Verizon Wireless can pull this off thanks to its EVDO network, built for high-speed data and currently active in over 30 cities, with plans to be live in 60 cities by the year's end. (Check Verizon's website for availability in your area.) Most of the files come in compressed Windows Media format, either an all at once download, which takes around two minutes, or a buffered streaming video file that, even at three minutes in length, takes 30 seconds or less to start. EVDO coverage can be shaky at times, causing fits and starts in streaming video.

Normally I pay an extra $5 per month so that I can check e-mail from my cell phone, but lately I've encountered so many dead links (especially with AOL), I've had the feeling I'm the only one doing it. Verizon's newest data plan may cost more ($15 per month) but it actually over-delivers, for the money. With the standard V CAST package, news, weather and sports updates plus programming clips from the likes of Comedy Central, Fox Television and Sesame Street are all included with no extra charge. (You can't use V CAST phones as high-speed modems for your laptop, though; that requires a separate $80-per-month Broadband Access subscription.)

There are premium downloads as well. The current stuff, music videos and 3D games, cost roughly $4 to $10, but once you buy them, they're yours to keep. There's not much to get excited about in the games department, yet, though you can work out some waiting-for-the-bus frustration playing made-for-V-CAST games like Asphalt Urban GT and JAMDAT Bowling 3D (complete with multiple-camera-angle replays).

My opinion of the current music videos is lower. Perhaps demonstrating how MP3 really did kill the video star, V CAST offers slim pickings, video-wise. In place of Grammy-level greats, there's just a handful of second tier rappers and, far worse, those boy-based guitar bands that say “yo" instead of “you." Where's Eminem, Mos Def, John Mayer or The Killers? The only good video up now is Green Day's “Boulevard of Broken Dreams," and I hate Green Day.

This is a gadget review, so I might as well comment on the VX8000. It handles the videos and the games surprisingly well, and both spoken word and music come through its single speaker clearly. I wish it had Bluetooth capability for a wireless headset in the car (something I have trouble living without), and speaker-independent voice dialing for hands-free operation. The built-in 1.3-megapixel camera is a disappointment, too, though its video feature can be entertaining. Those high-tech gripes aside, it's as reliable as any older LG model. The only real trouble an average user might run into is a low battery, drained by constant download of unlimited video content. Buy a spare charging cable. Keep it at the office.

It's exciting to stare directly into the future. That's what V CAST phones are—the first portable electronic devices capable of breaking our reliance on cable TV or rich-media websites, and it goes even further. Someday soon, when Verizon launches a streaming stereo music service, even the iPod, that pocket-size king of the media mountain, could be rendered passé.