BlackBerry users may rate the speed with which they can respond to an email, but an experimental application from Mobile Radicals aims to test just how fast competitors can draw their mobiles against each other.

Mobslinger runs in the background and uses Bluetooth to scan for other players in the vicinity. On discovering another player it sets off an alarm, vibrates, and displays a random number. The user must type the number in before the other guy does. Slowest on the draw dies, and is out of the game for a while.

The free beta for J2ME (with JSR82) and S60, only supports basic game play, but tournaments and last man standing modes are on their way. The developers want players to have a go with the game and see what happens - do they end up gunning down commuters on the tube, or wandering the range for days without seeing a stranger they can take an instant dislike to?

With GPS coming into phone handsets, the potential to mix the virtual and real worlds is enormous, and short-range radio technologies create a virtual presence for real people allowing them to interact in both realities.

Mobslinger may be silliness, but it's a silliness which shows where mobile applications are heading. ®