Posthuman Blues

Thanks to Sprint's sending me a free multimedia phone (with unlimited airtime and downloads) I've become pleasantly addicted; I don't know if I can go back to a boring gray LCD screen after my role as technology ambassador expires. I'm especially hooked on EarthCam Mobile, a feature that lets me see the world in real-time via webcams. I spend my breaks at work eavesdropping on a certain stretch of sidewalk in Times Square and bar-hopping in Fort Lauderdale.

To be sure, many, if not most, of the applications available to download are uninspired novelties. I still can't fathom the logic of downloading a screensaver -- moreover, a screensaver that you can't even see until you've committed to a purchase -- that expires in three months. Ditto for ringtones.

And although the phone is Web-ready (turning me into a one-man Wi-Fi hotspot in the process), it's far from blog-friendly. So while I can download role-playing games and bikini model animations galore, I don't have ready access to so much as an RSS newsreader.

And I'm disappointed that the phone's repertoire is dominated by sports/entertainment. For a device crammed with software, the phone's conspicuously bereft of creative tools; using the phone to listen to Sirius radio and watch VH1 is well and good, but I find Sprint's working assumption that its customers are compliant drones eager to fork over credit for the latest celebrity gossip oddly demeaning.