Cingular free mp3 ringtone

New products: 'Clean lines. Cool tones.'

Henry Ford is credited with saying customers could buy a Model-T in any color they desired "so long as it's black."

Likewise, with few exceptions, such as the wearable StarTAC released in 1996, design and color appeared low priorities at Schaumburg-based Motorola Inc.

But over the last few years, with the injection of new blood from successful consumer products companies, such as Apple Computer and Nike, Motorola is trying to redefine what it calls "Motorola-ness" beyond black housings and "bat wing" Motorola logos.

Motorola is trying to be trendy, reaching out in splashy TV and print ads to youthful and fashion-conscious customers. In the ads, Motorola adopts the name "Moto," the company's nickname among Taiwanese teens and not a reference to Mr. Moto, the 1930s Japanese secret agent played by Peter Lorre.

Steve Lalla, senior director of product and business operations at Motorola, said the new products have "a new design language: Rich minimalism. Clean lines. Cool tones. Not overstated."

Basic Moto black moves to the background. Bring on neon purples and chromes.

Consumers also will be able to change the external housings on the "endoskeletons" of some new models, such as the family of low-end C330 model phones, so they can make the designs fit their own moods. For example, consumers could put on a Chicago Bears housing and download a screensaver and wallpaper with Bears logos and a ringtone from the Bears' fight song.

The biggest impact for tech fashionistas is the V70, which has a round watch-like display, changeable bezels and a rotating cover.

Some men may be turned off by the too-precious-by-half design and the translucent keypad with a blue hue, described as "electroluminescent MotoGlo," that that has smaller than usual keys. But the V70 won kudos from the Hollywood crowd when Moto added the V70 to gift baskets for Oscar nominees. Some praised the phone while on the red carpet.

(For the record, the stars can keep the $400 phones, but they get only one month of free Cingular phone service. Still, think of all the time the stars can rack up with agents and such while cruising the Hills of Beverly.)

Promotional material states: "Rotating heads will become the norm for those who embrace (V70)."

Some models are more productivity-oriented, with PDA-like features mated with a phone.

None of this may impress the tech crowd. However, the 3G, or third generation, phones will. The A820 phone, which will be introduced in Europe in the third quarter, has a large-screen display that can show Web sites in 4,000 colors and also has an embedded MP3 player, a suite of games and an integrated video camera. The phone will cost under $1,000.

As the Moto promo material asks: "Are you ready for the MotoMothership?"

Life can be good at 384 megabits per second with a wireless Bluetooth headset. And just wait for the wonders of 2 megabits per second.