Phone users can send text messages in lights

Sending a text message with your mobile phone is poised to become en-lightening: A new messaging option on some Nokia handsets is more like semaphore than computing.

While it’s not as convenient or utilitarian as sending a text message to someone in another city or country, wave messaging certainly can leave a lasting impression, particularly if you’re in a night club and want to impress someone across the room.

Users of the upcoming Nokia 3220, slated for release this fall, must buy a special shell that snaps onto the phone. Users can then send a short message that, instead of going to another phone, is flashed on and off by 12 orange LED lights on the back of the phone shell.

Wave the phone back and forth, and a motion sensor tells which lights to fire. Done correctly, the message appears to be floating in space, bright as the stars.

Nokia says the image is visible from as far as 18 feet.

Entertainment

Company releases album with video game’s music

First came “Hitman: Contracts,” the video game. Now, there’s “Hitman: Contracts,” the soundtrack.

Sumthing Else Musicworks is releasing an album with 13 electronica-infused tracks by renowned video game musician Jesper Kyd, whose previous works include last year’s action game “Freedom Fighters.”

In “Hitman: Contracts” for PlayStation 2, Xbox and PCs, you star as Agent 47, a bald, genetically engineered assassin who executes an assortment of terrorists and other bad guys.

A review by UGO Console Gameworld credited the score as one of the game’s highlights, saying “music is where the game shines …”

Though still unusual, “Hitman” is not the first to pair gaming and music.

The early ’80s saw the collision of video games and pop music with Buckner and Garcia’s hit single, “Pac-Man Fever.” A decade later, creators of the immensely popular adventure game “Myst” debuted a soundtrack filled with the game’s soothing, atmospheric sounds.