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Here is Part 2 of the Top 10 Super-Cool Cell Phone Tips & Tricks from www.cellphones.ca.

Get Maps and Directions: Check out Google’s mobile website. Their mobile maps have much of the same functionality as their full desktop version, including zoom, satellite or street views, and the ability to plug in two locations and receive step by step directions.

How to let someone down gently: The Rejection Hotline is a fun number to give out if you don’t feel like sharing your digits. 703.912.1725 brings you to a very funny recorded message.

Photo Fun: If you are running on a GSM network, and 70% of the world is, then you can have lots of fun with short codes and pictures. Snap a picture of yourself, type <ANIM> in the subject line and send it to short code: 7799. You will receive back a photo that will morph your picture into an animal. Very cool.

No Service, no problem: Use 112 for emergency dialing, even if you are out of range or if your phone is locked.

Organize: If you like any of these tips, load them into your cell phone’s address book so they will always be handy. For example, I use the Google short code 46645 all the time, so I created a contact, labled it “Google” and for the phone number I just typed in the short code 46645. Now I can send a message to that “contact” any time I need to locate a post office, pizza, etc. I also have a contact labled “Free 411?, which I use anytime I need operator assistance.

These are some great features and really cool tricks.  Be sure to check them out, good luck and have fun!

(Original Article:  http://www.cellphones.ca/news/post002817/)

Check back to the site each week for new posts and tips and tricks.  Subscribe to the RSS Feed by adding your email address in the Top Right corner of the blog.  Have a great week.

www.saveoncellphones.ca

The following Top 10 list will help you get more out of your cell phone. Enjoy! 

(Part 1 this week, Part 2 next week!)

Learn “How To” check in for your Canadian Flights directly from your cell phone!

If you have a flight in Canada and you are looking for a great way to both expedite your check in process as well as save some paper, this blog entry is for you.  For the past 18 months both West Jet and Air Canada have been offering “Mobile Check-in” for their Canadian Domestic flights.

This means that from your mobile phone you can login to mobile versions of their site and check in for your flight along with getting an E-Boarding pass emailed directly to your phone.  This means that if you are a busy business traveller and you don’t have time to get to a printer before you cab to the airport you can save the wait in line by checking in from your phone.

These paper-less boarding passes are great for on the go travellers that are looking for ways to avoid the lines when they are arriving late from a meeting.  Here are the respective websites that you will need to access from your mobile device or PDA:

Air Canada: http://mobile.aircanada.com

(AC Demo Video: http://www.aircanada.com/en/travelinfo/traveller/mobile/mci.html)

West Jet: http://mobile.westjet.com

(WJ Demo Site: http://c5dsp.westjet.com/guest/webcheckin/mobileTour.jsp)

(Many US and Eurpean Airlines have Mobile Check In as well.  However, they appear to only be for domestic flights at this time and not for any cross boarder international flights. FYI)

“Introduction of the mobile boarding pass is a key element in Air Canada’s initiatives to use the most recent and secure mobile and 2-D barcode technologies to simplify our customers’ travel experience,” said Lise Fournel, Senior Vice President E-Commerce and CIO. “In addition to the simplification of travel and business processes made possible by the replacement of paper with electronic documents, we’re particularly excited about the expanded application of 2-D barcode technology that gives our employees better tools to serve our customers more efficiently.”
(http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/September2007/21/c3273.html)

I would suggest that you save some time and check out the above links from your mobile phone and save some time at the airport on your next flight.  Enjoy your time and be sure to come back to the blog soon.

Here is a great tip for any of you travellers to the USA.  The carriers in Canada are starting to catch on to our work and travel patterns and are falling into suit offering data add-ons that help to eliminate the typical roaming charges that come from visiting the USA. 

As an example Rogers announced a $10 Data Roaming Add-on this year which helps their subscribers save money when travelling to the states.  You can add this feature on to your phone for one month or more and it provides significant cost savings for your DATA usage.  Without the package you would be paying $6/MB, on top of your current data package. With the$10 add-on you only pay $1/MB in additional roaming charges. 

NOTE: With 1MB you can send/receive 514 emails (text only) from a BlackBerry® Bold™ or send/receive 341 Instant Messages from regular consumer phone.

So if you are travelling to the USA and you expect to be using more than 2MB of Data (2MB x $6 = $12) then the $10 add on makes sense to utilize.  Add this on before your trip and you will realize the cost savings on your next bill.

For more information on this offer from Rogers visit their website at: 

http://www.rogers.com/web/content/wireless-network/wn_usdataroaming 

For more information on Travel Add-ons offerred by Rogers visit:

http://www.rogers.com/web/content/wireless-network/wn_travelphone.

I will be writing about offers from Telus and Bell in the weeks to come.  In the meantime feel free to visit their websites with more information on their US Data Roaming Plans.

Learn How To Text Message from Email

Keeping with the Topic of Text Messages and SMS, here is a cool and quick way to again text message your friends for FREE! In last weeks post I wrote about going to a carrier’s website and sending a text message to one of your friends.  In this article I will explain how you can email your friends a text message directly from your laptop (or Mobile Phone).

Every phone has an email address attached to it that you can send a message to.  Sending a message to the phone’s email address sends an email to the carrier essentially saying, “this is a text message could you convert it from this email format and text it to my friend’s phone?”  This is very similar to sending a text message from the carrier’s website. You input the message and they send it to the subscriber’s phone for you.

So the next question is how do you do it.  Essentially all you need to do is determine you friend’s phone’s email address.  Again, we are going to need to know what carrier they are on and we also need their phone number.  All you have to do is email the message to the corresponding email address.

For example:        7805551234@pcs.rogers.com

Above the email address has the person’s phone number (780)555-1234 at (@) the carrier’s corresponding web address (pcs.rogers.com).  All that you require is to know the carrier end for the email address.  Here are some of the common addresses for the Canadian carriers and some of the US ones.  If you are looking for international carriers do a search on Google for Email to Text and the carrier name and you should be able to find the corresponding address.

CANADIAN CARRIERS:

Telus:
@msg.telus.com

Fido:
@fido.ca

Bell Mobility (Canada):
@txt.bell.ca

Bell Atlantic:
@message.bam.com

Rogers Wireless:
@pcs.rogers.com

US CARRIERS:

Verizon Wireless:
@vtext.com

Cingular Wireless:
@cingularme.com

AT&T PCS:
@mobile.att.net

Sprint PCS:
@messaging.sprintpcs.com

T-Mobile:
@tmomail.net

Cellular One:
@mobile.celloneusa.com

Comcast:
@comcastpcs.textmsg.com

REMEMBER: Text messages are typically only 140-160 characters long.  Keep your message short and simple so you don’t crowd up their cell phone screen with text.

If you are still having trouble figuring out how to Text to Email you can view this video which gives you a great overview of how the process works.  Happy Texting and enjoy saving money.