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	<title>MakeUseOf.com &#187; voicemail</title>
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		<title>Set Up A Voicemail For Your Blog with VoiceMeMe</title>
		<link>http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/set-up-a-voicemail-system-for-your-blog-with-voicememe/</link>
		<comments>http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/set-up-a-voicemail-system-for-your-blog-with-voicememe/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 16 Nov 2009 20:00:19 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Ryan Dube</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Web Apps]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[blogging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[blogging tips]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[voice messages]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[voicemail]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.makeuseof.com/?p=28753</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[For a little while, free voicemail systems were very common online. You could sign up for any number of services where callers could leave you a voicemail message, and you could retrieve those messages online. Over time, most of the voicemail services started charging or wrapping up the voicemail feature into a larger VoIP package. [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img style="margin-right:20px" src="http://www.makeuseof.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/cassette.jpg" alt="" vspace="5" align="left" />For a little while, free voicemail systems were very common online. You could sign up for any number of services where callers could leave you a voicemail message, and you could retrieve those messages online. Over time, most of the voicemail services started charging or wrapping up the voicemail feature into a larger VoIP package. If you look hard enough, you can still find some pretty cool free voicemail applications, such as <a href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/free-voicemail-replacement-with-youmail/">YouMail, the free voicemail service</a> that Dave described, or services where you can <a href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-best-sites-to-download-free-funny-voicemail-messages/">download funny voicemail messages</a> which Karl wrote about. One of the things I&#8217;ve been meaning to do for a while on one of my blogs is to provide visitors with a private method they can use to email me information anonymous (if they so choose). The best tool that I found to set up a voicemail system for a blog is through the VoiceMeMe widget.</p>
<h3>How to Set Up a Voicemail Feature For Your Blog</h3>
<p>VoiceMeMe provides you with an innovative approach to interacting with your website visitors. I&#8217;m always looking for new ways to provide a way for my blog visitors to interact with me, similar to the <a href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-set-up-livezilla-and-earn-money-by-selling-online-pc-support/">LiveZilla online tech support</a> system I recently wrote about. While the LiveZilla tech support system was great for my writing and online SEO blog, for my other blog about alleged top secret government programs, I need an easy tool that allows visitors to click through and leave me a message in a way that&#8217;s both convenient and completely anonymous for the visitor.</p>
<p>With VoiceMeMe, you can provide such a tool to your blog visitors, where they can simply click on the tool to retrieve a phone number and a pin number that&#8217;s customized specifically for their message. They call the number from any phone, enter the pin, leave their message and you are immediately alerted to the voicemail, which you can chose to listen to from the VoiceMeMe website or download the file directly to your computer. To set up the voicemail widget, just visit the <a href="http://www.widgetbox.com/widget/voicememe">widget page on Widgetbox.</a></p>
<p><img style="border: 1px solid black;" title="voice1" src="http://www.makeuseof.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/voice1.jpg" alt="how to set up voicemail" width="500" height="514" /></p>
<p>The widget is actually pretty well designed and would look good on any blog. However, if you don&#8217;t like how it looks, you can configure it in the settings box to the right on the same page.<br />
<span id="more-28753"></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28773" style="border: 1px solid black;" title="voice2" src="http://www.makeuseof.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/voice2.jpg" alt="how to set up voicemail" width="361" height="517" /></p>
<p>The most important field to set up a voicemail account properly is the email field. Make sure to type in the email address where you want your voicemail notifications to go. You can also set up the message that initially appears in the widget on your blog, and the final message that the user sees after they&#8217;ve left their message.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28774" title="voice3" src="http://www.makeuseof.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/voice3.jpg" alt="how to set up voicemail" width="237" height="434" /></p>
<p>Once you click &#8220;Get Widget,&#8221; you&#8217;re provided with the embed code. You can choose from Javascript, Flash or MySpace code. If you&#8217;re unsure what you need to use, scroll through the specific applications at the bottom &#8211; if your blog is in Blogger or Wordpress, click on those icons and you&#8217;ll get the embed code that will work for you, or Widgetbox may insert it for you once you enter your credentials. In my case, I just copy and paste it into my Wordpress widget for my <a href="http://www.topsecretwriters.com">TopSecretWriters</a> blog, and this is how the widget appears in the sidebar on my blog.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28777" style="border: 1px solid black;" title="voice4" src="http://www.makeuseof.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/voice41.jpg" alt="free voicemail" width="311" height="371" /></p>
