Samsung Galaxy S III, Sony Xperia Ion, the two real 'Smart Phones'

There's a form of extra-sensory perception called psychometry, whose practitioners claim to learn things about objects by touching them. Smartphones set to be released this month by Samsung and Sony will have some of that ability: they'll learn things when you touch them to pre-programmed "tags."

For example, you can program a tag with your phone number, and stick it on your business card. When someone taps the phone to the card, the phone would call you. Or you can put a tag on your night stand. Place the phone there, and it goes into "alarm clock" mode, holding your calls until the morning.

Concerning Sony, since it's also an entertainment company, the Xperia Ion ad campaign is an opportunity to highlight Sony-owned content like the coming Spider-Man movie, music by the group Matt and Kim, and PlayStation video games. The device, a 4G LTE Android phone, will be available through AT&T and will cost $99.99.

“This is not just about launching a device,” said Peter Farmer, the vice president for marketing for Sony Mobile in North America. “It’s about establishing credibility and visibility for Sony in the smartphone space.”

Sony focused its out-of-home advertising in New York and Atlanta. It includes bus shelters, traditional and digital billboards, interactive kiosks, taxi tops and the Sony digital billboard in Times Square.

Samsung takes this one step further with the Galaxy S III. Tap two phones together, and they set up a connection via Wi-Fi. That means the owners can walk away from each other, and as long as they're in the same room or so, they can transfer photos and even hefty video files between their phones.

Though the Galaxy S III is already out but as said the Sony Xperia Ion will be available on June 24.