The only downside with this is that you have to be sitting in front of a computer, unless of course you have one of those hi-tech phones with internet capabilities.

So where are these free SMS services hiding? We’ll expose them now. Here are 10 great sites to send free text messages to cell phones (SMS).

Yakedi

If you are anywhere but in Australia, unfortunately this service will not work for you. But if you are, Yakedi is absolutely the BEST free site to send SMS messages to Australian and New Zealand users. I have been using this site for years now. When I first joined, they offered unlimited free SMS messages. Unfortunately, they reduced it down to 10, now it is a steady 3 per day.

Pros

• You get the full 160 character for each SMS you send
• The messages come from your phone number and not someone else’s
• You have a contact list so you can select contacts
• Their is no advertisements in SMS messages. However, you do have the otion to include advertisements in your messages
• Since I have been using this service, they have not sent spam to my mobile phone, or to the people I send the text messages to
• The website has a nice, clean, professional design
• Ads are chosen based on surveys of your interest, so you know the ads are targeted towards you
• Ads are from known corporations (could be a pro or a con)
• All messages are kept in your message log so you can keep track of what you have sent (and how much money you have saved)
• You have the ability to earn more free text messages through competitions and email promotions
• You can change your mobile number anytime
• SMS messages take roughly 5 seconds to receive

Cons

• This service can only send SMS messages to Australian and New Zealand numbers
• By default, you can only send 3 SMS messages per day, unless you have won more from promotions
• They are starting to introduce email promotion = a little bit of spam in your inbox (1-2 a month)
• There is a four step process to send your SMS. (1. Send SMS, 2. select recipient, 3. Write text message, 4. Confirm message)

Final Say

If you live in Australia and New Zealand, this is the best site for you to send free text messages to cell phones on a daily basis.

GizmoSMS

The good thing about GizmoSMS is that you can send free text messages to any number world-wide. You do not even have to sign up or have a mobile phone number. It is just a web-based form. But without signing up, the mobile number it is from will not be yours and you only get 80 characters.

GizmoSMS is great if you want to send a message or a note to someone who may be overseas. It is quick and easy. If you want a bit more features, you should have a look at Gizmo5 SMS.

SMS Pup

A friend referred me to this program, however, it is not as good as Yakedi as you will see why in the pros and cons.

Pros

• Contains an phone book
• Messages come from your number
• SMS messages take roughly 5 seconds to receive
• Contains a number of other services
• You can schedule your SMS messages
• Provides a number of ways to send free text messages to cell phones such as through the web, email and allows you to turn English text into SMS slang

Con’s

• You have to do a one minute survey before you can start using the service, which gives you 5 free sms messages
• SMS may contain ads
• If your email has a ‘.’ in it, it won’t allow you to sign up
• You only get 136 characters, which means the rest are advertisements (Free sms message by SMSPup.com)
• Unless you want your email inbox to increase, with surveys and advertisments, don’t sign up with an email address you regularly use.

Final Say

Unless you want to do surveys all the time, SPSPup is OK. It still can’t beat Yakedi.

SMSFun

SMSFun not only allows you to send free SMS messages but you also join part of a community. You have access to forums, User Profiles and Useful Tools such as number lookups.

Pros

• You can send SMS messages from email
• Allows you to look up premium numbers to see what they are
• A community based service, which allows profiles
• Has premium SMS services
• If you need more SMS messages, you can upgrade to a Gold Subscription for $2 per week which allows you access to more features on the website

Con’s

• A lot of ads, and a few raunchy user pictures
• Signup process is a bit lengthy
• Have to earn free SMS messages
• You may want to stay away from Premium SMS services that SMSFun offers

Final Say

If you just want to send free SMS messages without all the other features that SMS fun offers, then I would go with Yakedi or SMSPup. Nevertheless, if you want to join part of a community, fill out surveys and earn free text messages that way, you can’t go past this website.

Text4Free

Text4Free allows you to send free SMS messages to most countries world-wide. The only downside is that you may have to know your recipient’s cell phone provider, otherwise recipients may be charged.

A Few Others

Web2msg – You do not need to register and you get 140 characters. This service is only for Australian users,  but it is a quick and free way to send a free text message to a mate.

SendSMSNow – You can send a free SMS to selected countries only. Registration is now free.

FreebieSMS – You need to register your number and your friends number and email address to be able to send a free SMS message.

Mobik – I have not had any experience with them.   Maybe you have and you can tell us a bit about them?

Clickatell

If you want to set up your own SMS website service, then you should have a look at Clickatell. They allow you to develop and integrate your own SMS service on your website. If that is not your thing, you can download a desktop application to send cheap SMS messages world-wide.

