But what happens when you don’t have Internet access on your phone? Maybe you’re outside your home country and haven’t paid for roaming Internet access? Maybe in your home country, Internet access isn’t really affordable? Maybe you don’t have a smartphone? There’s plenty of reasons this situation might come up. How do you share the pictures then? Here’s where Snappr comes in. You can upload pictures to Twitter using Snappr and MMS on your phone.

What Is Snappr?

Essentially, Snappr is the bridge between your phone, Twitpic and Twitter. It allows you to send an MMS photo to Snappr, which then forwards it on to Twitpic for you. Twitpic then posts it on your Twitter account for you, getting that photo out there where people can see it pretty much instantly.

All this is done without the need for you to have a phone with Internet access, a Twitter application or even a smartphone. If you can send photo messages to people, Snappr will work. All you need to do is make sure you’re signed up with Twitpic and you’ve got the details for Snappr ready in your phone before you need them.

Set Up Twitpic

Sign up to Twitpic using your Twitter credentials then check out your Twitpic settings to find your secret email address for uploading photos.

Set Up Snappr

To set up Snappr all you need to do is have the MMS number in your phone – 84433. I’d personally advise that in the contact name you remind yourself of the format for sending messages to Snappr, which we’re about to go through.

Send Photos To Snappr

When you send your photo by MMS to Snappr using the phone number 84433, you need to add in the text of your message the word “PIC” followed by your Twitpic secret email address. If you remind yourself of this in the contact information for Snappr it will make your life easier.

Once the MMS photo message has been sent to Snappr with the correct information they will forward it on to Twitpic and it will be in your Twitter updates in no time.

What Else Could You Use?

Well, obviously, if you’ve got Internet access or the ability to send email from your phone there are numerous other ways to do this. But this method could come in handy at times, so it’s worth having it ready.

If you’re interested in tools for low-tech phones or Twitter generally, have a read of these articles:

• How To Twitter From A Low-Tech Cell Phone
• 2 Really Simple Ways To Send Audio Tweets To Twitter
• How To Set Up Email On A Basic Cell Phone
• How To Make Your Mobile Phone Smarter With SMS/MMS

Have you set up Snappr yet? You may as well have it ready just in case! When could you have really used something like this in the past?

Of course, those other tasks sometimes need to take priority. Texting while driving can be dangerous, and texting at work is often frowned upon, particularly at businesses where most employees interact directly with customers. Fortunately, the Auto SMS app for Android makes texting possible even when you’re not available.

Auto Reply

Arguably the app’s most popular feature, Auto Reply is the first option on the Auto SMS menu. What separates Auto SMS from most autoreply apps is the use of profiles. Each individual profile contains specific autoreply settings, and can be turned on or off whenever you’d like.

Let’s say you’re unable to text while driving or at work. When you hop in your car you could turn on your driving profile, which is active for an hour (the length of your commute) and informs those who text you that you’re driving and can’t respond.

Once you arrive at work, however, you can switch to your work profile. It lasts eight hours and gives those who text you a work number where you can be reached in case of an emergency. Not everyone should have your work number however, so you should restrict this text message to those who are in your contacts.

The use of profiles is what makes Auto SMS better than most other autoreply apps, which usually require that users input a new reply every time the autoreply is set and often have less tools for determining who does and doesn’t receive your automated reply.

Scheduling & Instant Texts

Sending replies is great, but also obviously reactive. If no one texts you, they’ll receive nothing in return. That works if you only need to let friends know why you’re out of touch, but what if you need to remind your roommate that rent is due today?

Scheduling makes that possible. Using Auto SMS it’s possible to input a specific text message and schedule it to be sent at any time you’d like. The message can be sent once or at set intervals (hourly, daily, weekly, etc) and even better, it’s possible to limit the recurrence to a specific number of repetitions.

What if you know you need to send a text, but don’t know exactly when? Don’t worry – this app still has you covered. The instant feature lets you input texts that can be sent to a specific contact just by touching send. Auto SMS saves the texts as well, so they can be sent more than once.

Read It Aloud

One final tool that may be of interest is Reader. This is a text-to-speech feature that can be turned on or off at will. Once turned on, the app will automatically cut in and read the incoming texts aloud, even if you are using a third-party SMS messaging app.

As with the other features of Auto SMS, scheduling options are available, making it possible to turn on text-to-speech only at pre-determined times. This is of course helpful when driving, since you’ll be able to receive messages without taking your eyes off the road.

Conclusion

Auto SMS provides a boatload of functionality and can make texting possible even when you’re not available to receive or send messages. Better still, the app is easy to learn thanks to an interface that’s straightforward and has clearly labeled features.

This app is available for free with ad support. A paid version without ads and a text backup feature is available for $1.92. You’ll need Android 2.1 or newer to run this app, and the app is known to be incompatible with most task killers.

