If life could be simple again -- really simple? -- wouldn't we all be better off?

And in one of the area where simple could be good -- even great (Palm Pilot drum roll, please), Pantech has introduced its Breeze cell phone.

It's key benefits can be summed in with just two letters -- E and Z:

• EZ to use: simplified, easy-to-read user interface
• EZ to connect: back-lit one-touch quick call keys
• EZ to access: one-touch speakerphone and camera
• EZ to handle: oversized keypad with separated buttons

The Breeze is a slim, good-looking flip phone (4 x 2 x 0.7 inches) that weighs less than four ounces and includes an external 1-inch (diagonal) screen.

Nothing so special yet, but flip it open, and you find three quick-dial buttons labeled 1, 2, and 3. They sit below a nice size (2.2 inch) LCD.

The main keypad buttons are comfortable and sizable, and the handset includes a slender volume button and a nonstandard headphone jack on the side.

Using it is a relative breeze, but how can we get this even simpler?

Remember how easy rotary dial and push button phones were? Just two functions -- dial and listen.

And that's what this is still all about more a century after the telephone was invented ...