RSS Feeds
|
US Edition
Babblebaby
|
Defamer
|
Gizmodo
|
Kotaku
|
Lifehacker
US-centric: Misplaced your cell phone around the house and don't have another phone on hand to call it up to locate it? Give your number to web site PhoneMyPhone and they'll instantly ring you up. Aside from instant calling... Read More »
The iPhone and iPod touch are almost indistinguishable devices except for one major difference—you can make calls from your iPhone, and you can't from your iPod touch. For the privilege of making phone calls with your iPhone, you have to pay $100 more upfront to Apple for the device itself, plus a minimum of $60/month to AT&T for the next two years (and that's only if you're in the US - AU editor) Let's say you didn't need that kind of firepower from your iPod touch, but that you would like to use it make a phone call every now and then. You can, and today I'm going to show you how to make VoIP phone calls from your iPod touch or iPhone using a freeware application called SIP-VoIP.
US-centric: Compare mobile phone plans and find the perfect plan to fit your usage needs at web site BillShrink. Just enter some information about how you use your phone along with your current monthly bills, and BillShrink will offer... Read More »
Opera has released a new beta version of their Mini browser for cell phones and PDAs that includes pretty serious improvements for anyone who's serious about their hand-held browsing—namely, actual file downloading, uploading to select online services like Flickr and Gmail, and saving of web pages for offline access. Previous versions of Mini, like most mobile browsers, could only handle files that the browser or the device itself knew what to do with, but Mini now lets you save files and web pages to the device's storage, assuming it has a working version of the JSR-75 access protocol running in the background. Opera also threw in page-based "Find" searching and claims its server-based page cache is running 50 percent faster in recent tests. Opera Mini 4.1 beta is a free download for most devices that work with Java.
US-centric: Send detailed directions for getting around the city from your browser directly to your cell phone with web site HopStop. This webapp has been around for a while (we even posted about it a few years back), but... Read More »
Find and buy items from your cell phone with the new Amazon TextBuyIt feature. It works like this: Say you're out shopping and you see a book you want to buy. You figure you could save a few bucks getting it at Amazon, so you send a text message to 'AMAZON' (262966) with the title, author, or even the ISBN code of the book. Amazon sends a text back to you with search results. You pick the result that best matches your search, and an Amazon robot voice calls you with details and asks for purchase confirmation. The first time you try TextBuyIt, you'll have to link your phone with your account, but from there on Amazon wants to make it easy to find and buy products wherever you are—and hopefully you'll save some money, too. TextBuyIt is surprisingly easy to use, but if you give it a try, let's hear your thoughts in the comments.
Windows only: Freeware application ToneShop creates ringtones from a variety of formats, for a variety of formats supported by most popular mobile phones (including the iPhone). To use it, just point ToneShop to the WAV, WMA, M4A, or MP3 file you want to use as your source, and then use ToneShop's simple editing tools to choose the start and end time of your ringtone. Choose the output format supported by your cell phone, hit convert, and voilà—you've got a new ringtone. ToneShop could use a bit of polish on the interface, but as young as it is, it still makes it dead simple to create ringtones for your phone in just a few clicks. ToneShop is freeware, Windows only. If you've got a preferred ringtone tool that puts ToneShop to shame, let's hear about it in the comments.
Search for local businesses in your area without resorting to your clunky mobile keyboard with the new, quietly unleashed Google Mobile feature found at google.com/m/lcb. When you navigate to the "lcb" page (local businesses?), Google Mobile identifies what city you're in (or tries to—my test had me in either Columbus, OH [wrong] or Los Angeles [right!]), so all you have to do is click through the business categories to narrow down exactly what you're looking for. As the ZDNet post points out, the feature would be a lot more useful if it pinpointed your location within the city à la Google Maps on the iPhone, but either way it could come in really handy if you aren't keen on using your unfriendly mobile keyboard.
US-centric :Ever drive by a house for sale and wonder what the price is? Find out on the spot using voice transcription service Jott and real estate valuation search engine Zillow. You'll need to register at Jott (it's free),... Read More »
US-centric: Next time you're on your way to the airport, you may be able to forgo printing out your boarding pass at home, opting instead to use your cell phone as your boarding pass. According to the New York... Read More »
