mobile phone
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Start A Fire With A Mobile Phone Battery
12:00AM Kevin Purdy | It’s entirely likely that a modern geek would bring an emergency mobile phone on a camping trip, but forget matches or a lighter. If there’s some steel wool handy, that cellphone’s battery can start a fire. More »
Track Your Fitness Progress with Free Tools
9:00AM Kevin Purdy | You don’t need to plunk down $150 for a Wii Fit to track your progress toward a healthier body—even if that downhill skiing game looks mighty fun. If you’re trying to curb unnecessary calories and stick to an exercise plan, there are tons of free applications that want to see you succeed. Whether you’re facing a fast-food menu or polishing off a light entree, you can log, track, and make healthy decisions from your desktop, or just as easily from a phone. Take a look at a few suggestions for accomplishing your fitness goals, after the jump. Photo by angela7dreams. More »
Simple Translation App for Mobile Browsers
6:20AM Kevin Purdy | Coder Mike Brittain has put together a super-clean site for iPhone, Blackberry, Opera Mini, and other mobile browsers that lets you quickly click two languages to translate words or phrases between and then do it. The site supports 11 languages at the moment, and you can easily bookmark a language pairing for quick access while travelling. Those without data connections should try Google’s SMS translation service. Mobile Translator [via MakeUseOf.com] More »Opera releases Mobile browser Opera Mini 4.1
8:00AM Sarah Stokely | Opera has taken the latest version of its mobile browser, Opera Mini, out of beta this week. The new Opera Mini 4.1 gives the browser a speed bump and offers several new features for quicker scrolling, navigation and page rendering.One feature carried over from the 9.5 Beta 2 version of Opera’s desktop browser is the ability to guess the URL you want when you enter a search term in the address bar.4.1 also supports offline viewing, and users with Java-enabled mobiles supporting JSR-75 will be able to upload and download any file via Opera’s mobile web.Opera Mini 4.1 is not compatible with all mobile phones, so check the full list of compatible phones here. Most Java handsets are supported, including BlackBerry and Palm phones.Opera Mini 4.1 is a beta, so the usual warnings apply. It can be downloaded here. [via]
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Device Charging Holder
10:01AM Adam Pash | The Driinn Mobile Phone Holder declutters your charging portable device by providing both a place to store your device and a method for controlling its long cable while it charges. This charging holder about half the price of the previously mentioned Socket Pocket and charging hammock, and the wrap-around for long cords really cleans things up. The Driinn Mobile Phone Holder comes in a variety of colours and will set you back around $7 at Amazon. Driinn Mobile Phone Holder [Amazon via Unclutterer] More »
Use Jott to Keep a Medical Diary
1:03AM Kevin Purdy | Web marketer and migraine sufferer Scott Clark is tracking all the daily variables—food, environment, activity, and the like—that surround his attacks with a migraine diary, and he’s found text-to-speech services like Jott (original post) are the best hassle-free tool for the job. Not only will Jott (or ReQall or most similar systems) automatically record the date and time of the entries, but it’s always accessible by cell phone, and one can create a dedicated “inbox” for migraines to separate the diary from productivity-related uses. For anyone looking to track a diet, health issue, or other things that happen away from the desk, it’s worth looking into. Photo by robtxgal. Migraine Diary Creation using Jott [Site Creations] More »
Search Locally Directory-Style with Google Mobile
1:50AM Kevin Purdy | The Googling Google blog points out a tucked-away mobile search feature that the search giant isn’t quite rolling out yet, but is already accessible. Fans of the Yahoo’s classic directory trees will feel at home here, as you can browse through food, entertainment, shops, and other features around a city or town, but the nifty part is that your phone remembers locations you’ve already searched for, and offers direct mapping links for the results, possibly saving you from ever having to type in a thing. It’s obviously in an early stage, but for those with really tiny screens or averse to keypad typing, a list of links might make for better searching. Google Search (Mobile) [via Googling Google] AU – I don’t have Google Search set up on my mobile, but I suspect this is a US-only thing. Anyone able to shed any light? More »
What To Do When You Lose Your Cell Phone
