Phone Phun

Got a birthday to remember? How about an important meeting? Sure, you can set reminders in Outlook or other apps on your computer, but that's no good to you if you aren't sitting in front of your machine. What would be great is to have those reminders come to you on the one piece of technology you are never without: your cell phone.

TextMemos.com is a free service that sends reminders to your wireless phone via SMS text message. Go to their site, sign up for a free account, and start reminding yourself. Birthdays, anniversaries, meetings–they're all fair game. And you can have reminders sent to your phone, or send them via email, or even have them posted to your Twitter account. No, you probably don't want "send a card to Mom" out there in front of the whole world, but you may have some other important "tweet' you want to have hit some time in the future.

While TextMemos.com is a free service, remember that you may incur charges for text messages that you receive, depending on your carrier.

We've all been touched by the scenes of the earthquake last week in Haiti. The devastation and carnage have been overwhelming; the stories of survivors plucked from the rubble even a week later are a testament to the tenacity of the human spirit.

For a two-week period, Google is offering free calls to Haiti via their Google Voice service. If you've got family or friends in the affected area, this is an opportunity to touch base with them and make sure everybody's okay.

As the relief effort ramps up, there are several agencies that are sending aid workers and relief supplies into the stricken area. As tempting as it might be to donate a blanket or a case of bottled water, what these folks really need is cash. You can donate online, via phone, and in some cases via text message to these or many other organizations:

Red Cross 1-800 RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767)
or text Haiti to 90999 to donate $10

CARE 1-800-521-CARE (1-800-521-2273)

UNICEF 1-800-4UNICEF (1-800-486-4233)

Save the Children 1-800-728-3843

The Salvation Army 1-800-SAL-ARMY (1-800-725-2769)
or text HAITI to 52000 to donate $10

Donations should be tax deductible (check with your tax professional for details). Standard text messaging rates apply to text donations (check with your carrier for more information).

What are those crazy kids talking about? While that's a question that parents and other adults have asked of the younger generation since cave-man days, there have never been so many opportunities for the jargon of the younger set to go totally over the heads of all the old fogies out there. Along with just plain old conversations, there are a wealth of other venues for confusion, including text messages, IM exchanges, even cute little emoticons. If you're not living on the cutting edge, then you probably need a bit of translation to understand what they're talking about.

transl8it! is a free online service that helps you bridge the gap between what you saw/heard/read and what it really means. Just enter the text message, phrase, or emoticon, click the transl8it! button, and you'll get the English-language equivalent of the cryptic message. It works the other way too: enter what you want to say and it's translated for you from English into lingo. Everybody will be impressed at how on top of things you are–the most excitement in your life since you got those white bucs for the prom!

All good things must come to an end. Whether it's a movie that's captured your attention, a job you love, or something else, you know the time will come when it's run its course and is done. The same is true for your mobile phone as well. No matter how much you love it, or how much it seems just a part of you, the day will come when it shuffles off this mortal coil and goes to its reward. So what do you plan to do with the leftovers? You know you can't just chuck it in the trash, without fouling your local landfill for the next ten thousand years. How about recycling it?

RecycleMyCellPhone.org is a project of Earthworks, an environmental protection group. Visit their site, print out a postage-paid mailing label, and send your old phone or PDA or pager (do they still have those?) in to them. You get a tax deduction and the knowledge that you've done your bit for the environment.

Do you suppose I could send them all the junk in my garage as well?

It seems like just about everybody is on Twitter. That's both good and bad: you can keep up with your favorite celebrities, but that also means that there are those poor souls who literally do just answer the question "What are you doing?" So how do you keep everybody up-to-date on your latest activities and opinions? Sure you can post on Twitter's site, or you can use a third-party tool to tweet. How about your phone?

TwitterFone is a service that lets you call up and speak your message. The magic TwitterFone machine takes your message and translates if from speech to text, and then posts it to Twitter for you. You can also listen to your Twitter stream as well.

TwitterFone is still under development, and is currently in beta. In order to join this service, you have to get an invitation from them. Submit your request on the site, and then just sit back and wait for the secret sign-up code to come your way. No decoder ring necessary.

While the sugar plums may not be dancing in their heads yet, your little ones certainly know that it's December and that the Big Day is getting closer. What better way to really get into the spirit of the season than receiving a phone call from the Right Jolly Old Elf?

The folks at Kroger have arranged for you to get a personalized call from Santa—or Sammy the Snowman, or even NASCAR driver Tony Stewart if you prefer. Visit their website, give them some basic info—child's name, phone number, time for the call—and then sit back and wait for the special moment.

There's no cost for the call, but you do have to sign up for an account with Kroger; hopefully if you un-check the appropriate boxes on the form you won't be inundated with grocery-spam. Also be aware that there is an ad at the end of the message. It follows several seconds of dead air, but you may want to make sure that you grab the phone back from little Billy or Susie before the sales pitch starts. Ho! Ho! Ho!

How busy are you? A little busy; crazy busy; so busy you don't have time to figure out just how busy you are…. So how do you stay on top of things? Spinning your wheels may be impressive, but it doesn't really accomplish anything.

Dial2Do can help you keep on top of your schedule, communications, and more, all from the convenience of your phone. Just sign up for a free account, and you'll get a number to call to access the system. Phone them up and you can set a reminder for yourself, "write" and send an email, or create a text message, among other things. With the email option, not only will they do the speech-to-text thing to get your message to your recipient, but they'll also include a link so that your contact can listen to your original voice recording, which might be important if your message is jargon-rich and includes a bunch of stuff their electronic brain might not recognize.

This free service is currently in Beta, which means that there are probably a few bugs still in there. That also means that you probably shouldn't rely on it for mission-critical stuff, like remembering your anniversary–yikes!

If you're hooked on the new Fox singing-and-dancing-and-teen-angst show Glee, then you may want to give 419-329-4868 a call. They've got a recorded message that changes weekly talking about all things Glee. Listen to cast members talk about the most recent episode, and hear what they've got in store for the future. It almost makes you want to go back to high school.

While there's no cost for the service itself, keep in mind that it's not a toll-free number, so long distance charges may apply.

Sun or rain? Hot or cold? You can always know the answer, even while you're on the go with Weather Watcher Mobile. Available in flavors that fit your PocketPC or Smartphone, this Windows Mobile app will keep you in the loop, weatherwise.

Drawing on the resources of The Weather Channel, this tool lets you grab current conditions, short- and long-term forecasts, and even severe weather alerts from The National Weather Service. Check out satellite- and radar maps for thousands of locations worldwide as well.

Weather Watcher Mobile is a free application. It runs under Windows Mobile 2003/5/6 and requires version 2 of the .NET Compact Framework.

If you've got friends or family overseas, you know it can cost you a pretty penny to phone them. Even with many of the low cost services available, there are hefty mobile phone surcharges–often more expensive than the actual call itself. C'mon, in this day and age there's got to be some way to beat the system on that, right?

Jaxtr has a service available that lets you make free international calls. You give the service your number and the number of the phone you're calling, and the adventure begins. These folks send an SMS text message to your recipient, giving them a local number–local to them–to call in to. Once they do that, you're automagically connected to them. Since they initiated the call (to the local Jaxtr number) on their end, there's no mobile phone surcharge for you.

This free service is available to you on your landline or cell phone. You don't even have to sign-up, although if you do, there are additional options available to you.