Walkie Talkie or Push to Talk, often abbreviated PTT, works more like a two-way radio than a traditional telephone. In regular phone service you talk and listen at the same time. With PTT, only one person talks at a time and you push a button when you want to speak.
So why would you want to turn a phone into a CB radio? Well, your phone is actually still a phone. Unlike CB, Ham Radio or two-way walkie talkies, your conversations aren't broadcast to just any other phone. You pick the parties you want to speak with and they are the only ones in on the conversation. What Push To Talk does is let you push one button and instantly talk to one or more parties. You talk. Your voice comes out of their telephone. No waiting for the phone to ring and then get answered. It's instant communications.
As you can imagine, PTT operation can be really handy for short messages, coordinating activities, work situations and so on when you aren't planning to just chit chat for 20 minutes. For those longer conversations you can switch back to regular cell phone operation any time you feel like it.
The Samsung D357 is the first phone designed for Cingular Wireless service that has the Push to Talk technology built in. It also has Bluetooth communications so that you can clip a wireless headset on your ear and converse without having to hold up the phone. If you want to include more people at your end, just turn on the built-in speakerphone.
You can also operate this phone vocally. Advanced voice-activated dialing requires no pre-training of the cellphone.
For times when it isn't possible to speak, The D357 is set up for SMS text messaging. AOL, Yahoo! and ICQ instant messaging come built-in. You also get an email client for on the go emailing.
The D357 clamshell type phone has two displays. The large main display shows over 65,000 colors. A smaller external display shows valuable information while the phone is closed.
All this and excellent battery life too. The Samsung D357 gives you up to 300 minutes or 5 hours of talk time. Exceptional. Standby time is up to 200 hours or well over a week.
If you've been craving a cell phone with Push to Talk capability combined with the Cingular Wireless network, this is the phone for you. Can you believe that it is available free after rebate? It is as of this writing, but this deal may not last so hurry.
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