If you want to send cheap SMS messages using your computer, it is best to use Clickatell. Any problems, just send them an email, as they have 24/7 online help.

A word of caution

As with any website, please read their terms and conditions, and Privacy Policy before entering any personal information. Remember that these sites make their money by advertisements and possibly selling your personal information to third parties. What I suggest is to buy a $2 SIM card to try them out first, just in case they do spam your mobile number, or steal some credit. When testing these services, I have not had these issues yet.

So make sure you read these pages first before using these services:

Yakedi : T&C, Privacy Policy

SMSPup: T&C, Privacy Policy

SMS Fun: T&C, Privacy Policy

Do you use a website to send free text messages to cell phones? If you do, please share in the comments. If you have used such a service, and it has been a scam, please also let us know and our readers.

Image Credit : Sifter

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This is a fact. There is no way around it, my short term memory is shot – plain and simple!

So, services like remindd (love that name!) are made for people like me! I set reminders in my calendar, I tape post its to my mirror – anything I can do, I do! Except for tying a string around my finger, that only makes me wonder what the string is for!

Now, when I want to remember something, I browse on over to remindd which I found from the MakeUseOf Directory.

You need to sign up, which you can do simply on the homepage.

Once you are logged in, you will see that you have no reminders – that’s not too big of a shock, I hope!

I clicked on the Add a new reminder and typed in a very important thing that I must not forget. I then selected the date and time the event is supposed to occur. You select the date from the calendar and use the drop-down menu to select the time.

Once your reminder is done, hit the Create New Reminder button. That will finalize your reminder. Now, I am sure you are wondering how the hell they are going to text you without your mobile number. Well, that is because we have not set it yet. Without your mobile phone number, the application can only send email messages reminders to you.

So next, I clicked on the settings button on the right hand side of the screen and scrolled down. You will see an option to input your mobile number there. Fill it out and hit the Confirm number button.

As soon as you hit that button, a text message will be sent to your phone. You need to reply it with the word YES. That’s it, you are ready to get reminders on your phone now. Wasn’t that easy and pain free?

Editor’s note: The SMS reminder services only work in the US.

If you like this article, maybe you’d like to know two more ways of setting reminders with email: TimeMachiner and “I Want Sandy”.

Do you have a favorite reminder service? If you do, share them with us in the comments!

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But if your email intake is moderate or if you tend to be away from the computer a lot when important emails arrive then this might be just the very thing for you. GSN SMS Notifier is basically a small free application that allows you to get email alerts on mobile via SMS. It sits on your computer and monitors your inbox for incoming emails. When one arrives, it sends a SMS to your mobile phone, notifying you of the sender, the subject and the first one to two lines of the email.

What’s very useful about it is that it is not confined to just checking desktop POP3 inboxes. It also checks online Gmail accounts too. So when I was testing this, I had it monitor my Gmail account. It also sends SMS messages to any phone anywhere in the world. It sends the messages through either ICQ (free of charge) or through Skype (with Skype credit). You have to have one of these apps installed on your computer and if it’s Skype, you need to have enough credit on your Skype account (it costs the same as sending a normal SMS message in your country).

So, let’s set it up.

Once you’ve installed it, let’s dive into the configuration section.

The first thing you need to specify is the length of time GSN should check your account and the mobile phone number it should send SMS notifications to. When noting down the mobile phone number, remember the international dialling code

You also need to specify who should send your SMS’s – ICQ or Skype. But remember, the chosen app needs to be installed on your computer.

Next up, specify what email account it should check. You can choose between an online Gmail account or a desktop POP3 account. Then enter your account details. You can also specify labels it should check instead of the actual inbox.

I left the rules one alone so the last one for me was the SMS template. I also left this one alone but you might want to fiddle with this one if you want to customise what the SMS message says.

Then close the box. It will then ask you if you want to save the changes. Say yes and everything will save. The app will minimise to the taskbar and that’s you ready to go.

So when an email hits my inbox (a fake email that I sent to a dummy test account), the SMS arrives at my mobile phone :

If you have internet access enabled on your phone (such as the iPhone, Blackberry or Windows Mobile), you can, if you want, go to your inbox straight away to see the full text of the email. Otherwise, the SMS would just serve as a confirmation that an email has definately arrived from a certain person and you would have to read it later when you returned to your computer.

It’s good for me because I have a Gmail account but for those who don’t have Gmail accounts, it kind of sucks a bit. It would be nice if the developer would extend this service to other email services such as Yahoo and Hotmail. Also, I’m trying to think if there are any other reliable SMS providers other than ICQ and Skype to try and cut down on SMS costs that I could suggest to the developer – any ideas?

What do you think of this service? Would you use it? Can you think of possible useful uses for it? What are the pros and cons of using it in your opinion? Any other good email sms notifier apps? Let us know what you think in the comments!

