More than text

Everyone was awed at how the Short Messaging Service (SMS), more popularly known as text messaging, took the country by storm. Information is practically at anybody’s fingertips with a SMS cellular phone – you can make payments, load money into your bank account, get directions, find out the latest movie, know your horoscope, meet your perfect match, and even win millions. Heck, the country ousted a president with a mere stroke of a thumb.

It goes without saying that we won’t stop at SMS. With the advent of the third generation (3G) of wireless communication technology, which refers to improvements in wireless data and voice communications, mobile phones will no longer just send plain text messages. Soon phones will be able to exchange "lively" and colorful messages through EMS, or Enhanced Messaging Service, and MMS, or Multimedia Messaging Service.

The EMS is actually based on the SMS platform; only it adds more powerful functionality, color, and most of all, life to the standard SMS.

Unlike the SMS that simply sends text messages, EMS allows users to send and receive a combination of simple melodies, pictures, sound, animation, modified or formatted text, and standard text. This gives users new ways to express their feelings, moods and personality in wireless messages.

Saying "Hi!" through an EMS-enabled handset will never be the same because when, for example, an exclamation mark appears in the enhanced message, a melody could actually be played. A simple black-and-white image could also be displayed along with some text and this sound effect. This gives EMS two main advantages: person-to-person messaging and personalization.

MMS, on the other hand, is one of the core applications that personify 3G. Perceived to be the next step in the evolution of wireless messaging beyond text and static images and logos, the MMS allows users to send messages comprised of a combination of text, sound, images and videos to other MMS-capable handsets.

This feature works just like the EMS, only on a wider scale. Aside from being able to send rich media such as text, sound and images, users can also send photo or video to another MMS-enabled handset or directly to an e-mail address.

Entertainment and personalization are at its par with MMS because through this feature, the user can now associate photos with contact numbers. This means that when a specific contact is calling, the photo associated with the number will automatically appear on the display. There’s definitely no room for amnesia with this function.

All these features – and certainly more – are incorporated in the latest mobile phones from Panasonic, which incidentally has been doing its share in representing leading-edge technology in the world of mobile communications. With 3G development, the company has committed to being one of the pioneering suppliers for 3G mobile communications.

Specifically, Panasonic has come up with a new range of cellphones – including the upcoming GD68 and GD88 – that reconfirms its commitment to being the masters of design in leading-edge technology.

With these new handsets that support full-color screens, digital cameras, polyphonic ring tones as well as the latest technologies like GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) and most recently, EMS and MMS, text messaging will definitely have more life, color, mood and attitude. Simply put, text messaging will never be the same again.