Tuesday, December 27, 2005

Motorola i560 is One Tough Cell Phone

Want a cell phone you can take to work? No, not one that slips in the pocket of your suit coat. A real work phone. The kind of phone you can take to a construction site or out commercial fishing. Or maybe just a phone you can take rock climbing and not have to worry you're going to shatter the shell with the least little bump.

The Motorola i560 Yellow is such a cell phone. It's ruggedized outer shell withstands dust, shock, vibration, and short drops. It is built to Military Standard 810F, certified for blowing rain, salt fog, humidity , dust, shock and heat. Besides that it just looks like it's ready for the great outdoors. That cool yellow and black case won't disappear so easily into the grass if it happens to take a tumble. You'll probably be able to find it around the house easier, too.

The i560 has working phone features as well as rugged good looks. This phone runs on the Nextel network and supports push to talk (PTT) services like Direct Connect, Group Connect and DirectTalk. PTT operation differs from a regular phone call in that you push one button and speak. Your voice instantly comes out of the phone at the other end of the call. No waiting for rings or someone to pick up. You talk. They listen. Of course, both of you need to be on Nextel service for this to happen. For calls to other carriers, you use your Motorola i560 just like any other cell phone. One ring... Two ring... Oh, rats. Voicemail.

Make life even easier when you're trying to work by using the built-in speaker phone. You don't need to hold the phone, so to speak, in order to carry on a conversation. Or the whole crew can get into the conversation. Like for bawling out that supplier who was supposed to deliver the concrete an hour ago.

Another cool feature of the Motorola i560 is GPS services support. The phone is also a GPS receiver. That comes in handy if you get hurt and can't tell the operator your location. Other than emergencies, the GPS feature can be used for navigation. In fact, the i560 comes preloaded with TeleNav 3.0. Don't spend thousands on a fancy GPS system. TeleNav gives you audible driving directions and local point of interest. It puts a little map on your display and will automatically reroute you if you happen to miss a turn. Carry your phone with you and you are also carrying a small GPS system. TeleNav is a low cost option with your Nextel wireless service.

You get two displays on your i560. The main display shows over 65,000 colors. The external monochrome display is backlit and shows valuable information when your phone is closed.

Another interesting feature of the Motorola i560 is the phone book. It contains 600 entries but uses a removable SIM card. You can have multiple numbers per name in your book.

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