'Mommy, I'm Losing You. Pick Me Up at Brownies'
If you think there are already way too many people talking way too much, in way too many places, on mobile phones, brace yourself: a whole new demographic is about to join the mobile phone-toting army.
Apparently, some parents think it's a good idea to give a cellphone to their preteen children. And, ever anxious to please, the technology industry is ready with just such a gadget.
A new company, Firefly Mobile Inc., has introduced a small, colorful, cellphone that fits comfortably into the hands of kids aged 8 through 12, and is greatly simplified so kids can easily use it. But the phone is also designed to strictly limit what the kids can do with it and to give parents control.
For instance, there is no key pad for dialing; out of the box, the phone can dial only numbers programmed into its phone book and large direct-dial buttons, presumably by parents.
My assistant Katie Boehret and I have been testing this mini phone, and we liked its kid-oriented features. Among other things, Firefly has a 911 button on its side for emergencies and its battery isn't removable because, according to the company's CEO, kids put their tongues on batteries.
Firefly Mobile will start selling the phones in May on its
www.fireflymobile.com Web site for $99.95 each, which includes 30 minutes of prepaid talk time. You'll be able to buy additional airtime in increments of $10, $25 and $50, which get you 40, 100 and 200 minutes, respectively. If the phone runs out of minutes, it will still be able to dial 911 (which requires a combination of two button presses so kids can't inadvertently summon the cops).
According to Firefly, in July Target Corp. will begin selling the Firefly mobile phone loaded with prepaid minutes at its stores; it hasn't yet set pricing for the phones.
The Firefly phone: available in May for $99.95 at
www.fireflymobile.com.You can already buy the Firefly phone from a couple of regional wireless-phone carriers, under widely varying plans. For instance, Triton PCS, also known as SunCom -- a company with retail stores in the Southeastern U.S. -- sells the Firefly for $199.95, complete with enough talk-time for your child to chat for 1,200 minutes or 12 months, whichever comes first.
This little blue phone measures about the length of an adult's middle finger. Instead of a numerical keypad, the Firefly has only five buttons and a small three-line screen on its front side. Two of these buttons have male and female stick-figure images on them, and are intended to auto-dial Mom and Dad. To accommodate all kinds of families, Firefly is considering optional images for its keypad instead of just male and female figures.
Though the phone is very light and has a snap-off shell, its translucent case is quite rugged. To simulate real-world use by kids, we dropped our test Firefly phone six times, from about three feet, onto a variety of surfaces, including school-quality industrial carpeting and outdoor sidewalk pavement. After the last drop, onto a sidewalk, the phone flashed an error message. But turning it off and restarting made it good as new.
Pressing the keypad's center button opens an electronic phonebook, the contents of which are protected by a four-digit code that only the child's parent knows. As many as 20 numbers can be added to the phonebook, in addition to the two quick buttons for Mom and Dad. You can turn on the phone's call-screening features so that the phone receives calls only from one of the 22 preprogrammed phone numbers, if you choose.
The phone's "send" and "end" buttons, colored in green and red, respectively, work like those on regular cellphones and also serve as left and right menu-navigation buttons.
Katie turned on our test phone and dug into its menu system by holding down the green "send" key for four seconds. This system can be accessed by anyone, but without a code only four categories are visible: Missed Calls, Ringers, Display Colors and Options.
The Display Colors section let us choose one of seven colored lights that illuminate the screen when the Phonebook, Mom or Dad key was pressed. Ringers opened a selection of 12 playful ringtones, including Whirligig, Twister, Genie and our favorite, Secret Agent.
There's also a feature called Fireworks that cycles a bunch of lights built into the phone when a button is pressed, just for fun.
The code-protected section of the phone opens four additional categories: Change Pin, Keys, Call Screening and My Number. This last category keeps the phone's number private so that strangers can't find it by just pressing a few buttons, which is the case with normal cellphones.
We opened the first category and changed the default "1-2-3-4" code to something slightly trickier. Entering anything -- letters or numbers -- on this phone is so aggravatingly tedious that we couldn't imagine a child even wanting to change a phone number if he or she figured out the code.
To set up the phone book, we had to laboriously select each individual letter and number from a long, scrolling list. The screen's type is so tiny that we had to squint to see what we were doing, but we managed to enter a few names into our phonebook. Parents can configure the phone so that the kids can dial numbers that are not in the phonebook, but dialing involves the same tortuous process as the one needed to enter numbers in the phonebook.
Incoming calls display the caller's name on the screen if he or she is in your phonebook, as well as "Hi" and "Bye" written above the "send" and "end" buttons. Because our Firefly phone came with 30 prepaid minutes, the tiny screen displayed data about how much each call cost after it was ended, as well as our account balance.
Extra accessories, such as different shell colors and carrying pouches, will be available from Firefly and other companies. Our favorite accessory that came with the Firefly phone was a clip that helped us attach the phone to purses and backpacks so as not to lose it.
We are skeptical that cellphones and young kids make a good combination. But the Firefly has a lot of smart features that make it a good choice for those parents who want their kids to join the mobile-phone mob.
