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Cell phone usage exploded in the last 5 years and now there are more services designed to give mobile users more information from their cell phones. FreeCell is a collection of services that are available at no additional charge (your standard voice/data/sms fees apply). If you want the Vcard files (.vcf) click here and they will be delivered within a few minutes. You can import these Vcard files into your contact database making it easier to use the services versus having to key all the info into your phone manually. (instructions sent along with the Vcard files) Toll Free Services Free Directory Assistance The typical cellular provider charges between $1.25-$1.75 per 411 call. The quality of the directories they utilize is poor meaning you often pay for a call that doesn’t get you the number you need. Trying to get a credit for these wasted calls requires a call to another number with a long wait time. By dialing 1-800-FREE-411 (800-373-3411) you don’t pay a fee for directory assistance. Similar to the fee based directory assistance (DA), this service tries to first find yourlisting using voice recognition. However if the recognition fails, you are sent to an operator. This service includes both business and residences unlike many others that just cover business listings. How do they provide this free? By selling advertising which you listen to while they find your listing. If you are in a huge rush, you can use the normal DA and pay the fee, otherwise 800FREE411 is a better bet. Stock Quotes, Sports and more 1-800-555-TELL (8355) is a service provided by TELLME. This service does include directory assistance for businesses but the real value is in the other items it provides includes sports scores, stock quotes, news, entertainment info. They also have a beta service where you can order ring tones for your cell phone if you are an AT&T/Cingular customer. Price Shopping Want to know if the price you are seeing in a store is competitive? All you have to do is dial 1-888-DO-FRUCALL (1-888-363-7822) from your cell phone, key in the product barcode of the product you are interested in buying, and listen to the best prices found online. Through its voice prompts, Frucall also lets you get product and merchant ratings. Text Messaging Based Services Weather Weather.com provides a service called 4CAST which allows you to send either your city name or zip code to 42278 and you get the temp and weather for today, tonight and tomorrow. Sports scores, directions and more Google has launched its sms based mobile query service that allows you to send a sms to receive information back to your cell. Here are three examples: In each case the SMSnumber to use is 466453. Sports: You type score Lions and it returns the most recent score of the Detroit Lions (note: it claims to work with NCAA sports, we haven’t seen it work too well) Directions: You type a starting address or zip code then the word “to” and then the destination address or zip code and it returns driving directions! Restaurants: You type in the kind of food you want and the zip code such as Italian60540 and it returns a list of restaurants and their address/phone numbers Other options include: Movies, Stocks, Flights, Translate, Calculator, Currency Conversion, Price Shopping Frucall Text is a fast, easy to use service that allows users to perform product searches via 2-way Text Messaging (SMS). For SMS savvy users, Frucall Text is the simplest and fastest way to access and compare "online" prices of products while out shopping and making buying decisions. Simply "text" the barcode, or brand and model, to FRU11 (37811) and we'll Text Message back to you the best available online prices found for that product. Eclectic User Created Information TextMarks is a cool website/service that allows companies and individuals create their own sms based queries. What are some examples? Type TOMATO and the name of a movie and you will get how Rotten Tomatoes rated that movie Type TRACKUPS and a UPS routing number and you will get the status of that shipment There are 100s more including what the high and low tides are for San Francisco! You can also create your own TextMarks 41411 is the sms number to use for all of these queries. Visit www.textmarks.com for a complete list of their options. Web-enabled Smart phones only Electronic Coupons Cellfire is a service that allows you to download coupons onto your Smartphone for use either in stores or via telephone orders. Once you sign up and choose the coupons you want, they are sent to your web enabled cell phone. When you choose to redeem a coupon a code shows up on your cell phone. If you are in the store or restaurant you show your server/cashier your code to get the coupon credit. If you are phoning in an order (say a pizza delivery) you tell the person the code number. To find out more about Cellfire including which devices they support and which companies offer coupons go to www.cellfire.comCopyright 2007 Notquitegeeks.com and Riverwalk Publishing |
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