Sony Ericsson Phone Quiets When Waved At

The world’s No. 4 mobile phone manufacturer, Sony Ericsson, unveiled on Sunday a cell phone that can be silenced by a simple wave of the hand.

The company stated that the user can simply wave their hand over the phone to mute the ring tone and ignore the call on the Z555 flip cover phone, which will debut in the first quarter. The wave will also work to activate the snooze feature when using it as an alarm clock.

The company also announced two new phones for its Walkman music handset line-up including the Walkman W760 music phone with satellite positioning technology that, combined with mapping software from Google, lets users follow step by step directions to their destination.

It will be available from the second quarter, said Sony Ericsson, which has seen strong success with its Walkman branded music phones but trails Nokia Oyj, Samsung Electronics and Motorola in the global market for mobile phones.

The devices were expected to be shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, which opens to the public in Las Vegas on Monday. The company did not reveal retail pricing.