Naughty By Nature Faces Of New PDA

Back from the ashes and placed on the spring board back into the entertainment spotlight, hip hop legends Naughty by Nature have been picked by software giant Microsoft to promote the newest PDA device to feature the Windows Mobile operating system.

The group is at the center of Microsoft’s promotion for the new HTC Touch Pro 2 Windows Mobile Device, which is scheduled to roll out later this year on all four major mobile service carriers. The new Touch Pro2 is the latest in a series of phones to feature a fully functional touch screen and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. Billed as “a palm-size professional conference phone,” the Touch Pro2 features an enhanced speakerphone and noise cancelling microphone. It also features the ability to break away from a conference call for a one-on-one conversation with one participant without disconnecting the conference.

HTC’s website also points out the phone’s one-touch functionality, allowing users to reply to emails or launch conference calls and other features with just one touch. “As a fan of Microsoft products, I'm super pumped about Naughty's promotion with Windows Mobile,” Vin Rock told AllHipHop.com. “I'm a Windows Mobile power user and eager to educate others about the future of mobile computing. This is just the beginning.”

After a brief breakup, Naughty by Nature reunited in 2006 and returned to the forefront nearly two years later, when the group was selected as one of the recipients of the Fifth Annual VH1 Hip-Hop Honors. Shortly before the award show, the group announced that they were working on their first album since the late 90's.

“The past two or three summers, we’ve started talking about it, and we started and stopped,” Vinnie said in a previous interview. “This past summer, we finally got serious about it. And as we started doing the work, then VH1 called us for the Hip-Hop Honors.”

The new album, tentatively titled Anthem, Inc., will the follow up to 2002’s IIcons, which has been the only Naughty by Nature release following KayGee’s departure from the group in 2000.