13 ways to use Google SMS

Google SMS is a service from Google you can access by sending a text message from your cellphone to GOOGL (46645). This service, currently available in Canada and the United States, allows you to retrieve information such as driving directions and movie showtimes from Google. You can use Google SMS to:

1. Get driving directions.
To get driving directions, simply text “start to destination”, for example “Washington to New York”. You can use a combination of addresses, cities, postal/zip codes and even airport codes in your query.

2. Search the web.
Text “G query” to have the first two search results of your query sent to you in a SMS.

3. Get business listing at your location.
Craving for some sushi but can’t find a place? Text “sushi” along with your location (city, zip code) for a listing of sushi restaurants in your area.

4. Ask simple questions.
You can send simple queries such as “toronto population” to Google SMS and it will answer you. Note that Google SMS is still in Beta and many of my queries were not answered correctly. For example, “earth population” and “world population” didn’t work for me.

5. Find word definitions.
Simply text “define word” to obtain a definition of ‘word’.

6. Perform calculations.
Text the calculation you’d like done such as “6+4*3″. Most cellphones come with a calculator nowadays but it’s still handy for more complex calculations.

7. Get movie showtimes.
You can receive various information such as movie showtimes, critics and theater listing by texting Google SMS. To get details on a movie, simply text “movie name”. To get showtimes and a listing of theater playing it near you, add the location to your query, for example “movie name New York”. To get a listing of the top movies, text “movie: location”, where ‘location’ is a city or a zip/postal code.

8. Perform translations.
Text “translate word to language” to have ‘word’ translated into ‘language’.

9. Convert currency.
Text the conversion such as “currency of Canada in US money”.

10. Lookup area codes.
To see which region an area code covers, send a SMS with the area code such as “604″.

11. Retrieve flights info.
Text your flight number to receive information such as arrival/departure time and flight status.

12. Retrieve stock quotes.
Send a SMS with “GOOG” to get Google’s latest stock quotes.

13. Get help.
You can always get help information on Google SMS from Google if you simply text “help”.

Google SMS is still in beta and far from perfect, but it has already proven very useful and it can only get better.

Ever since the iPhone’s been announced, fanatics of the brand have been making iPhone skins and themes for their favorite mobile devices. If you own a Motorola RAZR and would like a glimpse of what the iPhone user interface might look like, you can now download a user-made iPhone theme for the RAZR.

Apple is quite angry at people for making these themes though, so it is unknown how long the files will remain online.

Source: Motox via Gizmodo

If you need great-looking wallpapers for your cell phone, look no further. Start Mobile offers a great selection of wallpapers from independent artists at only $1.99 each.

From the ‘really really cute’ category to the ’sexy sexy’ category, you are sure to find something you like. The pictures are sent directly to your phone. The sad part: you’ll need a data plan to receive the pictures, and you also need a compatible handset.

Sorry Canadian folks, the service is only offered on AT&T, Cingular, Sprint and T-Mobile at the moment.

Via: ChipChick

Nokia’s Canadian website has been hacked for no apparent reasons. While the news itself not worth a lot of attention, the story’s already been Dugg.

The website first appears to have been hacked by some kid who left the following message: “Dr.Jr7 HEre,Get More Secure Next Time”. Using SQL injection, many people followed the original hacker’s lead and left various messages and disgusting pictures on the company’s website.

For the curious, here’s what the original hacked page looked like:

These hack attempts are usually very easy to trace, especially for a big corporation such as Nokia. A quick glance at the logs will reveal the hackers to the administrators.

You thought camera phones had an advantage over digital cameras because with them you could send pictures over cellular networks? Think again: the Samsung VLUU i70 digital camera will let you do just that.

The digital camera has built-in HSDPA support, meaning you can upload pictures to your computer from any locations and send text messages the same way you would with a cell phone. The Samsung VLUU i70 will also allow you to listen to digital music directly from the memory card.

As a digital camera, the Samsung VLUU i70 features a 7.2mp sensor supporting up to ISO 1600, a 3x digital zoom and built-in image stabilization. There is no word on pricing and availability outside Korea yet, but you can expect the 3G enabled camera to be a big hit.

Source: Electronista

We often hear people say how they want a cell phone to make phone calls. Not play games, take pictures and listen to music. Just make calls. Well, Samsung had a thought for these people: the Samsung SGH-C140.

This cellular phone is just that: a phone. No high tech gadget or other features you don’t want to pay for. The Samsung SGH-C140 is pretty cheap: about $57. Some of its features include a 128×128 color display, 3 hours of talk time and JAVA support. Sadly, it’s not yet available in North America.

I can see a lot of people who have basic needs for a cell phone buying this one. The Samsung SGH-C140 looks like a great entry-level phone, it is cheap and it fulfills all our basic cellular communication needs: SMS, EMS, MMS and… touch tone.

