You can get pretty much anything delivered in this country: A friend once had had a single cigarette brought to her door, which is probably why I found it so surprising that Egypt hadn’t developed a movie-delivery service — until now, that is. For the last four years, cinephiles in Europe, North America and Asia have had DVDs arrive daily in their mailboxes, so why not Egypt? Well, rejoice, couch potatoes: With the launch of egdvd.com, you, too, can sit and wait for your entertainment to come to you.

EGDVD hand-delivers up to three DVDs at a time to your door, as opposed to most foreign services, which rely on the mail. Two days later, the delivery man will return to exchange the DVD for a fresh one from a list you create on the website. If you’re not finished with the old movie, you can keep it without late fees for as long as you maintain your membership. Monthly rates are LE 60, LE 100 and LE 140 (in addition to a LE 100 to 250 deposit), depending on whether you want one, two or three DVDs at a time.

The website is clearly still a work in progress. It has an attractive design, but it’s not very functional — particularly frustrating is the useless search bar. One nice feature, however, allows you to see a brief synopsis and language options for a given movie by mousing over its picture on the browsing page, meaning you don’t have to go to the individual movie’s page to find out about it.

Customer support service is email-based (no phones) and not very efficient.

The selection of movies is pretty spare compared to foreign services. EGDVD has a fair sampling of recent titles, but very few older than ten or 15 years. For those of us spoiled by US-based Netflix’s catalog of 60,000 titles, EGDVD’s 200-odd selection can be a little disappointing. The DVDs are high-quality originals, though, and most have audio or subtitles in Arabic. VCDs and computer games are available for sale, but not rental.

It’s a relief to finally see an online movie-rental service in Egypt, but if EGDVD wants to be taken seriously, it will have to up its standards, meaning an increase in the number of available titles, lower monthly fees and a fully-featured website. (VCD rental wouldn’t hurt either.) Here’s hoping EGDVD can get its act together.

With the dizzying array of mobile phones on the market, it’s understandable if you are a little lost shopping for a new handset. 3G or not 3G? What sort of camera do you need? Here are some of the most important things to know and keep in mind when the salesperson starts pushing that hyperdingbat-enabled antenna.

Memory: If you plan to have more than a few photos, videos or obnoxious ringtones, you should make sure your phone supports a memory card, which can increase your base memory of a few megabytes (MB) up to one or two gigabytes (GB), enough to store a couple full-length, high-resolution movies.

Mode: Mobile networks run on different frequencies — 850, 900, 1,800 and 1,900 megahertz (MHz) — but most phones don’t support all modes. Mobinil and Vodafone Egypt both run at 900 Mhz, which will also work in Europe, Asia and Africa. If you’re traveling to the Americas, make sure your phone will support 850 or 1900 MHz.

Camera: Camera quality is usually measured in pixels: The more pixels, the sharper the image. A two-megapixel (MP) camera can take print-quality photos if the lens and software are of decent quality.

3G: It’s not here yet, but, when it comes, this technology will allow video conferencing, simultaneous transfer of multiple files and other snazzy features. Not all phones support it, though, so see if yours does if you want to take advantage once Egyptian carriers finally pony up for the 3G licenses. Etisalat is currently the only 3G license-holder in Egypt, expect the others to begin providing the service some time next year.

Price: Phones can vary widely in price, so shop around and don’t get pressured by salespeople. Warranties cost extra, as does insurance — make sure you know what you’re getting into before you reach for your wallet. All prices listed here include warranty.

(And no, there is no such thing as a hyperdingbat-enabled antenna.)

Named after a Chinese word meaning ‘bright’ or ‘clear’ (not the merciless tyrant of Buck Rogers fame), the MING is a stylish (and incredibly small) PDA-phone with an impressive two-megapixel camera. The sharp 240x320-pixel display is also a touch screen supported by handwriting-recognition software. In addition to support for standard PDA functions, the MING has a business-card reader to automatically store contact info from scanned cards. Make sure you get a memory card, as the 8 MB of built-in memory should be enough for storing your contacts, but little else.

The European Imaging and Sound Association’s 2006-07 Media Phone of the Year, the N93 features an eye-popping 3.2-megapixel camera comparable to many mid-range digital cameras. The 240x320-pixel main display is sufficient for daily use, but if you really want to do justice to those pretty pictures and 640x480-pixel videos, the N93 will connect with your television. The N93’s 50 MB of storage, expandable upon purchase to 128 MB, can be augmented with miniSD cards up to 2 GB. All those moving parts and fancy gadgetry cause the N93 to weigh in at a hefty 180 grams, more than twice the SE K510i.

Sony-Ericsson exhorts its customers to “capture and share” with the mid-range K510i, perhaps because 28 MB of unexpandable memory means they won’t be able to “capture and store” many photos or videos. The 1.3-megapixel camera is very nice compared to other phones in this price range, but the 128x160-pixel display won’t do justice to your high-res pictures. It has impressive connectivity options for such a light handset, meaning it should be painless to transfer photos and videos between phones or to a PC. Earlier models with the same joystick-based menu navigation have been prone to failure when the stick gets gummed with grit, so make sure you get a warranty.