Goodies on the Go

When most of us leave our homes there are three things that we check for before we walk out the door. If we don’t have our keys, wallet, and cell phone, then we stop in our tracks to find what we are missing. The cell phone is the newest member of this “must have before leaving the house” fraternity. It has become the digital equivalent of a Swiss Army Knife. The calling, text messaging, picture/video features, and calendar functions of cell phones have allowed them to embed themselves in our lives through convenience. Here are four emerging goodies for the cell phone that will make them even more essential before leaving the house. The cool part is that most phones should be able to benefit from most of these goodies. The most that you will need is access to the Internet.
Not many people have heard of Cellfire.com, but that is changing because it is a shoppers dream. This website allows you find coupons for the stores that you frequent. You may be thinking big deal; there are a lot of online coupon websites. This is true, but few were designed specifically for cell phone users. With Cellfire you can download it’s program to your cell phone or access it via their website and find coupons while you are in the store. They claim that you won’t need to clip coupons any more. The coupon’s will appear on your cell phone and you simply show them to the cashier when you are checking out. This doesn’t bode well for the Sunday papers.
The second cool cell phone tidbit comes to us courtesy of the benevolent tech entrepreneurs over at Google. They have created a directory assistance program called Goog -411. The actual phone number is 1-800-goog-411 or 1-800-4664-411. The first reaction is normally “there is already a 411 directory assistance”. This is true, but Google’s 411 number cost the same as a regular 800 number call. Also, Google’s 411 number gives you the option to have the information that you are seeking sent to your cell phone as a text message, as a Google map, or it can just connect you to the number.
Another cell phone goodie is from Callwave.com. It was created for people like me. I would rather read a text than check my voicemail constantly, so this site can convert your voicemail to text messages and send them to you. It can also do the same for faxes. The downside is that it is not free although it is not too expensive.
The final item is from Craigsnumber.com. This site allows you to create a phone number that when called, will forward the call to your actual phone number. This protects your phone number from people that you would rather keep at a distance. You can set the created phone numbers to expire in anywhere from an hour, a day, one week, or one month.