11:00AM Gina Trapani | You just stepped out of that cab, watched it drive away, and 10 minutes later, reached into your pocket and realised your cell phone is gone—forever. I learned firsthand this weekend that losing your mobile phone is a huge pain in the buttocks, especially if you’ve set up easy access to your email and other services on it. In addition to photos I’d taken with it, text messages, and contacts, my Nokia had both Gmail apps installed, with “Remember me” checked, so that anyone who picked up the phone could’ve logged into my email. Not good. More »
Get Things Done Over the Phone with Jott
4:00AM Kevin Purdy | US-centric: At its most basic level, webapp Jott is a voice to text transcription service: you call Jott, leave a message, and Jott transcribes it and emails you or your contacts the text. That alone can capture the big idea that pops into your head on the drive to the office, but Jott can do a whole lot more than send you email. With Jott’s built-in links and tools that capitalise on its email-sending abilities, it can give nearly any personal organization system a go-anywhere, add-anything boost. Today we’ve got a quick primer on how to turn your phone into a ubiquitous capture tool that zaps info into all your favorite organisation apps by voice. Getting Started If you don’t already have a Jott account, have your cell phone handy and head to their sign-up page. Fill in the forms, confirm your email, add 1-866-JOTT-123 to your contacts and/or speed-dial and make the confirmation call. Once you log in, head right to “Contacts” and add “My Phone” (first name, last name) as a contact with only your own phone number. “Wait,” you might ask, “doesn’t Jott let you have all your messages sent to your phone as a preference?” Precisely—that’s every single Jott, which isn’t something I want to deal with. By having “My Phone” as a contact, you can skip your email inbox and leave yourself notes on your cell phone—which comes in handy when trying to remember a number or address while driving. Next, hit up “Groups” and think of any sets of emails and phone numbers you might want to message all at once using one phrase, such as “Co-Workers” or “Family.” After that, head to “Jott Links” and enable any the growing number of Jott-enabled webapps—including Lifehacker favorites like Remember the Milk and Google Calendar—you use. You owe it to yourself to check out Jott’s simple How To guide before calling, but the basic technique is simple. Dial the number, wait for the “Who do you want to Jott?” prompt, and then say either “myself” or one of the contacts, groups or “Links” you set up. After the confirmation and beep, you can speak clearly for less than 30 seconds, and your message will be translated by a mix of computers and humans (your privacy, they say, is assured) and then sent to the right inboxes, phones or web apps. I’ve had pretty decent luck with both the accuracy and turn-around on the service, but your mileage may, of course, vary. Filter and customise your Jotts Sending yourself email from a dial tone can be pretty handy, but only if your Jott messages don’t get lost amidst your other messages. You could filter all of them into one folder or label by the “@jott.com” sender, but why not organise your messages by topic? If your email server allows the common username+label@email.com format (detailed here), simply add that extended email as a Jott contact and set your filters accordingly (like I’ve done to record my feature ideas). If your can’t accept “+” emails, think of a unique phrase you can say in your messages—like, say, “gigantic awesome idea”—and have your email client file accordingly. If you find yourself using Jott a lot, and you can use this method to set up a Gmail/Jott to-do list. Group and print projects/ideas If you’d rather not mingle your wandering thoughts with your email inbox, you can create folders to store specific memos to yourself on the “My Jott” page. Say “Home,” “Work,” or whatever else when asked who you’re Jotting, and the messages will end up inside folders that have easy printing tools. iGoogle users can also go email-free with the Jott gadget. Make your organising tools more accessible Great organisation systems provide a single place to drop all your to-dos, events and thoughts, but what if you’ve just remembered a task while you’re walking to the store? Jott has you covered. The site provides built-in Links for many web-based systems previously mentioned on Lifehacker—including To-do manager Toodledo Expense tracker Xpenser Calendar and task organizer 30 Boxes Vitalist, a frequent commenter favourite If you have Google Calendar hooked up your own preferred scheduling app, just add it to your Links and you can call in your quick-add items (like, say, “9 p.m. Sunday Watch The Wire“) for easy posting. But perhaps the strongest Jott integration tool is Remember the Milk, which already can seamlessly insert itself into Google Calendar and Gmail. Put them all together and there aren’t too many places where you won’t be able to record your thoughts and ideas for later use. Keep Sandy close at hand (platonically) Sure, she’s technically an organisation tool as well, but the integration of Jott and