儿童手机让父母可以掌控
如果你认为目前手机的用户太多，使用频率亦太高的话，那么请你做好心理准备，因为又有一个新的人群要加入这一行列了。
显然，有一些父母认为给自己不满13岁的孩子购买手机是个不错的主义。于是，科技行业迫不及待地就要推出这样的产品，来满足父母们的需求。
一家名为Firefly Mobile Inc.的新公司就推出了一种色彩斑斓的小手机，正好适合8至12岁的孩子握在手里，并且它经过了极大的简化，孩子们很容易就能学会使用。不过，这种手机的功能有严格的限制，以便于父母们对其进行掌控。
比如，这款手机上没有拨号用的数字键盘，只能拨打手机电话簿和直拨键里设定好的号码，这些号码的设定基本上都会由父母们来完成。
我和我的助手凯蒂?伯雷特(Katie Boehret)测试了这款迷你手机，我们很喜欢它为孩子们设计的一些功能，包括设在手机一侧的911应急按键和它不可拆卸的电池，据Firefly首席执行长称，这样设计是考虑到孩子们会用舌头在电池上舔来舔去。
Firefly Mobile将从5月份开始在其网站
www.fireflymobile.com上出售这款手机，售价为99.95美元，其中包括30分钟的预付费通话时间。用户也能购买更多的通话时间，花10美元、25美元或50美元分别能买到40分钟、100分钟和200分钟。即使手机的通话时间用完了，它仍可以拨打911。（拨打911需要按住两个按键，这样可以防止孩子们不小心误打这个电话。）
据Firefly称，Target Corp.将从7月份开始在其店内销售这款手机，并附带预付费通话时间，但该公司还没有确定其最终售价。
用户现在已可以通过全美几家地区无线电话运营商买到这款手机，但其售价和附带通话时间各不相同。例如，Triton PCS销售这款手机的价格是199.95美元，可以通话1,200分钟，有效期为12个月，以先到为准。Triton在美国东南部地区都有零售商店。
这款蓝色的小手机长度与成人中指差不多。它没有数字键盘，而只有五个快捷键；正面还有一个能显示三行文字的小屏幕。五个按键中有两个按键上面标有男性和女性的线条图案，分别用来代表爸爸和妈妈的电话。为了满足各种不同家庭的需要，Firefly正在考虑在键盘上使用其他更多的图案。
这款手机十分轻巧，但它半透明的机身却非常结实。为了模拟孩子们实际使用的状况，我们先后六次将Firefly手机从3英尺高的地方摔落到不同的表面，包括学校常用的地毯表面和室外人行道地面。在最后一次摔落试验后，手机闪现一条出错的信息，但在关机并重新开机后，它又完好如初了。
按下键盘中央的按键就能开启手机电话簿，其内容受到4位数密码的保护，只有孩子的父母知道这个密码。电话簿能够收录除父母快捷键号码以往的至多20个号码。用户还可以启动电话过滤功能，让手机只能接听来自上述预制的22个号码的电话。
这款电话的“拨号”和“挂断”键分别以绿色和红色表示，与一般手机的功能相同，它们还可以用作浏览菜单的左右按键。
凯蒂按住绿色“拨号”键不放四秒后，就打开了我们的这款测试手机，并进入菜单系统。任何人都可以进入到菜单系统，但如果不知道密码，只能看到四个目录：未接来电、铃声、显示色彩和选项。
显示色彩目录内有7种灯光色彩可供选择，当按下爸爸、妈妈键或电话薄键时，屏幕上就会显示出这些色彩。另外还有12种有趣的铃声可供选择，包括Whirligig、Twister、Twister、Genie和我们最喜欢的Secret Agent。
这款手机还有一项名为“烟花”(Fireworks)的功能，当按下一个按键时，一组灯光就会在手机上闪烁，很好玩。
密码保护目录下有四个子目录，更改密码(Change Pin)、按键(Keys)、电话过滤(Call Screening)和我的号码(My Number)。最后这个子目录可以保护手机号码的私密性，陌生人不能像在一般手机上那样，按几个按键就能知道这个手机的号码。
我们打开第一个目录，将默认的“1-2-3-4”密码修改成一个较为复杂的密码。在这个手机上无论是输入数字还是字母都是非常复杂冗长的，因此即使孩子们知道了密码，可能都不会去修改电话号码。
为了创建电话簿，我们不得不费尽地从一串长长的字母数字列表中一个一个地挑选出字母和数字。这个手机的屏幕非常小，我们不得不眯缝起眼睛，才能看清输入的内容。我们最终还是成功地输入了一些名单。父母们也可以对手机进行一定的设置，这样孩子就可以拨打电话薄以外的号码，不过拨号的过程会像创建电话簿一样繁杂。
如果电话簿上的人打进电话，屏幕上就会显示他或她的姓名，并且在“拨号”和“挂断”键上就会出现“Hi”和“Bye”的字样。由于我们的Firefly手机附带30分钟的预付费通话时间，因此当挂断电话后，小屏幕上就会显示出此次通话的费用，以及预付费的使用状况。
用户可以从Firefly和其他公司购买到其他颜色的机壳和手机袋等附件。我们最喜欢的Firefly附件是一个挂钩，它可以把手机挂在钱包或书包上。
我们对小孩子是否应该配手机持怀疑态度，但Firefly为手机添加了很多灵巧的功能，使它成为那些想为孩子买手机的父母们的一个好选择。
