Audio

The Incite has speakerphone command capabilities, voice-activated dialing and task modes, and the ability to play up to four ringtones for different callers.

Aside from listening to callers via Bluetooth (the headset can double for listening to music), speakerphone or just through the earpiece, the Incite offers several ways to exercise the eardrums.

In less than five minutes, users can connect the Incite to their PC and download their entire song library onto the phone. A microSD card that does not come with the phone can store these songs, as well as ringtones, pictures and videos to be played through Windows Media Player.

Even without a memory card, the Incite can play music through AT&T Mobile Music, an application that comes built into the phone. AT&T Mobile Music also offers satellite XM Radio, FM radio, a service called Pandora that helps users find new music, a community connection for users to share common music interests and review band fan sites, and MusicID, a msuic recognition service that identifies unknown songs to deliver the performer or title instantly.

The Incite also offers access to music videos, more music applications and a place to shop for music, ringtones, and Answer Tones, which play for the caller's listening pleasure until the Incite user picks up.

Music options are plentiful on the phone, but are only at their best with a memory card, which is sold separately.

Messaging

The Incite offers access to Yahoo Messenger, AOL and Windows Live instant messaging as well as wireless access to personal and business email accounts. That means Yahoo, AOL and Hotmail accounts are as easily reached on the Incite as IT-managed servers like Microsoft Exchange Server and IBM Lotus Domino. If a business account is all you have, you can set up a personal Xpress Mail account on the phone in less than 10 minutes.

The Incite has two ways to write emails or text messages, which can contain up to 1,000 characters. The phone's portrait mode allows users to type a message in abc / multi-tap mode (one tap for the first letter listed on a key, two taps for the second letter listed on the same key, and so on). This is the phone's default texting option.

In landscape mode, users have a full QWERTY keyboard at their disposal and can type a bit faster. The menu bar can be hidden in this mode to provide more space to see what's being written. Every extra bit of space helps, since the keyboard mode takes up more space than multi-tap mode. A function icon switches between the two modes. Either mode allows a user to pick a common phrase and send it off quickly without spelling the message out.

When using the keyboard, the phone will predict which word the user is trying to enter so a thumb slip onto a neighboring key doesn't ruin a message. If the phone guesses the wrong word, users can pick a second option provided by the phone.

Two gripes about the Incite's messaging system are, number one, the QWERTY mode takes up a lot of room and makes it difficult to see the tiny letters a person is typing, and, number two, there have been some preliminary complaints that the phone has trouble sending SMS (short message service) text messages. Neither problem is ideal. Users may find larger print in multi-tap mode, but of course that takes more time to use.

Sending messages on the Incite is not a huge ordeal, but people that are used to and prefer a physical keyboard to a touch-screen keyboard may lose their patience. Still, the convenience of having home and job emails and the ability to send Word and PDF documents on the go will appeal to those who don't get much desk-time during their day.

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