There were also a couple of relevant posts on MakeUseof earlier:

- How To Setup Gmail SMS Alerts For Urgent Emails
- How To Send Email To Any Cell Phone

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

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Setup

Signing up for an account is painless and only takes a second. Just put in your name, number, username and email, and you’ve got an account. Once you have your login information, you will need to fill out your “business card.”

As you can see, it’s very easy to set up your digital business card. You have 140 characters to provide as much information about yourself as possible. If you are familiar with Twitter, putting all your information in a simple 140 characters will be extremely simple and easy. I did find that my title and company weren’t coming through in the text message, but they could easily be placed within the body of the text message.

How it Works

In order to send out your card, you just need to get someone to text your username to 50500.  My username is KyleJ, so if you want to see it in action, just text KyleJ to 50500.  You also have the option to receive a text when someone has requested your business card.  This is a great way to remember who got your business card after a long night on the town.

If you are at a conference (for example) and someone asks for your card, you can also send your digital business card to their phone.   Just ask for their mobile number (in this example, it will be “3034759204″) then text from your phone, send 3034759204 to 50500 .   The other person will then get your card details on their phone.   The other advantage is doing it this way is that you will now be on their mobile phone contact list.

Your Profile

This is one area where Contxts is a little lacking. There are options to fill out your information for other social networks, but they don’t appear on your digital card or on your site profile. This may just be due to Contxts being in alpha, but it is a feature that I would really like to see.

There is also a section for adding contacts. This would be a great feature, as I see this digital business card idea taking off, especially in very technical circles and areas of the country. It would be great to keep all of your technical contacts together on this website. However, this feature is still under construction.

Conclusion

Contxts is a great service as is. It is extremely easy to use and gets the job done when you don’t have one of the old business cards lying around. However, the lack of other services makes me a little sad, but it’s only because I see the potential there. I really think everyone should go out and make their own digital card. It’ll come in handy one day. I just know it.

Do you agree? Is this a service you see yourself using? Or can nothing replace the good old cardboard business cards? Maybe online digital cards are the way of the future and SMS cards are just a fad? Let us know what you think in the comments.

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The whole thing is fairly simple. I am pretty sure some of you have been using it already.

First you need to get free email to SMS gateway for your mobile carrier. If you didn’t get it last time you can easily do so now. The page lists email-to-sms gateways for 10 major US carrier and lots of international ones.

Once you have the email for your mobile number (say 1234567890@tmomail.net), simply login to your Gmail account and go straight to Settings -> Filters tab. Now, there are two ways to use this.

1- Get SMS Alerts for Emails from Specific Addresses

The first way is to setup SMS alerts for emails coming from certain people or places that you consider important. These can be emails from your employer, bank, hosting provider, site uptime tracker etc.

Create new filter and enter the email address for which you want to receive SMS alert.

In the next step, setup a Forward rule to your free email-to-sms number.

Click on “Create Filter” and you’re done. Next time you receive email from that address you’ll also get SMS message with about first 150 characters of the email. As simple as that.

2- Get SMS For Urgent Emails If You’re Away

Say you’re on holiday and don’t want to be bugged with regular work related emails. However at the same time you want to make sure that when it’s something really urgent people can reach you.

Here is what you can do. First create an auto-responder message (see in Setting -> General) that looks something like the one below.

Then go to ‘Filters’ tab and setup a forward filter for it. As you can see, in the above auto-responder message I provided sender with option to reach me by simply emailing me again using “urgent” in the subject line.

As soon as email hits my inbox I get texted to my mobile.

Are you using anything similar to that right now? Share with us in comments.

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With notifu you can send messages to individuals or groups, see if they were received, track who all responded and eventually use the replies to make decisions as a group just like a poll system.

Notifu allows you to send messages through email, SMS, phone and IM networks such as AIM, Gtalk, ICQ, MSN and Yahoo.

The interface is simple, clean and yet stylish. You can send messages as a registered user or an unregistered user (that way you won’t have access to your contacts and stored messages). Click on Send Messages, fill in the details, click send and off goes your message on its way through the path you chose for the delivery.

The “To Field” uses a special syntax to learn about the mode of delivery. Just type in:

NameOfContact <Keyword: AppropriateInformationDependingOnTheModeChosen>

So for example, if you would like to send a SMS to Bruce Wayne at +1-123-456-7890 you would type in “Bruce Wayne <sms:+1-123-456-7890>” in the To Field. Other Mode keywords available are: email, yahoo, icq, msn, gtalk and ph (for voice messages). Of course you would have to follow them up with the appropriate information like phone number in case of ph and gtalk id in case of gtalk.