<p>Whenever a visitor comes to my blog, and if that visitor is possibly some insider with secret knowledge about how much the government really knows about aliens, they could anonymously share that information with me by clicking on the &#8220;Next&#8221; button inside the widget. When they do so, the widget produces a one-time pin number and then provides the visitor with the number they can call to leave me a message.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28778" style="border: 1px solid black;" title="voice5" src="http://www.makeuseof.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/voice5.jpg" alt="free voicemail" width="230" height="312" /></p>
<p>This is a one time pin, and the caller can call from any phone that they like, meaning that when the Men In Black come knocking on doors, there&#8217;s no trace left and no one to point any fingers at. This widget allows your blog visitors to feel like they&#8217;re having a  much more interactive experience with your blog because they can take part. Being able to contact a blog owner directly like this is not always easy on many blogs, so by offering this feature you&#8217;re providing a very unique service for your loyal visitors. The coolest thing about this widget is that it actually updates <em>while the call is in progress</em>. When the caller dials the number and is leaving you a message, the widget displays the following on their computer screen.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28779" style="border: 1px solid black;" title="voice6" src="http://www.makeuseof.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/voice6.jpg" alt="free voicemail" width="243" height="331" /></p>
<p>This assures the caller that they really are leaving a message for the blog that they visited and that the blog owner (you) <em>will receive</em> the message. Once they hang up the phone, the widget updates with the customized message you defined when you set it up.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28780" style="border: 1px solid black;" title="voice7" src="http://www.makeuseof.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/voice7.jpg" alt="voicemail messages" width="213" height="325" /></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">Save the embed code that you created, because you can use this service on Facebook, in your HTML-based emails, and even on forum posts or on your various online profiles. Wherever you want to offer website visitors an opportunity to leave you a voice message instantly, you can embed this widget.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28783" style="border: 1px solid black;" title="voice8" src="http://www.makeuseof.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/voice81.jpg" alt="voicemail messages" width="393" height="341" /></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">When I tested the service through my own blog, it was instantaneous, and I love the fact that you can download and save the voicemail message on your local hard drive if you like. The service takes less than five minutes to set up through WidgetBox, it requires no sign up or registration, and of course it&#8217;s absolutely free. Just one more very cool way to set up a voicemail feature on your website or blog that your visitors will love.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">Would you consider setting up a voicemail widget on your blog? Can you think of any other cool uses for this voicemail widget? Share your insight in the comments section below.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">
<p>Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!</p>
<p><em><strong>New on Twitter ?</strong> Now you can follow <a href="http://twitter.com/MakeUseOf">MakeUseOf on Twitter</a> too.</em></p>

	<em><h4>Related posts</h4></em>
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	<li><a href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/makeuseof-your-iphone-palringo/" title="MakeUseOf Your iPhone: Palringo Instant Messenger (August 25, 2008)">MakeUseOf Your iPhone: Palringo Instant Messenger</a> (9)</li>
	<li><a href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-build-a-self-hosted-wordpress-blog-for-free/" title="How To Setup A Self-hosted Wordpress Blog for Free (September 22, 2009)">How To Setup A Self-hosted Wordpress Blog for Free</a> (60)</li>
	<li><a href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-set-up-a-wordpress-blog-on-your-pc-using-a-local-host/" title="How To Install A Wordpress Blog Locally On Your Computer (October 25, 2009)">How To Install A Wordpress Blog Locally On Your Computer</a> (23)</li>
	<li><a href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/free-voicemail-replacement-with-youmail/" title="Free Voicemail Replacement with YouMail (April 4, 2008)">Free Voicemail Replacement with YouMail</a> (20)</li>
</ul>

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		<title>3 Best Sites To Download Free Funny Voicemail Messages</title>
		<link>http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-best-sites-to-download-free-funny-voicemail-messages/</link>
		<comments>http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-best-sites-to-download-free-funny-voicemail-messages/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 07 Nov 2009 20:01:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Karl L. Gechlik</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Web Apps]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[audio]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fun]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[phone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[standup comedy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[voice messages]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[voicemail]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.makeuseof.com/?p=28396</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Does anyone still remember the answering machine? You know the thing that your 800 voicemails have made obsolete? Maybe your parents still have one. They have a flashing red number on them and they always broke down.
