“Must Have” Cell Phone Tools
Posted on June 12th, 2008 by Aaron Daniels
I think at the heart of any professional position is an element of project management. And the hallmark of an effective project manager is organization. The New York Times recently ran an article about some of the new cell phone services that are available. These services really add convenience and organization to a busy professionals life. I consider these “must have” tools for anyone with a cell phone, and the one thing they all have in common is that they are FREE:
- GOOG-411 (800-GOOG-411) – Why pay $1 – $2 per call to your cell carrier to get information from 411? Google’s new information line works the same as 411 (for business lookups only) for free.
- Cha Cha (800-2CHACHA) or text 242242- I found out about Cha Cha through Twitter about a month ago and have been in awe of the service ever since. You can ask literally ANY question and the folks at Cha Cha will conduct research and text you an answer within minutes. So far I’ve used Cha Cha to find new restaurants, figure out what local channel the ball game will be on and keep up with the plot line of my favorite television show when I miss an episode. It’s like having a REALLY smart friend at your beck-and-call to answer all your questions.
- Jott (866-JOTT123) – After calling Jot, the service will ask 1. who you want to Jott, and 2. what you want to Jott. Within minutes text of whatever you’ve “Jotted” (recorded with the service) will be emailed to whoever you “Jotted” it to, along with a voice recording and an SMS text message. This service is great if you are in the field and want to record important notes or reminders to yourself for reference later, or if you need to have a text or email sent out immediately but can’t because you are driving. Jott also allows you to create distribution lists for messages you create through the service.
- REQALL (888-9REQALL) – REQALL has a similar function to Jott, but is a reminder system only. Messages you create will be sent to you on the specified time/date via text, email or messenger. While I don’t think REQALL is as robust as Jott, it does have a Firefox add-on which I really appreciate.
Make sure you visit the sites for each service as some require a free account to be activated in order to work properly.
Brett from Dial Directions here. I wanted to throw in another service targeted at mobile phones for getting driving directions. Just call 1-DIR-ECT-IONS (1-347-328-4667) from any cell phone, speak your start and destination address or intersection, and receive by text message turn-by-turn driving directions. Super easy, and the service is free. Only your carrier charges for talk and SMS may apply.