Notifu offers single address (for individuals), Distribution Address (for groups) as well as escalating addresses. While single and distribution addresses are pretty straight forward, an escalating address lets you specify multiple ways of contacting the same person. All these ways will then be tried one after another until a successful delivery.

Another bit of detail that you can specify while sending a message are the response choices. Response Choices offer the recipients a set of responses with which they can quickly reply back to you. These are also excellent for conducting a poll in a group to reach a consensus.

As people reply to your sent message the poll count starts to accumulate irrespective of the fact whether the reply came from a cell phone or a IM application.

Notifu is great for group of friends trying to choose a place to meet as well as for the serious worker conveying a meeting re-schedule.

Have a go, test it, let us know how you like it. I personally like the interface and a widgety look to the whole scene and I also like that an OpenSocial application is currently under development. That would really spice up things by mixing notifu with social networks.

They mention it should work outside the US and Canada.  However I had problems with the SMS and voice messages.  Let us know your experience with notifu in the comments.

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It’s done using Twitter’s direct messaging system. Depending on how busy your regular Twitter account is, you may want to set up a secondary account for your SMS’s but I personally just use my normal account. Plus since everything is done through direct messaging, none of the SMS’s are ever made public and appear on the Twitter public timeline. So your privacy is assured.

One disclaimer though – how much the SMS costs you depends on where you are in the world. Twitter maintains three phone numbers for people to phone in their Tweets and depending on where you are in the world, you’re supposed to use the nearest Twitter phone number. I am in Germany so I use the British Twitter number. American Twitter users can use the American number and so on. So you need to look at the Twitter phone number list and decide which number you’re going to use, depending on where you are, geographically. So the cheapness or expensiveness of each SMS will vary, person to person. You’ll need to do the math. But if you’re in say the US and you’re sending SMS’s to Australia, you’ll save money. If you’re in France and you want to send SMS’s to Brazil, you’ll save money. But if you’re in South Africa and you want to send a SMS to Japan, well maybe you won’t save anything because of the location of the Twitter phone numbers, you know what I’m saying? So this method that I will outline today will probably only benefit US, Canadian and European Make Use Of readers, not everyone.

Here are the phone numbers :

40404 – United States
21212 – Canada
+44 7624 801423 – United Kingdom and all other countries

OK, onto the set-up.

First, in your Twitter account, go to settings and under “devices”, enter your mobile phone number. VERY IMPORTANT – make sure that the device is set to “direct messages”, otherwise this won’t work!

Next make sure the person you want to send SMS messages to also has a Twitter account and that they also have their mobile number in the settings with direct messages enabled.

I also recommend that neither you or your SMS recipient have the “sleep” function in the Devices section enabled otherwise if you send SMS’s during those hours, they will not be received!

Next, make sure that you and your SMS recipient are following one another on Twitter and that device updates are on.

OK, that’s the set-up. Now it’s probably best to try one or two test SMS’s with your friend to see if it works. Here’s how it goes -

Say you’re out and about in the city, working and going from meeting to meeting. Your friend’s username on Twitter is “applepie” (first thing I could think of!) and you want to send him a SMS to say that you will be late getting home to call him. Just type into your phone :

d applepie will b late getting home. Will call u ASAP.

Now the “d applepie” part makes it a direct message to his Twitter username. The rest is his message. But because he has configured his account for all direct messages to be sent to his phone, he will now get the message sent to him by SMS. When I tested it, the message arrived on my phone within seconds.

Plus as I’ve pointed out before, because it’s a direct message, it’s all private and no-one else will see it.

If you’re in the habit of making lots of international SMS’s, doing it via Twitter direct messages could end up saving you a lot of money in the long term. Plus if you’re not willing to give out your mobile phone number to strangers, why not set up a Twitter account, enable your mobile number on it and tell people to SMS you through Twitter instead? This gives you a layer of protection in case “Jeffrey from accounting” decides he wants to start some kinky texting with you and your tastes don’t go in that direction. You can easily pull the plug when Jeff boy gets the chains and whips out!

(By) Mark O’Neill is a blogger, professional freelance writer and the editor of Make Use Of. Check out his personal blog at BetterThanTherapy.net

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TreasureMyText is actually very simple and straight-forward to use. You make an account and then it gives you a standard rate phone number depending on where you are in the world (being in Germany, I was allocated a UK number). You then put that number in your phone and when you want to store a SMS with them, you just forward the SMS to that number and literally seconds later, that SMS pops up in your account with them (just like an email popping up in your inbox). You can then go online to see it there and if you like, you can receive an email notification too. It’s absurdly easy. You can then delete the SMS from your phone.

How much does it cost? Only the cost of the SMS message to send it to your storage box at TreasureMyText. Nothing more. If your contract comes with free SMS package and the number you get from TreasureMyText is a local one (US, UK, Canada and Netherlands) then it will cost you absolutely nothing.