The thing that I remember and loved about answering machines were that you could buy pre-recorded messages on cassette [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img style="margin-right:20px" src="http://www.makeuseof.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/AskTheAdmin_vmHead.png" border="0" alt="AskTheAdmin_vmHead" vspace="5" align="left" />Does anyone still remember the answering machine? You know the thing that your 800 voicemails have made obsolete? Maybe your parents still have one. They have a flashing red number on them and they always broke down.</p>
<p>The thing that I remember and loved about answering machines were that you could buy pre-recorded messages on cassette tapes so that your callers could hear this before leaving you a message.</p>
<p>Nowadays we all have voicemails so how can we do the same thing? Do you want Captain Picard telling your callers that you are not at home (don’t worry we won’t judge you – yes we will!!) then you need to head on over to one of these three ancient sites, play the recording back via your speakers and hold your cell phone up to the speakers as you are recording your message!</p>
<p>This will work for any sound emitted from your machine so you can use this trick with any audio files and not just the ones from these old school sites. Many of the ones that I remember from way back when are very down.</p>
<p>The first one up for funny voicemail messages is Audio Comedy’s site <a title="http://www.audiocomedy.net/answering/" href="http://www.audiocomedy.net/answering/">available here</a></p>
<p><span id="more-28396"></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://www.makeuseof.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/vm1.png" border="0" alt="funny voicemail messages" width="569" height="657" /></p>
<p>Not only do they have real answering machine messages but they also have other audio files like song parodies and stand up comedians. They also have sound boards to have fun with sounds. You can play just the parts you want and use that as your voicemail.</p>
<p>The comedians they have available are: Carlos Mencia, Chris Rock, Daniel Tosh, George Carlin, George Lopez, Jeff Foxworthy, Kevin Meaney, Lewis Black, Margaret Cho, Pablo Fransisco, Robin Williams, Stephen Lynch and Jim Breuer. If this is up your alley you can also do this with video clips via YouTube.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://www.makeuseof.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/image1.png" border="0" alt="funny voicemail messages" width="485" height="290" /></p>
<p>You can see a glimpse of their sound boards below (I love the Eric Cartman one!- call me and see <img src='http://www.makeuseof.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> )</p>
<p>The next site up for funny voicemail messages is via AhaJokes and can be found <a title="http://www.ahajokes.com/funny_answering_machine_messages.html" href="http://www.ahajokes.com/funny_answering_machine_messages.html">here</a>. This site has lots of funny audio links but the descriptions are non-existent. So unless you have lots of time to kill, this will probably make you mad. But I have found some gems on here that I have never heard before. So go exploring and enjoy!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://www.makeuseof.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/vm4.png" border="0" alt="download funny voicemail messages" width="569" height="716" /></p>
<p>The categories that they have are as follows: <em>Machine Related, Authority related, Odd organizations, Musical theme, Fun with the family, Why can&#8217;t you answer it?, You are in big trouble now, Confuse or stun the caller, Science fiction</em> and <em>Other</em>. Click on them play them and laugh! Let us know which are your favorites!</p>
<p>The last site is via Silly Humor and can be found <a title="http://www.sillyhumor.com/answer/classic_answering_machine_messages.html" href="http://www.sillyhumor.com/answer/classic_answering_machine_messages.html">here</a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://www.makeuseof.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/vm5.png" border="0" alt="free voicemail messages" width="569" height="637" /></p>
<p>This site does not have a lot of recordings but the quality of them make up for it! I listened to every one on this site! You can have Spock, Picard or even Humphrey Bogart answer your phone! People might snicker or call you a dork but who cares?</p>
<p>Don’t worry, one day some one will leave you a message!</p>
<p>Which sites do you like that offer funny voicemail messages? Let us know in the comments!
