The new face of mobiles

A new breed of full-colour phones has been designed to run MMS (multimedia messaging), which, according to the networks, will revolutionise the mobile, turning it into a camera, photo album and design studio.

Which means in English?

It's a service that enables you to send all-singing, all-dancing messages to other mobiles, ranging from personal photos to voice recordings, ring tones or animated cartoon clips, as well as using them to personalise your own mobile.

How does it work?

The phones have cameras, either as an add-on (like the T68i, see below) or built-in (see the Nokia 7650, below). The phone's screen acts as a viewfinder. To take a photograph, press "call". To send it to a friend, choose Messages from the menu and send the picture like a text message.

What's the catch?

Your friends may have phones that are incompatible with the service. In this case, they will simply see a text message directing them to look at the picture on a website.

Can you save it on a website?

Yes. On the T-Mobile service (the only one up and running so far), every time you send a picture, it is automatically saved to your personal web page. The web page comes as part of the package.

How much does it cost?

£20 per month on top of your line rental with T-Mobile (other networks have yet to say). For that, you get 10Mb worth of photo messages - enough for several hundred. They need not be only photos. They could be tiny animated colour cartoons, known as GIFs - for examples surf to www.esato.com and www.wapster.nu.

How many pictures can you take on the phone?

The Sony Ericsson T68i lets you save about 80 pictures. It has 1Mb of memory which can be divided between photos, ring tones and e-mails.

Can you get prints?

Yes, but picture quality is low. They are designed to be used on the phone, as in the "photo phonebook", where an incoming call can trigger a particular picture; you can have one picture that comes up as a greeting when the phone switches on, another that shows in the background permanently, and another that works as a screensaver.

Can I get it on any network?

Only T-Mobile, which launched last week, has a service up and running. Vodafone, O2, Orange and Virgin Mobile are expected to follow soon.

Must I buy a new phone?

Yes - and they cost a pretty packet.