Let us know in the comments how you like Auto SMS or if you prefer an alternative app.  Do you think apps like these are useful?

However, not everyone is keen on the idea of a third party having access to his or her financial information. I certainly didn’t have any problems connecting my bank account to Mint, but when I would tell family members or friends that there were budgeting and financial organizing apps like Mint that could make their lives so much easier, not all of them were convinced for the same reason.

If you’re wishing for a similar application that won’t ask you to connect your bank accounts, there are many tools available, including the open source GnuCash, HomeBank, Grisbi, etc.

If you’re on the go quite a bit, the above tools will be a bit harder to keep up with. What you might need is an always-available service that you can take with you, like SMS on your phone, regardless of whether it is a regular feature phone or the latest and top-of-the-line smartphone. Chext is a free service (standard messaging rates from your carrier still apply) that won’t ask you to connect to your bank account online so you don’t have to worry about giving unauthorized users access to your financial information.

Let’s find out what makes Chext stand out. Please note that Chext works on any text-enabled phone in the U.S. and Canada only.

Record Cash/Card Transactions with a Simple Text

When you first sign up with Chext on its website, you’ll be asked for your mobile number. You’ll get a welcome text asking you to set a starting balance.

A simple text with “+500 starting balance” will get you started. After that, you can add more transactions to your account with minus and plus signs to indicate whether to subtract or add to your balance. If you just send an amount without a sign, by default, Chext will subtract the amount from your balance.

Like a lot of banks that have mobile apps or can give you your balance by SMS, Chext will also return you the balance every time you update your account. Chext, however, will also let you record any form of transaction, whether it’s a card or cash transaction, the last of which, I know at least my bank, Bank of America (one of the largest in the US), doesn’t do, as it only records information of the credit card or checking account you have with them.

Chext Helps You Plan Ahead & “Predict The Future”

WIth Chext’s calendar, you can record future transactions, such as bills and rent, and know when your balance might be low or over-drafted, a smart feature that makes Chext quite invaluable for anyone who’s ever over-drafted.

The calendar also helps you jog your memory and plan ahead for how much you might want to spend on the following day or week if you want to stick to a budget. You can also get a quick overview of your spending habits in a simple and user-friendly grid. Chext looks minimalistic but has some very useful organizational features.

Share Budget Details with Spouse

If you share a bank account with your spouse, Chext allows you to keep him or her updated on the current balance. Simply text Chext with “invite <phone number>” and that number’s owner will be able to receive a SMS every time you update the balance and vice versa, so everyone stays updated in real-time when the other person makes a transaction. To cancel the invitation, text Chext with “revoke <phone number>”.

Here’s a video that details how a couple’s using Chext to keep each other updated and plan ahead.

Chext – Rebecca and Tom’s Story from Chext on Vimeo.

Something I wish Chext would have is the ability to receive MMS, so that users can add pictures of receipts. If you’re looking for more SMS-centric apps, also check out TextHog.

What do you use to record your transactions? Let us know in the comments!

The only problem is the price. On most carriers, text messaging is a bit of a racket. Each message is literally no more than a few kilobytes in size, yet the price for 500 texts per month is often $15 or more. If you have a data plan however, Kakaotalk can make sure you never pay for texts again.

Leveraging The Internet

Part of the reason given for the expensive pricing of text messaging is the method used to communicate them. Rather than using the mobile broadband connection available on most smartphones, text messages utilize the same cellular network used for calls. This means there’s wider coverage, but there’s also less bandwidth, and that’s used to justify (accurately or not) the high prices.

A way to side-step this is to use mobile broadband instead, and that’s exactly what Kakaotalk does. In essence it operates like an instant messenger on a computer. So long as you have an Internet connection on your phone, you have free SMS texting.

Identical To SMS – Almost

What makes Kakaotalk a particularly nice solution to the problem of text messaging charges is the way it works. Although you can effectively do the same thing with other apps, such as imo.im, many of those apps give the definite “feel” of being a PC-like instant messenger with a mobile interface.

Kakaotalk, however, replicates the SMS interface on a typical smartphone. Conversations appear in the Chats tab of the interface, which appears very similar to the conversations tab of most Android SMS apps. The flow of the messages is the same, with user images appearing next to text bubbles, and the app triggers a notification sound and a message preview whenever you receive a new text.

In addition to texting, you can accomplish everything that would be provided by MMS. This includes pictures, video and audio clips. Indeed, the quality of multimedia sent via Kakaotalk will likely be higher, since MMS often cuts down the quality of media being transferred.

It’s also possible to invite multiple people to a text conversation, which I find can be handy in work situations where multiple people need to communicate, but can’t make a call because the work environment is either too quiet or too noisy.

Friends Lists – The Disadvantage

The only real problem with Kakaotalk is the fact that, since it is an online instant messenger, you can only communicate with others who are using this app and only so long as you have access to mobile broadband.