The storage box is organised just like an email inbox too. You have a sent, received and trash folder and you can also make new folders and drag SMS messages into them. So you can make folders for each person that texts you and drop their messages into their personal folder.

But TreasureMyText is a lot more than just a storage service. You can also send messages (you buy credit first using Paypal). When the recipient receives your SMS, it shows as having come from your phone so replies will go right back to your phone again.

TreasureMyText also has the beginnings of a social network about it. If family and friends sign up for the service, you can connect them to your account and if they have pictures on their profiles, their pictures will be connected to their SMS messages.

There’s even an iPhone app available. All in all, TreasureMyText is a web service to watch for the future and if you’re a heavy SMS sender and receiver, this is a service you should be definately looking at for storing your messages long term.

You may also want to take a look at ZYB which among things also includes free SMS backup/storage solution, previously mentioned in the Make Use Of directory and mobile backup tools.

(By) Mark O’Neill is a blogger and professional freelance writer. Check out his blog at BetterThanTherapy.net

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There is a plug-in available for Pidgin called gSMS which will notify you by mobile phone SMS when someone tries to contact you by Pidgin and you don’t respond within a specified time frame. This would be useful if you had to step away from your desk but you were expecting an important message. By configuring this plug-in, you can be told by SMS that the person left a message and you can get back in touch with them as soon as possible.

It’s nothing fancy though. The SMS, which is sent via Google Calendar, doesn’t give you the actual text of the message. Just the name of the contact and the date / time the message was sent to you. If multiple contacts leave messages, they will be all bundled together and sent to you in one SMS.

There are four things you need to make this work :

• Pidgin installed on your computer (obviously)
• A Google account (with SMS reminders enabled on Google Calendar).
• Your mobile phone network needs to be supported by Google.
• Your PC synched with NTP (Network Time Protocol). Don’t panic. All this involves is right-clicking on your clock in the Windows system-tray, choose the option to alter your clock settings. Then choose the “internet time” tab and press the button to synchronize your computer time. That’s it.

So first download the plug-in and place the “gsms.dll” file in the Pidgin plugins folder on your PC. Then go to Pidgin itself, to your “tools” menu then “plugins” and activate the plugin.

Once activated, highlight the plugin with your mouse and press “configure plugin” at the bottom. This opens up the settings.

Enter your Google account address associated with your Google calendar along with the password to access that account. The timeout option is how long you want gSMS to wait until it bundles up all the messages to send them to you by SMS. 15 minutes is the default and sounds just about right. If you have a busy Pidgin, you don’t want to be bombarded with messages if you decide to pop out to the bathroom for 5 minutes!

The calendar option should just be left as /private/full.

As long as the plug-in is activated, all unanswered Pidgin messages will now prompt gSMS to send you a SMS to notify you that the messages have arrived. It may annoy some people eventually prompting them to turn it off but others, who rely on Pidgin to keep in contact with important business clients, may find gSMS invaluable.

(By) Mark O’Neill is a blogger, writer and English tutor. Check out his blog at BetterThanTherapy.net

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(1) Mobical – Simple and straightforward over-the-air mobile backup and restore service to automatically backup mobile address book, calendar, settings, bookmarks and notes online. Mobical supports pretty much all modern handsets and can be accessed from any web-enabled device. You can edit contacts, add appointments, and save notes online and it will sync added changes with your handset. Similarly, all on-phone edits will be synced with the web copy. Simple and convenient.

More details @ Mobical: Backup Mobile Contacts and Calendar

(2) Bloove – Online mobile contact manager and backup tool. Edit address book contacts, add speed dial settings, make calls, and send SMS messages rite from your browser. Any changes made on the web are automatically synchronized with your mobile and vice versa. Supports only Nokia and Sony Ericsson phones. It’s also quite low on data usage and consumes only about 20 Kbytes per hour in idle mode.

More details @ Bloove: Contact Manager for Your Mobile

(3) ZYB – ZYB provides an easy way to backup and synchronize your mobile phone’s contacts, pictures, text messages and calendar events online. Unlike the above two, ZYB is a mobile networking platform that allows you to connect with friends, share pictures, exchange free messages, and follow-up on updates rite from mobile.

More details @ ZYB : BackUp Your Mobile Online

(4) Anywr – Anywr is a web-based contact manager and calendar that offers free contacts and calendar backup functionality. Plus you can use to import contacts from your Yahoo Mail, Hotmail, and Gmail accounts and sync them with your phone’s address book. For fulll feature list check out Anywr review on MUO directory.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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Google has been really stepping up their efforts in making many of their products usable from the mobile phone. Whether you’re using a regular cell, an iPhone, or even a SmartPhone, Google has you covered. So here at MakeUseOf.com, we’ve summarized all the Google Mobile services here in this comprehensive list.