<p>Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!</p>
<p><em><strong>New on Twitter ?</strong> Now you can follow <a href="http://twitter.com/MakeUseOf">MakeUseOf on Twitter</a> too.</em></p>

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</ul>

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		<slash:comments>4</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>8 Ways To Make Use Of Drop.io</title>
		<link>http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/8-ways-to-make-use-of-dropio/</link>
		<comments>http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/8-ways-to-make-use-of-dropio/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 01 Jan 2009 14:59:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>David Pierce</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Web Apps]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[attachments]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[backup]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[conferencing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[documents]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Facebook]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fax]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[file sharing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[online storage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[photo albums]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Podcast]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Twitter]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[voicemail]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.makeuseof.com/?p=9894</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[File-sharing is a complicated beast. Some files are too big to send in emails; some need to be seen by a lot of people; some need to be private; some should be public. There are a ton of different applications that want to be the host for all of your files, but drop.io stands ahead [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img style="margin-right:20px" src="http://www.makeuseof.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/dropiologo.png" border="0" alt="drop io review" vspace="5" align="left" />File-sharing is a complicated beast. Some files are too big to send in emails; some need to be seen by a lot of people; some need to be private; some should be public. There are a ton of different applications that want to be the host for all of your files, but drop.io stands ahead of the pack.</p>
<p>At its simplest, <a href="http://drop.io">drop.io</a> is a place to store files on the Internet. You create &#8220;drops&#8221; filled with files, photos, audio, video and more that you can share with other people. There&#8217;s a 100MB limit on a given drop, but you can purchase more space if you want. Typically, though, 100MB is plenty- that&#8217;s an awful lot of PDFs and Word documents.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter" src="http://www.makeuseof.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/dropio.png" alt="" /></p>
<p>Every drop has a 7+ character name, and can be accessed, shared, and dealt with however you want. You can set the drop to be password protected, and even edit it later from your own account. Drops aren&#8217;t searchable, which means you&#8217;ll maintain the privacy of your files, and they&#8217;ll only be seen by the people who are supposed to see them.</p>
<p>In addition to all that, though, there are a ton more features that make drop.io unique. The feature list is gigantic, and there are a ton of features to make drops work for you. Here are eight ways to use drop.io to do more than just hold files.</p>
<h2>1. Phone Drops and Drop Conferencing</h2>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter" src="http://www.makeuseof.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/diophone.png" alt="" /></p>
<p>For a long time, I used <a href="http://www.jott.com">Jott</a> to record all my random whims and thoughts &#8211; just call a number, record your message, and it gets saved for you. Then Jott got un-free. With drop.io, you can do the same thing Jott used to do. Every drop has a unique phone number- just call it, leave a message, and it&#8217;ll show up in your drop as an MP3 that you can listen to, download, or send to others. There&#8217;s also no time limit on your voicemails, like there was with Jott- your only limitation is the file size limit of the MP3.</p>
<p>Drop.io is also a really useful collaboration tool, both for file-sharing and discussing. Every drop, in addition to a voicemail number, has a unique conference number that you can give to people to call. Get everyone on the line, and you can discuss the files in the drop, manipulate them, and use drop.io as your project center. It&#8217;s free conferencing, and creates a central point for all of your dealings with a particular file or project.</p>
<h2>2. Drop Tweeting</h2>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter" src="http://www.makeuseof.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/diotwitter.png" alt="" /></p>
