Phone Phun

A regularly updated recording of fishing conditions at Lake Erie can be reached at 419-625-3187. (Thanks to an anonymous reader for submitting this one.)

The free directory assistance service 800-411-METRO is dead, but 877-520-FIND is a new free service for finding businesses. No live operators, but the voice recognition system is easy to understand, and understood me perfectly. There are no ads, and you can enter a ZIP code rather than saying the city to get more precice local results, you even can dial the name of the business instead of speaking it (if you don't want everyone around you to know your business.) After listing up to 8 businesses, it can connect to you to your choice, without you having to hang up and dial the number directly.

Frucall is a free, telephone-based service that helps you find the best online prices and rating information for any product based on its UPC barcode number. When you're out shopping and are wondering if a product on the shelves is available for less online, you can call Frucall at 1-888-DO-FRUCALL. Dial the product’s barcode number: the system will search major online merchants for the best online prices for that exact item and read them to you over the phone.

When I called and requested the price for a book, Frucall recited the range of new and used prices which included estimated shipping costs. The computer voice said: "New prices range from $19 to $50.50. Not available used. Price at Alibris is $19. Price at Amazon.com is $20…" You can opt to receive the price info as a text message, hear brief product reviews, and bookmark the item for later.

Although I found the computer voice difficult to understand at times — I sometimes couldn't decipher the names of the online stores that it spoke — this is a darn useful service for price comparison when you're in a brick-and-mortar store.

In addition, you can register at Frucall's web site, which enables SMS reminders, group messaging, and additional features.

Tip: when you are dialing the barcode number for Frucall, be sure to dial the single digits that may appear off to the left and right sides of the barcode.

The United States federal government has a new phone number that's a one-stop shop for all manner of information. 1-800-FED-INFO (that’s 1-800-333-4636) delivers information about passports and visas, government funding, federal jobs, social security, document authentication, medicare, taxes, identity theft, and other topics. The detailed recorded information may answer your question, and human operators are available during business hours to assist you if needed. If you can't find the information you need in the federal government's web portal, firstgov.gov, FED-INFO might be helpful.

Have you ever been somewhere, anywhere, wanting to know something and wishing that you had access to the Internet to look it up? (Recently I was in an electronics store eyeing a camera, wondering if I could get a better deal at Amazon. . .) Internet Search Pro is a free service that can bridge that gap.

Just call 1-888-ISP-FOR-U (1-888-477-3678) and you'll be connected to a human Internet researcher: ask her your question and she'll look it up online. According to the company, you can ask them to look up phone numbers, movie schedules, song lyrics, recipes, etc.

When I called asking for the price of an camcorder at Amazon, the researcher (with a thick Indian accent) put me on hold for a minute then came back with the correct price. She even offered to read the reviews of that camcorder.

But when I asked how they can offer a free service like this, with a toll-free telephone number, she couldn't answer that. "I'm not supposed to say. We are beta testing the service right now."

The Dial-A-Buoy services gives boaters an easy way to find out about local sea conditions via telephone. Dial-A-Buoy provides wind and wave measurements, updated hourly, from the National Data Bouy Center and Coastal-Marine Automated Network (C-MAN) stations. Dial-A-Buoy also can read the latest NWS marine forecast for most station locations. Know your location (in latitude and longitude) before you call.

To access Dial-A-Buoy, dial (228) 688-1948 using any touch tone or cell phone. For more information, visit the Dial-A-Bouy web page.

"What is the weather in Las Vegas?" "Will it rain tomorrow in San Jose, California" "How windy is it in Chicago?" "Are there any weather alerts?" You can ask any of these questions, and more, to Jupiter, a voice-operated computer that knows about the weather around the world.

The system is a research project at the MIT Computer Schience and Artificial Intelligence Lab. It has been running since 1997 and has fielded more than 100,000 calls.

To call Jupiter toll-free, dial (888) 573-TALK (that's (888) 573-8255.) From outside North America, the number is (617) 258-0300.

Phone numbers that tell you the time are nothing new, but if you really want to know the exact time, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) are the folks to call, at (303) 499-7111 (located in Colorado) or (808) 335-4363 (Hawaii). The time announced on these numbers are calibrated to NIST's atomic clock, and are normally delayed by less than 30 milliseconds when calling from land lines in the continental United States. According to NIST, the Colorado number receives more than one million calls a year; the one in Hawaii more than 50,000.

411 Metro (at 1-800-411-METRO) offers free directory assistance for businesses and residences in the U.S. My calls to 411 Metro have been handled by friendly and smart live operators. It's advertising-supported — I just had to hear a short (maybe 5 second) ad. We've covered another free directory assistance service in the past, but it's nice to have a choice. Personally, I like 411 Metro a bit more than Free411 due to the live operators.

Tell Me at (800) 555-TELL delivers all sorts of useful information rolled up into a nifty voice-recognition system. Say "news center" for business or sports news, "weather" for your local weather and forecast, or "entertainment" for soap opera updates, horoscopes, and a blackjack game. The service is particularly useful for a quick fix of regional information such as movie times and traffic reports. The call is free, and the amount of advertising is minimal.