Sony Ericsson's new phone -- the Mix Walkman -- is a good smartphone that does one thing that may or may not be good:  You can use it for karaoke as part of a new feature, called Zappin . Here's how Sony describes it:

The Sony Ericsson Mix Walkman™ provides a new and fun way to listen to music. It comes with a Zappin™ key to make it even easier and more fun to search for your favourite song. Simply press the Zappin™ key to preview the chorus of the next track and decide whether it is a favourite you want to listen to. A karaoke function also enables the vocal track from any song to be lowered instantly so you can sing along with your favourite tune.

Is this really necessary? I see people on the train platform who sing at the top of their lungs with their iPod, unembarrassed. Now, I can imagine commuting buddies clustered in the front of the car having sing offs during those long summer delays. For those of you who don't sing, other features include a 3.2 megapixel camera, conference call capability, MMS and SMS as well as e-mail, of course, auto rotation, a scratch-resistant  touch screen ( 3-inch, 400 x 240 pixels) and battery life of 9 hours, 40 minutes talk time and up to 465 hours of standby time. Oh, and 13 hours or so of music-listening time. The Mix Walkman will be launched in "selected markets" during the third quarter. Sony doesn't say how much it will cost. In dollars, I mean. Sing too loud, and who knows... Source: Sony Thanks: Technabob