This means that your contacts list doesn’t automatically appear. Although the app will make some attempt to locate contacts already using it, that feature seems to require more polish. This app won’t be able to help you much if you’re trying to text grandma for free – unless grandma is comfortable enough with her smartphone to download and install Kakaotalk, then load it up and add you as a friend.

Conclusion

I’ve found Kakaotalk to be endlessly useful. I only subscribe to the base 250 text message plan on my carrier. While the fact that both you and the person you’re using need to install this app seems like a pain, it’s actually not. I find that 95% of my texts are sent to only a few specific people, so once we all agreed to install Kakaotalk, we saved a lot of money by using this free SMS texting system.

Kakaotalk is available for Android and iPhone. It can also be used with the iPad and iPod Touch, but you’ll need to verify your account with a phone number capable of receiving SMS messages.

If you’re looking for more options, however, you’ll need a third-party SMS app. Fortunately, there are several great alternatives to the stock messaging app available, and best of all, they’re free.

chompSMS

If you’re looking for a simple, quick SMS app that can replace the default app, chompSMS may be your best bet. This app in default form comes bare-bones, lacking even the portraits of the people you’re texting (the app does fully support this, but it’s not turned on by default). The result is a quick SMS experience that should work well on most Android phones.

Some of chompSMS’s most interesting features include support for sending SMS via what is called “SMS credits” which can be purchased through the app. This makes it possible to buy additional text messaging beyond what your carrier’s plan allows. The app also has integrated support for a service called TextFreak, which sends texts using your data plan instead of counting them against your plan’s text message allotment.

My main gripe with chompSMS is the very obvious ad support. While I have nothing against developers getting paid, it is rather distracting considering the nature of the app. I also would like to see security via PIN – right now, it only offers security via a touch pattern.

chompSMS requires Android 1.5 or newer.

Go SMS Pro

Despite the Pro name, which usually indicates a paid app, Go SMS Pro is entirely free and is one of the best looking SMS apps available anywhere. This is thanks to clear, easy to use theming support that is paired with customization that offers a live preview (this feature is also found on chompSMS and Handcent, to be fair). While you can trick out the other apps here, Go SMS Pro is the one I found easiest to customize. Within a few minutes I had downloaded a cool theme that looks great.

There’s plenty of features to be found here, including a message scheduler, a Facebook chat plugin and security via both PIN and pattern input. I also found the ability to swipe between different messaging screens – the folders, messages and plugins sections – refreshing. Why don’t more SMS apps do this?

Clarity is the only problem I found with Go SMS Pro. The interface buttons at the bottom aren’t self-explanatory and a bit small. The menu options are also clunky and confusing. These issues are minor, however – overall, Go SMS Pro is a good choice.

Go SMS Pro requires Android 1.6 or newer.

Handcent SMS

I’ve saved what is, in my opinion, the best for last. That’s not to say everyone will prefer Handcent, but it is the SMS app I’ve chosen to use on my own Android phone.

The interface of Handcent provides an excellent compromise between beauty and simplicity. Although the basic theme is based off the iPhone, it’s not exactly identical, and it does a good job of walking the line between performance and functionality. The menu options, when displayed, are sensible and easy to navigate. There are interface buttons on the messaging menu, but I found them more intuitive, and they’re slightly larger which makes them easier to use.

Handcent also has a lot of features including built-in skins, security via PIN or pattern, and a great message scheduler. In addition to this, it’s possible to access “Handcent services” – special features including e-cards, group SMS and an online inbox to which you can save messages.

Handcent requires Android 1.5 or newer.

Conclusion

All of these SMS apps are quite popular and will serve users well. Generally speaking, I’ve found them to be better than the default apps that come with most Android phones. As usual, feel free to weigh in if you have a favorite app that’s not listed here!

I recently came across another group messaging app, HighNote, that takes this concept and adds one key component to it – multimedia. HighNote is a unique service currently available for the iPhone/iTouch, iPad, and Android devices that allows you to share music, video, pictures, voice recordings, and whatever else you can find on your phone.

What Is HighNote?

HighNote aspires to bring people closer together by providing them a new, more social way to message with each other.

HighNote seeks to fix the problem with SMS, which is that even though it’s extremely popular, it’s not really flexible when it comes to social interactions. Social networks, on the other hand, lack some of the immediacy desired when connecting with friends, which could only be accomplished with a tool like SMS.

HighNote was created to fill that gap. It is designed for social communications among your close circles of friends, like the ones you might find on your phone’s contact list. You would ideally use HighNote when you require more richness than SMS can offer without foregoing the immediacy and intimacy that social networks struggle with.

What do the social communications you have with your close friends revolve around? The ability to share and rate music, videos, and pictures, organize meetups, send greeting cards, and share locations. HighNote’s goal is to make your social life easier to manage.