<p>One drawback many people see in <a href="http://www.twitter.com">Twitter</a> is that there&#8217;s no good way to share files with your followers on Twitter. Drop.io makes that process not only possible, but simple. Drop.io calls it Tweet.io, and it works like this: you enter your Twitter credentials into the drop.io page. Then, every time you add or update a file on the drop, a link to it will automatically be posted to your Twitter account. That means, for instance, that if you want to share a song with the Twitter world, just add it to your drop, and Twitter users will be able to listen to it with one click. To get here, select &#8220;Twitter Alerts&#8221; from the &#8220;Share&#8221; menu in your drop.</p>
<h2>3. Back-up Space</h2>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter" src="http://www.makeuseof.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/diobackup1.png" alt="" /></p>
<p>This is possibly the simplest use for drop.io. You can <a href="http://drop.io/howto">add files</a> to a drop by email (every drop has a unique email address), voicemail, fax, the web interface, a Firefox extension, or an embeddable widget. You&#8217;ve got 100MB per drop, with no limit on the number of drops you can have. To make them totally private, make sure to make them password-protected. Then, to keep them limited only to yourself, keep that password private. The number of drops you have could get big, though, so you may not want drop.io to be your only backup solution.</p>
<h2>4. Drop Fax Machine</h2>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter" src="http://www.makeuseof.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/diofax1.png" alt="" /></p>
<p>I don&#8217;t have a fax machine. I don&#8217;t need one very often, but every once in a while it&#8217;s a really useful thing to have. With <a href="http://drop.io/fax">drop.io fax</a>, you can send and receive faxes right from the web. Just right-click on the file you want to send, and choose &#8220;fax&#8221;. Then, enter the number, and presto &#8211; they get a fax. To receive one is a bit more complicated, but totally possible &#8211; just follow drop.io&#8217;s <a href="http://drop.io/fax">instructions</a>.</p>
<h2>5.  Drop Huge Attachments</h2>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter" src="http://www.makeuseof.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/dioemail1.png" alt="" /></p>
<p>Even if you use drop.io, odds are it might be too much for someone you know. For them, if they use email, you can still keep them involved. Emailing files out of drop.io is as simple as finding your file, clicking &#8220;send,&#8221; and then &#8220;email recipient.&#8221; They&#8217;ll get the file as an attachment, plus the link- which makes sure that they&#8217;ll get access to files of any size. It&#8217;s great for sending music, videos, or other large files you might not be able to send through email- but still dealing with email, which everyone&#8217;s comfortable with.</p>
<h2>6. Drop to Facebook</h2>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter" src="http://www.makeuseof.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/diofacebook.png" alt="" /></p>
<p>Thanks to <a href="http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=41735647130http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=41735647130">Facebook Connect</a>, drop.io and <a href="http://www.facebook.com">Facebook</a> are now totally connected. That means a number of really cool things: you can leave a voicemail to your Facebook feed for your friends to listen to, or fax things to your Facebook friends. With drop.io, Facebook has become a way to socially collaborate on files, and to share things you like with other people. No linking to download sites, making them download software, or other confusion- just fire up Facebook Connect, and your drops can be as involved with Facebook as you want. For more, check out drop.io&#8217;s <a href="http://www.facebook.com/drop-io">Facebook page</a>.</p>
<h2>7. Drop Family Photo Albums</h2>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter" src="http://www.makeuseof.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/diophoto1.png" alt="" /></p>
<p>Drop.io&#8217;s support for photos is pretty fantastic. The viewer is good, the uploading quick, and the use of the drops easy. It&#8217;s as simple as uploading the images you want, and selecting &#8220;View&#8221; from the options. The view option (blog, media, etc.) you choose is up to you. Then, click on one of the images, and select the arrows to scroll through them. You can also share, embed, or comment on any given image.</p>
<h2>8. Drop Insta-podcast</h2>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter" src="http://www.makeuseof.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/dropio-700725.jpg" alt="" /></p>
<p>I&#8217;ve mentioned all of the things relevant here, but this is worth noting again. Here&#8217;s how simple it can be to make a podcast: one phone call. Call your drop&#8217;s number, leave a message, and boom- podcast. Or, upload a video, view it like a blog, and it&#8217;s a weekly podcast. How you create a podcast is up to you, but sharing it with the world couldn&#8217;t be easier- thanks to drop.io.</p>
<p>I&#8217;ve barely scratched the surface here of all the things drop.io can do. There are RSS feeds, SMS alerts, Dropcasts, and a huge number of <a href="http://drop.io/uses">other features</a> that make drop.io a killer sharing application. I&#8217;ve learned a lot about it as I&#8217;ve been researching and writing this post, and I&#8217;m pretty sure I&#8217;ve become a life convert to drop.io.</p>
<p>Do you use drop.io, for backup or something else? Do you use a similar application? Tell us about them in the comments.