Search
Get a fast answer to what you’re looking for. Sports, Flights, Images, Weather…its all there. Even local listings have quick responses to your queries. You can even create a little iGoogle start page for quick access to your favorite headlines, updates, stock quotes and other feeds from various websites.
Just visit Google Mobile from your phone at: http://m.google.com

SMS
Add GOOGLE to your contacts and use the mobile number 466453 (that’s Google on your number pad). Send a quick SMS to that contact with the text “help” for a instant response of the preferred way to text Google. Tips for Google Mobile SMS:

• Local: blockbuster <zipcode>
• Weather: w <zipcode>
• Movies: m <zipcode>
• Flights: aa 1234
• Sports: score dallas cowboys
• Definitions: d ozone
• Products: price ipod or price
• Calculator: 123*8
• Driving Directions: to ex. tulsa,ok to dallas, tx

I use this service a ton. With the quick access to data by simply texting GOOGLE, I’m forever in “the know.”

Want more? Yes that’s right, theres more! Visit the SMS help page to find all the available queries that Google will respond to. (I’ve included a list of most of them…see below)

Maps

Google’s mapping has come a long way. Their most recent version includes the new “My Location” whereby Google can find you you can find where you are without GPS. Google’s claim is that “you’ll never get lost again.” That might be a slightly lofty goal for some, but this release of their mapping software is leaps and bounds better than before. It’s available for most web-enabled mobile phones, including Java, Windows Mobile, Palm, and Nokia/Symbian devices. If you still need more coaxing to get started with Google Mobile Maps, take it for a test drive.

Gmail
Gmail for mobile devices is simply amazing. It’s lightning fast, works well, and even allows you to view common attachments (ex. photos, PDF files, Microsoft Office products, etc.). Most of the readers visiting this site I’m sure know about Gmail. As far as I’m concerned, it is the single greatest web app in the world. Google really showed what they were capable of and millions of accounts have proved their success in this endeavor.

YouTube
You can check out the best YouTube has to offer right from your mobile device, including YouTube’s Featured Videos, Most Views, Recently Added, and more. Just point your mobile device’s browser to: m.youtube.com.
Uploading clips from your phone has never been easier either. All you need is a mobile profile tied to your YouTube account and you’re in business.

Even if you find a great video you’d like to share with friends, they’ve got that covered too. You can easily send videos from your phone to your friends.

Google 411
This one’s easy. Google’s answer to National 411 service. Just dial 1-800-GOOG-411 and follow the voice prompts. You’ll quickly find the business you’re looking for and Google will even connect your call for free! You can then even just say “text message” and Google will text you a map to the location they found for you. Oh how convenient. For more details go to previously posted Get FREE 411 Directory Assistance with GOOG411

Google Calendar
With Google Calendar’s web access, you can view your Calendar from anywhere. Browse any day to see all your events. You can even add events as you think of them by typing out the details and simply pressing “Add now”. Google Calendar will automagically add it to your calendar. Not only that, but these events are always in sync. As long as you’re signed in to Google, they will show up wherever you may roam and find yourself looking at your calendar. Just point your mobile browser to Google Mobile, then click the Calendar link and you’ll be all set.

Google News
With Google News you can easily search for the latest news headlines right from your phone. You can even set your own personalized news to show the stories you’d most like to see. Google also includes thumbnails of images included in these news articles linked to the original article. Point your mobile browser to mobile.google.com to find the latest news articles and begin your journey with Google Mobile.

Picasa Mobile
If you use Picasa, you can easily browse through your latest photo album’s pictures and view any images stored on Picasa Web Albums. Just for you, Google resizes them to fit on your devices screen. With their built-in search functionality, you can find and download any photo you’ve posted online as well as find other Picasa friends and explore their photos too. Travel out to PicasaWeb’s Mobile site to start browsing pictures.

Google Reader
If you’re a user of Google’s Feed Reader application, they’ve thought of you when producing their mobile site for it. You can easily access your favorite feeds right from the phone. If you’re stuck in the doctors office waiting or other realms of boredom, kill time reading your feeds. They always stay up to date. On your phone, browse to Mobile Reader.

Google Notebook
Google’s Notebook has saved me a ton of work. The easy to use interface works perfectly for creating little notes complete with links to websites to view etc… Well, now Google’s added that to their repertoire of great mobile apps too. You can quickly jot down little notes that are synchronized to your Google account for looking at later. Or say maybe you keep your grocery list on Notebook but forgot to print it to take with you to the store. No problem, just grab your phone and browse to Google Mobile, click on the Notebook icon and pull up your grocery list. There it is in all its glory. Now, don’t forget the milk!

