Got a new cell phone! My service with Verizon ends later this month and even though I've never had much trouble with them, I dislike what they do to their phones. They cripple their bluetooth phones so that you're not allowed to transfer pictures directly to your computer, but rather, you have to use their service. I believe data transfer is also limited. Their phones are also pretty lousy feature-wise and I would like to do more than just talk on my phone.

Like with many eletronic items, the best stuff don't arrive into the States until much later. I had been looking at the Sony Ericsson S710a from Cingular for a while now, but that phone's pretty old (relatively speaking). I was then researching to find what's out now and I saw that Sony Ericsson has a new K750i out for the overseas market. Fortunately for me, I live in a heavily Chinese population and can speak fluent Chinese, so I managed to snag a phone and for a pretty good price (cheaper than the S710a). It's an import from Hong Kong, so it has English and Chinese for it's languages (as opposed to Spanish or French on local phones, which are useless to me). So here are some of it's features:

2 megapixel camera - I'm really spoiled by my Digital Rebel XT, but this camera is still pretty decent for something on a phone.

Charging by USB - could come in handy at the office.

FM Radio!

Music Player - Most phones can play MP3s, but this phone also plays AAC files, the files that iTunes encodes to by default. Since all my music is encoded in AAC, this is a big time-saver, so I don't have to convert my songs to MP3. Doesn't play protected AACs though. Supports Memory Stick Pro Duo (1 gig is the largest stick as of now).

Chinese/Japanese Support! - Most of my Japanese songs are tagged (by me) in Japanese. If there's one thing I dislike about domestic electronics, it's that they're usually not Asian language friendly. But, this phone displays Japanese so I don't have to rename my songs when I transfer them. Very cool.

Bluetooth/iSync - My address book and calendars are automatically sync'd between my desktop and phone (my iPod also has a sync'd copy too).

And like all of my gadgets, this one has a name too. 伊里野 (Iriya).

[8/6 Update: Fry's had a sale on Memory Stick DUOs this weekend, so now Iriya has 512 megs of storage. Could have gotten the 1GB stick, but decided that I already have an iPod.]

Title: イリヤの空、ＵＦＯの夏 (Sky of Iriya, Summer of UFO) Drama CD
Original Creator: 秋山瑞人 (Mizuhito Akiyama)
Release Date: 7/21/05
Catalog No.: KDCA-0042
Rating: 3/4

I'm a bit disappointed in this CD. I thought that it would be a full hour of drama, but it's only about 28 some minutes. The rest of the CD has talk by the four lead voice actors/actresses.

The 3 drama CDs here has the cast act out some memorable scenes in the novel that never made it on air. In particular, I love the 3rd drama on this CD. The radio talk is pretty plain though. Given how many free web radios there are now, they really should made the CDs a little more interesting. Despite that though, I think this CD is still worth it for the stories.

The CD liner notes has a lot of comments from various staff members.

Title: イリヤの空、ＵＦＯの夏 (Sky of Iriya, Summer of UFO) Vol. 5
Original Creator: 秋山瑞人 (Mizuhito Akiyama)
Volume: 5/6
Catalog No.: BIBA-5405
Release Date: 6/28/05
Rating: 3/4

I think they should have established more of a relationship between Yoshino and the two kids. In the anime, he's portrayed as just a stalker, but in the book, he has a larger role and it's his earned friendship and betrayal that drives Asaba over the edge. It didn't seem as meaningful when the guy is just a predator. The way they drew him was different than I had imagined. I thought he would be a little older, maybe some gray hair. The station master, on the other hand, is exactly as I had imagined. Just one more episode!