Here’s a video demo that further illustrates what HighNote is and who it’s for:

What Are Some Of HighNote’s features?

HighNote lets you send free media-enhanced messages to other HighNote users around the world. You can add personality to your messages with video, music, audio, pics, maps, custom buttons, and iTunes.

HighNotes can be sent to any of your friends, even if they don’t have the app installed. They will simply receive an SMS or email with a web link to view your message.

There are over 20 customizable greetings like “Check this out” or “Congrats”, and you have the ability to change the alignment, color, style, and size of your text. And don’t worry, there are lots of emoticons for you to make use of, too.

The app also has a comprehensive Quick Reply section and a feature called Pulse, that lets users opt into quizzes and such.

Conclusion

As of now, HighNote is available on iOS and Android devices, with plans to support Symbian, BlackBerry, and Windows 7 phones in the near future. If you’re looking to get HighNote for your iPhone, iTouch, or iPad, you can pick it up at the App Store. Android device users can go to HighNote’s homepage to download the app.

From looking at this group messaging app, it is clearly geared at the teen audience, but the capabilities it has are quite amazing. I’m really interested in seeing how companies like this will continue to try to increase the capabilities of messaging on our phones, as well as what will become popular and what won’t. It’s pretty difficult to break the texting habits of a young adult, which I’m sure is partially why HighNote is trying to get in the hands of the young crowd who are just learning the joys of SMS.

What do you think of HighNote?

Thus, I’ve decided to share this simple tip about setting apart a bit of time to sign up with a service that automates SMS weather updates every morning so that people unfamiliar with these services can save themselves some time and repeated legwork.

The following services send you weather alerts every morning for free but your mobile carrier might charge you for the text message service so just make sure you’ve got something like an unlimited messaging plan before you proceed. If you prefer, you can also opt to have the weather alerts sent to your email inbox using two of the three services below, but the idea here is to have you check the device you probably already check in the mornings for the time anyway and get the alert at the same time.

The Weather Channel

Being a trusted source of latest weather information in the US, the Weather Channel offers on-demand weather information, as well as scheduled alerts via SMS text messaging. You have to follow the simple signup instructions on the official page, which involve texting “SUB FCST [your zip code here]” to either 42278 or 78676. You can also sign up on that page, which requires an email address, and customize the type of alert you want to receive.  You can basically get all sorts of goodies delivered to your SMS inbox every morning, information raging from daily forecast, current conditions, pollen information to snow and rain alerts. Just make sure you uncheck the box asking you whether or not you wish to receive affiliate offers from weather.com’s partners.

After you create an account, you’ll be able to modify the time you want the alerts to be sent. Alerts are initially set to be sent to both your email inbox as well as your SMS inbox, which could be unnecessary, but you can easily uncheck either one to avoid flooding it when you are logged into your account.

ChaCha ThmbSavrs

ChaCha is actually a search engine that you can text with a question, which will be answered by human guides in a few seconds. In addition to providing answers, ChaCha also offers a variety of on-demand information, such as jokes, quotes, funny questions asked at ChaCha, horoscopes, and you guessed it, weather forecasts. You basically text the same number that you use to ask ChaCha questions, but you use a special abbreviation known as a thumbsaver (or thmbsavr) for the information you want, which will be recognized by ChaCha. You can see all thumb-saving codes here.

You can set up favorites for weather alerts, or any thumbsaver information that you want on a daily basis. Just text “fav 7:00am W 02459″ if you want your weather alerts for area with zip code 02459 at 7am every morning. Note that this service is ad-supported so if you do sign up with setting up favs with ChaCha, you’ll get short ads (sometimes with tempting offers or sweepstakes) at the end of the forecast text message. This is the service that I’ve been using for several months, and I must say, the ads aren’t really that obtrusive, plus the service can be a lot of fun and helpful at times, especially when you have a quick question and you have no access to Google.

Umbrella Today?

Umbrella Today’s website is a minimalistic and ad-free web app designed to deliver rain information fast. It doubles up as a alert service that provides SMS and email notices when your city’s forecast shows possible showers. Unlike The Weather Channel that asks you to sign up, Umbrella Today offers you to pick from several delivery choices. All you have to do is choose a service, either email or SMS, for which you’d need to confirm by checking your inbox and providing the secret word back at the website. For iPhone users, there’s also an iPhone app for $1.99 that lets you get push alerts.

You can find the site’s easy of use and no-frills feel in similar sites, GoingToRain, which detects your browser’s location and displays you a simple yes or no for rain, and DoINeedAnUmbrella, which asks you for the zip code before quickly showing you a yes or no, again for whether or not you should bother taking your umbrella with you.

Remember you can opt out from any of these services by either sending STOP to the service’s special number or by visiting the website.

How do you check the weather every morning?

Image credit: Manuel Holgado