Google Docs
Finally, there is Google Docs. Google Docs Mobile (docs.google.com/m) is optimised for use on a smaller handheld screen and shows a list of recent documents and document folders from your Google Docs account. Supports word processing, spreadsheet and presentation documents. At the moment, you can only view, not edit, documents.

iPhone
If you’re an iPhone geek, you’ve no doubt already found your very own Google page. If not, just point your Safari mobile browser to Google.com and it will format for you. How nice of Google.

Do you use Google on your mobile phone? Have something to add? Let us know…

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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Jott

Probably the best reminder service that can be accessed from any US phone. You simply dial-in JOTT number (1-866-JOTT-123), and as you speak it records your message and sends it over to your email address as text. Messages can be sent to yourself or anyone else.

Highlights include:

• Record and assign messages to different categories (expenses, reminders, ToDos, Work, etc.).
• Communicate with teams and delegate tasks to groups of people.
• Access Jott from multiple phone numbers (Call 1-866-JOTT-123).
• and more …

Check it out in action in the video below

PingMe

PingMe is a mixture between online calendar and task manager with a bunch of useful email alert features. PingMe reminders (aka Pings) can be scheduled from your web account and delivered via email or text message. There are a number of different alert settings you can select from, i.e. option to make alerts recurring (daily, weekly, etc.) or set them to ‘pester’ mode where you will be bugged every 10 minutes until you respond to it (stop, postpone for 2 hours, etc.).

Read more: PingMe – eMail and SMS Reminder

WakerUpper | CallTheFuture – Two really simple services to schedule one time calls, such as wake-up calls, event reminders, etc. No registration required.

LetterMeLater

LetterMeLater brings reminder scheduling to your inbox. Send scheduled emails and set them to be delivered to any desired future date straight from your email window (Outlook, Gmail, …). You can send scheduled emails to yourself or any other email address. If you spend most of the time in front of your email program this is definitely a must-have. Check out full feature list: LetterMeLater – Email Scheduler.

HassleMe

This one lets you set alerts for things you want to be constantly reminded about, ’stop procrastinating’, ‘get back to work’ and so on. The cool part about HassleMe, it emails you at rather random intervals so you never know when to expect it.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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1 UnwiredBuyer – Receive last minute eBay notifications and place bids directly from your mobile. Definitely a must-have for every eBay junkie. (US and Canada). Video Demo.

2. Soonr – Need to access your PC directly from the handset? Enter Soonr, a free mobile client that brings remote PC access to your phone: search files, view documents, check emails, run programs and more. US only. Video Demo.

3. Mosio – How old is Yoda? What was Einstein’s IQ? … and for all other questions simply send SMS to Mosio and get a quick reply shortly after. Screenshot. US only.

4. Plusmo – Super-fast mobile feedreader with lots of cool features. Video Demo. Another similar app is Viigo.

5. Fring – Really cool mobile app that lets you place free calls or chat with anyone from your Skype, ICQ, Google Talk, MSN, Twitter, or SIP contacts. Video Demo. You can also get same stuff with Nimbuzz.

6. Mobical – Over-the-air mobile data backup and restore service. Store and backup your contacts, synchronize data between multiple handsets and more.

7. Jajah – Dirt-cheap international call from your handset. Video Demo.

8. AllFreeCalls – Not just dirt-cheap but totally free international calls to over 50 countries. Available in US, UK, and Ireland.

9. Emoze – This one lets you push emails to your mobile. Works both with web-based emails (Gmail) and desktop clients (Outlook). I have covered a bunch of email to mobile apps here.

10. Directory Services - These services offer everything from the nearest Dominos and Movie theater schedules to the driving directions and maps to any address of your choice. There are plenty of good ones: Free411, Goog411, TellMe, and DialDirections. Although i have to warn you in advance, all of them are for the US only. European? See below.

11. Google SMS – Via SMS directory service with lots of extra features: dictionary lookup, currency converter, translations, flight schedules, stock quotes, etc. . Europeans can try Google SMS.

12. Foonz – Handy service to make group calls and send group SMS messages for free.

13. Nutsie – This ingenious app brings your iTunes music library to your mobile. Video Demo. Also check out MunduRadio to access hundreds of digital internet radio stations from any web-enabled mobile phone. Video Demo.

14. Podlinez – Any podcast any time from your handset. Completely FREE. Sorry folks, again US Only.

15. mShopper – Lookup prices and deals for any product right from phone. Quite handy for price lookups while window shopping Video Demo.. US only.

16. Trumpia – Send message to friends and get it delivered to their email, instant messenger, and mobile phone. Recipients can send replies from email, IM program or as a text message. Video Demo.