Source: Unwired View, via: Gizmodo

With the announcement of the touch-screen iPhone, it looks like every cell phone makers out there are announcing their very own touch-screen cell phone. Are keypads really a thing of the past? I, for one, dislike touch-screens for the following reasons:

1. Fingerprints

We get beautiful widescreen displays onto which we can watch full length movies, but a touch-screen is always dirty with fingerprints. Even if we use a stylus, eventually we’ll get lazy and press a few buttons with our fingers, especially if it’s to make a phone call.

2. Precision

Fingers are much less precise on a screen than on a keypad. With a keypad, we can actually feel the keys making their ‘click’ when we press them, and even with large fingers it’s usually easy to apply pressure on the right keys. On a touch-screen however, we have no tangible reference when pressing the keys. While the iPhone is supposed to come with a software to help correct typos, it will have to work like magic if we’re to type on an on-screen keyboard with our big fingers.

3. Large on-screen keyboard

On my touch-screen PDA, the on-screen keyboard takes about one third of the display. The keys are so small I can’t even dream of typing on the keyboard with my fingers. On touch-screen cell phones, the keyboard will probably take much more of the available display to make it easier to press the buttons, thus leaving us with only a small viewable area while using the keyboard.

4. Scratches

I carry my cell phone in my pockets a lot. Imagine if it were an iPhone? Without any kind of protection, the screen would get scratched by my spare change and keys a lot. Furthermore, unless they find a way to make the screen very robust, they’re going to get scratched by fingernails.

5. Stylus

Alright, the new touch-screen cell phones probably won’t require a stylus. Styluses are far more precise than fingers on a touch-screen though, but they are a hassle to carry - we always end up losing them. Steve Jobs was right in his keynote when he said styluses are a pain to carry around and to take out every time we want to dial a number. He’s doing the right thing making the iPhone operable without a stylus.

6. Look ‘ma, no … eyes?

Real keypads make it easy to dial without looking. With an on-screen keypad, we’ll have to keep both eyes on the screen while dialing.

7. Screen protectors

A cell phone is a device I want to carry in my pockets, leave under a pile of junk and lose somewhere in my car. The touch-screen looks like it would make the phone much less robust, and without a screen protector I would probably break it under a few months. The screen protector is also needed to help prevent scratches.

I don’t think touch-screens will ever replace the need for a good keypad. Apple’s new patented touch-screen technology called ‘multi-touch’ might be worth trying, but so far my experience with touch-screens has been average. I even bought a thumb-keyboard extension for my PDA because the on-screen keyboard and text recognition software were troublesome to use.

Jim Mendenhall of Starry Hope lists 10 reasons why he would pick a Nokia N800 instead of an Apple iPhone. It looks like he’s not believing the hype at all: the extra cost and lack of freedom of the iPhone is just not worth the small advantages it has over the N800.

From my point of view, his two most important points are:

The price: The Nokia N800 retails for $399 and it is currently available. The iPhone will be $599 with a 2-year contract from Cingular.

Software: The iPhone will most likely not be allowed to run third party applications. The N800 however is open source and Nokia encourages developers to write software for it.

On the negative side though, the N800 internet tablet requires a bluetooth connection to an actual cell phone with a data transfer plan if you want to browse the net away from a Wifi spot. It looks like a very affordable, full-featured internet tablet though.

Via: Darla Mack

So, you’re looking forward to the new iPhone but you don’t want to let your old cell phone rot on a shelf? Did you know you could donate old cell phones? They’ll be refurbished, you’ll contribute to saving the environment and maybe make someone who’s looking to buy a used cell phone happy.

The battery in your cellular phone contains many toxic agents that are very harmful to the environment. By recycling your old cell phone, you are preventing these agents from contaminating the soil.

If you want to donate old cell phones, the following organizations are dedicated to refurbishing them. They make a donation to charities for every cell phone you send them.

1. Charitable recycling
2. Collective Good
3. Wireless Recycling

Also, many cell phone carriers will actually give you a rebate for returning your old cell phone. Get in touch with them, you might be surprised.

Using a sugar cube, Instructables shows us how to remove unwanted logos from a cell phone. The idea behind it is to use a sugar cube to scratch off the stickers on the cell phone. The sugar should not leave a mark on plastic or metal. Process with the following steps at your own risk - in the worst case, you could damage or leave a scratch on your phone.

1. Place tape around the area you’re going to scratch. This is important because you don’t want sugar to get in the phone.
2. Scratch the sticker with a sugar cube until it has disappeared completely. Repeat until the cell phone looks clean.
3. Remove the tape and clean up the remaining sugar with a dry cloth.

If all went well, you will have a clean unbranded cell phone, with those pesky stickers from your carrier gone forever. Apparently, this trick will not work on some cell phone covers though - the sugar cube will leave a mark.