, appointments, the calendar, notes and the 'To Do List', as well as documents in the external memory, to show the results," he said.

He added that Nokia also designed the new handset to work as a user desk phone, meaning that users could assign their mobile phone to be an extension of their desk phone. When a call comes in, it will ring on the assigned mobile device.

"This will ensure that even employees who are not at their desks won't have to miss the call," he said.

However, Siri added that to take advantage of this feature would require implementation of Avaya Communication Manager in the office's PBX system as well as a leased-line network linking their office branches or locations.

With Avaya one-X-Mobile Edition client software, the Nokia E50 will work like a traditional office phone, enabling services such as short number usage, call forwarding, one-touch voice mail, and extension dialling, he added.

As the new E50 is designed for business, the device also allows users to make conference calls with a maximum of seven concurrent participants.

Nokia has set the price for the E50 at Bt11,420, excluding VAT.

Asina Pornwasin

The Nation