You have found the perfect phone. It’s stylish, fnuctional, and has all the bells and whistles, but it’s still not quite flashy enough? There are lots of ways to further personalize your cellular device.
FACE PLATES
You can buy face plates through your cellphone manufacturer or service provider or from one of many cellphone accessory stores. They come in a variety of colours and patterns. Look for Warner Bros. Motorola face plates to complement Looney Toons ring tones and screen savers.
RING TONES
You have a phone with either normal or Polyphonic ring tones, but you’re not satisfied with the old standards like “Jingle Bells” or “Take me out to the Ball Game.” Whether you’d prefer Britney Spears’ latest hit or an old favourite, look on the Internet. There are thousands of sites where you can download ring tones for free. Most of these are for Nokia phones, but it is possible to download ring tones for other manufacturers. Check out zingy.com where you can find billboard hits, or your service provider’s website (which will probably not be for free) for more exciting tunes.
CHAINS
Some cellphone chains act like an antenna and light up when a call comes in, while other chains are only decoration. Chains are attached to the face plate where you might attach a carrying strap.
ANTENNAS
Many cellphone owners purchase antennas that light up or blink when the phone rings. The problem with antennas is that in order to install them, the old antenna has to be cut out. Any significant alteration or reconfiguring of the phone will void your warrantee. Changing the face plate is just a cosmetic change, but installing an antenna or customizing the screen (some people like to invert it so instead of black writing on a white screen it becomes white writing on a black screen) will void any warrantee.
CASES
You can buy cases for your cellphone at almost any bag or accessory store but you’ve just spent so much time and money personalizing your phone, why cover it up?
GRAPHICS
You can download graphics for your Nokia phone online on almost any site, depending on the model you have. Other companies like Motorola, Siemens, Ericsson and Alcatel are working on their products’ ability to receive these images. With newer phones you can get them from the service provider’s website. You can assign a graphic to certain numbers in your phone book. An operator logo shows when you have reception and a screen saver is just like a screen saver on your computer, it appears on your cellphone screen when the phone is not in use (www.iguanamobile.com).
HANDS FREE
Wearable communications in the form of jewellery, a matching set of silver earrings, necklace, watch and a ring would take the place of the old-fashioned handset. A light on the ring blinks when a call comes in, the phone number of the person calling is displayed on the watch face and a button on the watch can be pressed to answer the call. The earring becomes the receiver and the necklace has a tiny microphone that acts as a mouthpiece.
In the meantime you can buy head sets and ear pieces for your cellphone which, arguably can make driving and chatting safer. They not only come in basic black now, you can buy hands-free accessories to match your phone or your outfit.
