Google recently announced it’s Voice Actions app for the Android platform. (If you have an Android phone, and you drive, please continue reading…)
Using Voice Actions, users can send email and text messages, call contacts, surf the web, get directions, create a note to self, and even listen to music simply by speaking the commands into your Android 2.2 (Froyo) powered phone.
Of course, no Google app release is complete without a video from one of their engineers:
Google Voice Actions will come pre-installed on the Verizon/Motorola Droid 2 phone, and other phones running Android 2.2 can download it from Android Market.
Sending out tweets to your Twitter followers can be tough to do when you’re not near an Internet connection. One solution to this dilemma is to send tweets from your mobile phone by text message.
Let’s take a look at how to add your phone to your Twitter account:
Text the word ‘Start’ to your country’s Twitter code. In the U.S., the code is 40404. Canada is 21212, the UK is 86444, and India is 53000.
After receiving the text message response from Twitter, reply with your Twitter username (nothing else – just your username!).
You will then be prompted (again, via text message) to reply with your Twitter password. So do it.
Finally, text ‘OK’ as a final response, and you’re done!
You can now send Tweets by simply texting your message to the same Twitter short code you used above. No special words or characters are needed – your text message will be published as your Tweet.
Happy Tweeting!
(by the way, if you’re not following us yet, what are you waiting for? Please follow us here!)
Sending text messages to help those in need is so easy. Here are a few ways you can spend the next 30 seconds to help those impacted by the Gulf oil spill.
*** Note: Reference to Gulf Aid text message campaign removed until further notice ***
Text WILDLIFE to 20222 to donate $10 to help protect the wildlife in proximity to the oil spill. Donations go to the National Wildlife Foundation.
Please note standard text messaging rates do apply.
Feel free to comment if you know of any others ways to help!
Our free text message tool has been sending text messages all over the US and India for quite a while now. It’s always nice to get feedback from people that show how much they appreciate something you built. Here are the latest messages we received just last month.
Dolores from Connecticut wrote:
“I just used your service a 2nd time. Thank you!! I had been having difficulty texting Nextel from their site (and Verizon, my carrier) — can only get texts through with your site. Thanks so much!! AGAIN!!”
Kate from Seattle wrote:
“This service has been more than helpful during the recent loss of my phone. I could conact home to tell my mom I was alive and reach co-workers and friends as needed. Thank, I am very impressed and will rcommend to my friends.”
Catherine from Australia wrote:
“Please make your service available to Australia, with providers such as Optus, Virgin, and 3! Thankyou !!”
And this one just came in today:
Patricia wrote:
“We have a loved one in the Digicel network. Do you think you might be covering that soon? It’s all of the Carribean area.”
Looks like we have more work to do.
We do get negative, yet very entertaining emails from time to time as well, and we’ll save those for another post. Thank you Delores, Kate, Catherine, Patricia, and everyone else that has provided feedback on our free text message tool.
If you have not tried it yet, go send a text message for free right now, then let us know what you think. Happy texting!
It’s always interesting to learn about innovative new mobile apps, and we have one for you today. Apparently, folks in Columbus, Ohio often find their cars towed if they happen to be parked on the wrong street when the street sweepers come along. Enter AntiTow.
AntiTow is a free* SMS service that alerts you when the street sweepers are scheduled to be in your area. During street-sweeping season, which is typically April through October, hundreds of cars get tagged for towing each month. To help people avoid those costly fees is a huge benefit.
This is a simple, but useful way to solve a problem for many. That’s just what we like to see here at MobileMammoth.
I bet many of you can think of similar services that you could start for your area. Let’s hear them!
If somehow that does not convince you, let me tell you about the man behind Alltop, Guy Kawasaki. I first saw Guy speak at the Cyberposium at Harvard Business School in 1998. As the keynote speaker, Guy spoke with such passion and purpose, he instilled an enormous amount of energy and excitement in that room. The guy is such an entertaining and motivating speaker, and those that know Guy understand that if he launches something, it’s going to be good, and it’s going to be big.
Think of Alltop is an online magazine rack that’s much easier to browse. Scan the latest headlines from the best sites in almost any category you could think of. If you’re like us, you’ll check out the mobile section.
If you have not yet discovered the mobile donation service that’s taking the socially conscious world of non-profits by storm, keep reading.
mGive provides a simple service that allows organizations to accept mobile donations via text message. Simply put, users text the organization’s keyword to a shortcode, and just like that, the donation (typically of $5) is made.
Benefits of mGive Service:
Users donate within 10 seconds
Organizations collect donations without credit cards or cash
Donations are charged to users cell phone bill
Opportunity to raise money from over 250m cell phone users
The one charity that I will always contribute to whenever I can is St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Simply put, they do amazing things for kids that really need it. St. Jude has an mGive campaign going — test it out:
Text “STJUDE” to “90999″ to give $5
I love finding creative mobile services that are on their way to making a huge difference, and mGive is clearly one of them.
Since then, folks have specifically asked for options on how to get the results sent via text message (SMS). That same day, the good folks at The New York Times notified us of their own election coverage available on The New York Times mobile website.
So, here is yet another way to get today’s election results no matter where you are:
By SMS:
Text NEWSALERTS to 698698 for national election results, or text ELECTIONS followed by your zip code (e.g., ELECTIONS 90210) to 698698 for state-specific updates.
That’s right. The most often talked about iPhone feature, visual voicemail, is now available for any Windows Mobile phone. But that’s just the beginning.
Dashwire has created an application for Windows Mobile phones that lets you manage your phone’s content (address book, text messages, photos, videos, etc.) from an online dashboard. This tool can be extremely useful for backing up your address book and other mobile content before switching wireless carriers.
The app is currently available on Windows Mobile 5.0 and 6.0, and rumor has it they are working on versions for the Blackberry and Symbian Series 60 devices as well.
Dashwire has received several awards for their innovative service, and you can check out their video here:
I’ve already heard from many folks that Dashwire has had a huge impact on how they use their phone, and I’m looking forward to using it myself.
If you have not yet discovered the mobile donation service that’s taking the socially conscious world of non-profits by storm, keep reading.