17. SoLow – Addictive auction service where the winning bidder is the one who has the lowest unique bid. Today’s auctioned items: 250$ cash, Vail Ski Holiday, and Necklace by Laura Shape. US only.

18. BooksInMyPhone – The best mobile book service out there. Comes with an excellent book reader app that makes mobile reading quite convenient. Also see DialyLit.

19. Jott – Voice-to-text transcriber with a bunch of cool features. Dial toll-free number and “Jott” yourself memo notes, Or “Jott” messages to a group of friends. Jott will transcribe your messages and send it to indicated emails.Video Demo. US only.

20. Qipit – Use phone camera to capture documents and convert them to well-formatted PDFs. Forward ready PDFs to your email or even send fax it anywhere you want. Video Demo.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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Basically, what you’ll see below, is a list of web services where your phone (not a PC) plays a main role. Whether you need detailed driving directions, someone to wake you up in the morning, quick answer to whatever question you may have or to make free overseas call, it’s all here and freely accessible from your phone. Most of them we have mentioned before, but this time they’re all on one page along with some new ones. Enjoy!

FROM ANY PHONE [Mobile or POTS (Plain Old Telephony Service) ]

(1) Free411 (US only) – free alternative to costly 411 directory service, simply dial 1-800-FREE411 and get the listing you need.

(2) Jott (US and Canada) – simple and convenient service that lets you leave yourself notes, ToDo’s or remainders directly from your phone. Dial a given number (1-877-568-8486), as you speak system will record your message, convert it to text and send it to the provided email address.

(3) TelePixie (US only) – fun service that lets you schedule free memo phone calls i.e. wake-up calls, reminder, weather forecasts, jokes, news, stock alerts and more.

(4) Yak4ever (no longer online) – free, unlimited overseas calling directly from your phone.

• AllFreeCalls.co.uk – same from UK (supports O2 Peak/Off-Peak, Orange/T-Mobile both Peak and Off-Peak)
• AllFreeCalls.ie – same from Ireland
  

(5) Goog411 (US only) – quickly get info on any local business (i.e. hardware shops, pizza delivery, etc. ) or get directly connected with a business/company office you need. (Dial 1-800-GOOG-411)

(6) Bringo (US only) – handy service that lets you bypass annoying phone support waiting lines and get to the company representative you need in a matter of seconds. [HowTo: (1) Find the company you’d like to call by category (credit cards, mortgages, health care, etc), (2) Enter your phone nr. and (3) Wait for your phone to ring.]

(7) Gotvoice (US only) – converts voicemails from your home and cell phone into MP3s and sends them to you by email. Other features include:

• save, organize and access your voicemails online
• auto-share received voicemails with others (i.e. friends, coworkers, etc.)
• send voice messages to several people simultaneously
• reply to voicemail without ringing the recipient’s phone
• create personalized greetings for different callers

(8) GrandCentral (US and Canada) – get one phone nr. for all your phones, web-based centralized voicemail system, call recording, spam filters, setup custom caller greetings, switch calls between any of your phones, save/organize/voicemails online and more.

(9) Tellme (US) – yet another cool, free directory service for local businesses, maps, and directions. To use Tellme, you can either Dial (1-800-555-TELL), send text message (to 83556) or download TellMe software to your mobile.

(10) Call-in-Sick (US and Canada) – evil but rather handy service that lets you record ‘i am sick’ type message and schedule it to be delivered to your Boss early in the morning.

MOBILE ONLY

(11) Zypsy (no longer available) – call provided number and leave whatever question you have. Receive your answer via SMS, shortly after. (“Can you find iPod 20Gb cheaper than $198?”, “Where is the closest Fry’s to Mountain View CA?”, “Any deals or coupons in downtown Palo Alto?”)

(12) GoogleSMS (USA, Canada, Germany, Japan and Spain) – get instant info about local restaurants, weather, flight information, movies, translations, driving directions, currency conversions, etc. via SMS.

(13) Soonr (Mac, Win) – handy piece of software that lets you access your PC from mobile. Browse files, search docs, check your email-client (i.e. Outlook, Thunderbird), run Skype, etc. Read more

(14) Text2store (US) – “Tell us what you would like to buy. Receive deal alerts on your mobile phone with store info and location…”

(15) Roam4free (worldwide) – must-see service for all frequent travellers and mobile users with huge roaming charges. Roam4free offers special type of sim-cards (20 EUR / approx. 26USD) that can be used in 115+ countries. It lets you make cheap overseas calls, and receive calls for free in over 65 countries. Up to 90% discount on standard mobile rates.

In case, you’re aware of anything that will make this list even better, please drop it in comments. I will gladly add it to the list.

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