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Alltel's "Celltop" brings information home
We've seen a handful of recent efforts to aggregate frequently-requested information on phones' home screens -- notably H.O.T. from Helio and Motorola's SCREEN3 -- and in theory, it's a great concept. After all, with the exception of the very top and bottom lines, the home screen is typically a barren wasteland; why not fill it up with things you want to know anyway, right? Alltel has launched its own volley this week in the battle to take back the void with Celltop, a configurable uiOne-based app that offers up a potpourri of glanceable data displayed in a two-up format. Out of the gate, the so-called "cells" include baseball, football, basketball, and rodeo (yes, rodeo), a call log, stock prices, news, weather, and text messages, though more are promised and Alltel appears to be actively courting developer types interested in taking a crack at it. The price -- free -- is hard to argue, and the carrier says all handsets will come with Celltop compatibility by late '07. Follow the break for some hands-on pictures and initial impressions with the first Celltop-equipped phone, Samsung's u520.
