Phone Phun

Text messages are a handy way to communicate. Use just a few characters to pass along tons of meaning. Of course, to send an SMS message, you need to have a cell phone. And you need to have it with you. Right now. And depending on your service plan, it may cost you a bit to send that message along.

Txt2Day.com is a free service that addresses all of these issues. With this service, you can send a text message to just about any cell phone out there, but you don't need to use your phone–or pay your money–to make it happen. Go to their site, plug in the phone number and carrier of the phone you're sending to, enter your message, and send it. You don't need to sign up, so it's super easy to send your message.

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.

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.

So what's the weather going to be like today? Sunny or cloudy; windy or calm; cool or warm? You can ask the folks at The Weather Channel to keep you updated on the latest forecast.

All you need to do to get the current forecast is to text your ZIP Code or city name and two-letter state abbreviation to 42278 (4CAST), and they'll shoot back their 36-hour forecast for your area. That means, for example, that you'll get info for today, tonight, and tomorrow as well.

If you're interested in a longer-term commitment, you can also subscribe to their forecasts. This time you'll need to text SUB + FCST + your ZIP Code (something like SUB FCST 90028) to 42278. They'll get back to you everyday for a month, letting you know whether to bring an umbrella or sunscreen.

These Weather Channel forecasts are a free service. As they say on TV, standard text messaging rates apply.

The ability to send an SMS text message to a mobile phone is a rather helpful thing. If your message is short and you don't need a quick response, you can get the word out in short order and go about your business. That's all well and good if you happen to have your cell phone handy. If not, then it becomes much more challenging. Did you know that most cell phones can receive email as well? All of a sudden, your options have increased.

The only challenge here is that while it's easy to send a text message–you just send it to your recipient's phone number–where do you address the email? That's not nearly so obvious.

A recent post on MakeUseOf.com can help you with that. If you know your recipient's carrier and their cell number, you can send 'em a message. The site lists gateways for domestic use (major US carriers), as well as many foreign carriers. Your mileage may vary, of course, and undoubtedly your normal text messaging rates will apply.

Everybody's experience of pregnancy is different. Some folks just cruise through it, while others have to struggle each step of the way. Easy birth, difficult birth. And even the challenges of getting it all started can be tricky. If "doing what comes naturally" doesn't seem to cut it, you can improve your chances of becoming pregnant by paying attention to your ovulation cycle. There is a limited window each month where conception is more likely. If you want to improve your chances, you may want to sign up for free ovulation alerts from BabyCenter.

Just enter your cell phone number into the form on the BabyCenter's Booty Caller page, and you'll get text message reminders when you're at the point in your cycle where you're most likely to conceive. So now when your phone rings, you can tell everybody that you really need to take this call.

Booty Caller is a free service, but your standard text messaging rates will apply.

You're out running around and you find a new book / restaurant / movie, but you don't have a pen and paper to write it down. By the time you get home, you've forgotten what it was, and you know you'll never get it back. Too bad you didn't know about Kwiry.

Kwiry (pronounced "query") is a free service that helps you to remind yourself. Once you've got your free account set up, when you run across something of note, all you need to do is to send a text message to 59479 (k-w-i-r-y) and you're good. Kwiry will send your text to you via email, so the next time you're at your computer, your reminder will be there for you. No more lost opportunity.

Kwiry is a free service, but your standard text messaging rates will apply.

How did we all get along before "the Google?" As the repository of all knowledge—or at least the index to all the other repositories—it stands head-and-shoulders above the rest. As long as you're sitting at a computer, you have access to all the collected wisdom of the universe, give or take. If you're not parked in front of your computer, you're out of luck. Or at least you used to be.

Google Mobile is your portal into the Oracle of Google through your phone. Send your query via SMS text message to short code 466453 ("GOOGLE") and your answer will be texted right back to you. Find the nearest Chinese restaurant, see what time the movie you want to see if showing at the local multiplex, or check out the local weather forecast. At any time you can text "help" and get back a quick list of what to do.

Google Mobile is a free service, but as they say "regular text messaging rates apply".

Sometimes you need to get the word out, but don't want to have to spend all day doing so. Sure, you can set up mailing lists and hit everybody at once, but how about going the next step, and having your contacts receive automatic updates?

TextMarks lets you create and manage text alert lists. Pick a unique keyword, and tell TextMarks what you want it to tell people about. Then when people text your keyword to 41411—maybe "Suzy50BDay"—they will get a message back about when and where the big party is. With the option to have people subscribe to your keyword, you can push updates out to them—whenever you tweak the content for their keyword, they'll get the latest sent to them.

If you really want to get into it, they've got an API that will let you do more than just send messages—you can ping a server or grab a bus schedule—but that requires some programming on your part.

Going somewhere? Forgot to look up directions before you left home or the office? Too much of a "guy" to stop and ask directions? Maybe it's time to dial DIR-ECT-IONS.

To receive directions from where you are to where you want to be, just dial DIR-ECT-IONS (347-328-4667) from your mobile phone. Follow the voice prompts and speak your destination and starting point, and this free service will send back a text message with the directions necessary to complete your trip.

Dial Directions also knows about national and regional chain stores. Need to find the closest 7-Eleven? They can probably give you a hand.

If you're planning an event, you can even create an event entry, so that your guests can call and get directions on how to get to your wedding, party, or yard sale.

For more information, you can visit the Dial Directions website. It's a free service, but as they say, "standard text messaging rates apply."