Virgin Mobile serves up the Lobster 485

Virgin Mobile is launching a new range of phones under the Lobster brand, aimed specifically at the youth market. Crave can't help wishing that Virgin Mobile had wrapped the press release around some lobster sandwiches, as our rumbling stomachs are inspiring idle speculation.

Maybe Lobster phones are hard and spiny on the outside, but soft and delicious inside. Perhaps they hide in the crevices in your sofa during the day, emerging at night to forage in the pubs and clubs of 'yoof culcha'. Or maybe, since summer is approaching, they ignore all that parental advice about sunscreen, flop naked on the Mediterranean beaches and come home bright red. Guess we'll find out when the first Lobster handset -- the Lobster 485 -- scuttles into stores.

The Lobster 485 is a small and light clamshell that measures 75 by 38 by 22mm and weighs 68g. It has a 262K colour internal screen, a VGA camera and support for picture messaging, enabling you to send snapshots of the pubs, clubs and beaches to all your mates. There's also a photo phone book, so if you can persuade that eye-candy blonde or six-packed hunk to give you their number, you'll be able to remember why you wanted it.

The 485 also features a lobster-red shortcut key that gives you quick access to Virgin BITES, Virgin Mobile's interactive news service covering music, celebrity news, humour, gossip and sport. This button will be a standard feature of Lobster phones.

The Lobster 485 costs £90, including £5 of call credit, and should appear in stores in the next couple of weeks. -ML