boy, the Japanese make cool devices. don't know why that is, but I'm sure there's a good reason. Probably due to the fact that people in Japan spend less time at home than we do here in the US...homes being smaller due to land and financial constraints. If you've never been to Tokyo (or Japan in general) than it's difficult to appreciate this. They live well in small quarters. Remember when stereo equipment was valued totally on size? That is, bigger=better? Then those little systems with little speaker and little screens came out, and, they sounded great. somebody told me that they were designed specifically for the Japanese domestic market and the smaller spaces (sorry Klipsch). I know that REAL audiophiles read magazines like The Absolute Sound, and spend thousands on turntables with special ball bearings and 3 foot concrete slabs to put their precious platters on...because CDs sound so dreadful.

Oh yea - here's the news on the Sprint PCS 1XRTT network:

July 02, 2002 3:13 PM EST

NEW YORK—Sprint PCS’ highly anticipated next-generation network is scheduled to launch August 10, according to Audiovox president and chief executive officer Philip Christopher who let the cat out of the bag during a quarterly conference call.

While Sprint PCS had no comment on the report, Christopher said the network launch will coincide with the introduction of its Thera smartphone for the Sprint PCS 1x network.