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If you dial 411 from your mobile phone, stop. Almost all carriers charge a fee, and those fees can add up over the course of a month or a year.
The good news is there are several mobile 411 services available for free today. One of those is Goog411, from Google. Simply dial 800-GOOG411. Take a look at the Google video below to see what it’s all about.
If you use any other 411 services from your mobile phone, let us know what you thought!
Have you ever wondered about the nutritional value of the meal you were about to order? Now there’s a text messaging service that sends you just that.
A friend of mine forwarded me a note about the Diet to Go text message service from Diet.com. By sending a text message to DIET1 (34381) with the restaurant name, followed by the menu item, you will receive back the basic nutritional information for that item.
The service works best when you text only the restaurant name and menu item – do not include words like “the” or “and”. (They also say not to include your signature line — who has a signature line on their text messages?)
Let’s look at a quick example. We compared the Wendy’s Chicken Sandwich (Grilled) with the Sonic Grilled Chicken Wrap. My guess was that the Wendy’s sandwich would probably have more calories and more grams of fat. Let’s see the result below:
Obviously, I was way off. I would never have imagined that the Sonic wrap would contain almost 4 times as much fat as the Wendy’s sandwich, and the calories are significantly higher as well. Maybe that wrap includes Ranch dressing or something?? Maybe one of our readers can validate those counts.
In any case, this is a neat service that I intend to use. It’s quick and easy, and really provides valuable information. Test it out for yourself and let us know what you think.
Want to win a t-shirt in 5 minutes? It’s easy, but you must act today.
Today, February 9, is the last day to comment on our recent mobile web post and win a t-shirt in the process.
The post, titled 71 Ways to Make the Mobile Web Work for You, offers a number of ways the mobile web can help make your life easier. Add a high-quality comment to that post, and you stand a great chance of winning a prized, limited edition MobileMammoth t-shirt.
I mentioned we’ve been working on a few things here at MobileMammoth, so here’s another. You can now send text messages from your PC for free. Here are the details:
Free Text Message Features:
Free to send
No login required
Replies to your text message will be sent to the email address you provide
MobileMammoth does not store, read, monitor, or review any text messages sent
Wireless Carriers Supported:
(stay tuned as we are adding more all the time)
Alltel
AT&T
Boost Mobile
Cricket
Nextel
Sprint
SunCom
T-Mobile
US Cellular
Verizon Wireless
Virgin
Voicestream
This SMS service is the first of several mobile services we are rolling out in 2008 (although this actually went live in December). Give it a try on our Send Text Message page, and let us know what you think.
If you do not use a Windows Mobile phone or a BlackBerry, then you need to be aware of a free service that lets you send and receive emails on your regular mobile phone. Their tag line is, “Just the emails you want, sent as text messages.”
Think You Need a Blackberry? Try TeleFlip First
TeleFlip lets you set which emails you want forwarded as text messages to your phone. The emails can come from just about any type of email account (work, Yahoo! Mail, GMail, etc.), and the only thing you pay for is the text message fees from your wireless carrier. While you’re thinking about it, check with your carrier about changing your text message (SMS) fees. Many carriers are offering more flat rate options that are cheaper for those that do a lot of text messaging.
TeleFlip is better suited for those who simply want to stay on top of certain emails while they are away from their computer. It is certainly not practical for a salesperson, for example, that goes through 50-300 emails per day from the road. Those high volume users should stick to their smart phone or BlackBerry.
Has anyone else tried TeleFlip? What do you think?
We’ve given away several t-shirts so our email subscribers, with the latest one being Jonathan McHenry from Lutz, Florida. Like all our T-shirt winners, Jonathan subscribed to our feed via email, and his shirt is being sent right now.
To get a chance at winning a free MobileMammoth t-shirt yourself, simply subscribe to our feed using the form in the upper right section of the home page. By subscribing, you’ll receive all MobileMammoth.com posts in your inbox, and you can rest assured we never share your email information with anyone.
Congratulations Jonathan and all our t-shirt winners!
Designed for the teen set, itsmy.com is a mobile community where users can download videos, pictures and other content to their mobile phone. The only requirement is that new users send in their own, original piece of content in order to join.
This is a clever implementation of generating a service using user-generated content, and creating a mobile community around it. Hats off to the folks that started itsmy.com.
I bet there are other areas where this same concept, implemented correctly, could flourish – particularly where the other people’s content would be interesting to the community. I bet many of you out there could think of something and start this type of community without too much investment.
So let’s hear your ideas out there? Let’s help people get started creating a new mobile business in 2008!
One of my older brothers was in Ireland a few weeks ago (that’s also where he got engaged), and I called him from my mobile phone here in the states. But I did not call him directly — I tried out a new service from Gorilla Mobile, and I must say it was much cheaper than any other alternative I’ve tried.
Using my current Sprint phone, I dialed Gorilla’s access number, then the country code (353 for Ireland) and phone number where my brother was staying. There was no additional charge from Sprint since I was within my minutes, and Gorilla’s charges showed up right on my credit card.
Here’s how it works:
1. Sign up for Gorilla Mobile with your existing mobile phone number (they actually let you register up to 10 mobile phone numbers and 10 land line numbers).
2. When you’re ready to call, call Gorilla’s access number, and when prompted, enter the country code and phone number of the person you are calling.
3. That’s it. You’re connected.
What I like about this is that I do not have to memorize a PIN, and unlike most mobile services, there is no monthly fee. Gorilla charges an annual fee of $5.95, which I can deal with.
If anyone calls internationally from their cell phone, I highly recommend using a service like this. What about you – has anyone else used Gorilla?
The Las Vegas Review-Journal just launched a free mobile alert service for it’s readers. Subscribers to the service select which types of alerts they’d like to receive, and may unsubscribe at any time.
The topics include most everything you’d expect from a local newspaper, including the following:
Top News Story of the Day
Breaking News as it Happens
Stock Market Updates
Business News
Sports Updates
As with any text messaging service, the messages will count against your wireless plan with your carrier (Tip: ask your carrier about an unlimited text messaging option, as they are now becoming less expensive).
Seeing as it is Las Vegas, I wonder if they will add betting odds on major sporting events. There could be a need there…
About a month ago, we started giving away our new MobileMammoth t-shirts to new email subscribers to our RSS feed. We’ve had two lucky winners so far, and are about to give away a third (hint: subscribe soon after this post and you could be #3…).
By becoming an email subscriber to our RSS feed, you will receive all blog posts directly in your inbox.
To subscribe, enter your email address below, click subscribe, then confirm your subscription from the feedburner confirmation email. (With a little luck, you’ll be getting another email letting you know you’ve won a t-shirt!)
Today, February 9, is the last day to comment on our recent 
The Las Vegas Review-Journal just launched a free mobile alert service for it’s readers. Subscribers to the service select which types of alerts they’d like to receive, and may unsubscribe at any time.