<p>Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!</p>
<p><em><strong>New on Twitter ?</strong> Now you can follow <a href="http://twitter.com/MakeUseOf">MakeUseOf on Twitter</a> too.</em></p>

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	<li><a href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/6-ways-to-get-social-with-outlook/" title="Outlook Addons &#8211; 6 Ways to Get Social with Outlook (December 20, 2007)">Outlook Addons &#8211; 6 Ways to Get Social with Outlook</a> (18)</li>
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	<li><a href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/fill-the-space-between-your-blogs-with-posterous/" title="Fill the Space Between your Blogs with Posterous (September 19, 2008)">Fill the Space Between your Blogs with Posterous</a> (4)</li>
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		<title>MakeUseOf Your iPhone: Palringo Instant Messenger</title>
		<link>http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/makeuseof-your-iphone-palringo/</link>
		<comments>http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/makeuseof-your-iphone-palringo/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 25 Aug 2008 16:01:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Jimmy Rogers</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Mobile Apps]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[chat]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[instant messaging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[iphone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[iPhone Apps]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[multi-protocol IM]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[voice messages]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[voicemail]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.makeuseof.com/?p=5042</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Clearly iPhone users have a serious need for instant messaging.  After the App Store launched it seemed like everybody and their brother created an AIM client (including the protocol&#8217;s creators, AOL).  Since then, I&#8217;ve been looking through the list and sorting the good from the bad.  As it turns out, the 3rd [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img src="http://www.makeuseof.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/palringologo.jpg" border="0" alt="Palringo" align="left" />Clearly iPhone users have a serious need for instant messaging.  After the App Store launched it seemed like everybody and their brother created an <a href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/aim-express-lets-you-use-im-without-installing-a-client">AIM</a> client (including the protocol&#8217;s creators, AOL).  Since then, I&#8217;ve been looking through the list and sorting the good from the bad.  As it turns out, the 3rd party developers really busted their butts and turned out some fairly impressive apps.  Even the AOL-made app is solid.</p>
<p><img src="http://www.makeuseof.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/chattypes.png" border="0" alt="" align="right" />One app I like in particular is called <a href="http://www.palringo.com/">Palringo</a> (<a href="http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=286274367&amp;mt=8">iTunes Link</a>).  The major difference between Palringo and other IM clients for the iPhone is that it is a multi-protocol client.  That means you cannot only use your AIM account, but also your Yahoo!, Windows Live, and Google Talk accounts (and more, seen on the right).  Palringo isn&#8217;t the only multi-protocol client, but compared to the other few I have seen thus far, it is definitely the most refined.</p>
<p>Another great feature is the interface.  While Palringo is a multi-platform client (meaning it can run on multiple types of machines), this review will only cover the iPhone&#8217;s specific interface.  To be brief: it&#8217;s great!  It is not a simple &#8220;port&#8221; or recreation of the original interface (though it is somewhat similar).  Instead, it was designed with the device in mind.</p>
<p>At the top of the screen there are three central buttons that let you switch between your accounts, your chat groups, and your contacts.  The &#8220;accounts&#8221; pane is where account configuration takes place.  The &#8220;chat groups&#8221; pane allows you to create chat rooms where multiple users can interact.  The last pane, the &#8220;contacts&#8221; pane, is the most important.  It lists all the people from your various buddy lists on one unified list.  Unfortunately there are no &#8220;groups&#8221; like in other chat clients.  Available users are listed at the top and offline users are shown below.  There is a handy search box at the top to prevent massive scrolling, though.</p>
<p>Clicking any contact, as expected, brings up a new chat window.  In the chat pane there are several options.  The first is a simple chat window that brings up the keyboard.  One critique here is that the text is very small and makes typing pretty difficult.  The other options include sending an image, adding the other user as a contact, or sending a voice message.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://www.makeuseof.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/chatbox.png" alt="" /></p>
<p>The last option is one of the coolest things about Palringo.  If you click the word-bubble icon, the App brings up a bar for you to hold down with your finger.  While you&#8217;re holding it down, the iPhone&#8217;s mic turns on and records a short message.  After you let go, it will immediately stop recording and send your message.  In Palringo, the message shows as a &#8220;play&#8221; button, but your friend will likely see a link.  After testing it a number of times, I can say that this feature works well, but sometimes it can cut off the last bit of your sentence unexpectedly.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://www.makeuseof.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/voicemessage.png" alt="" /></p>
<p>Another neat feature is the ability to move in 4 directions through the interface.  When scanning your buddy list, a standard up or down flick will scroll through it.  If you have multiple chat windows open, though, flicking left or right (like in the iPhone&#8217;s picture viewer) will change from one chat window to another.  It takes some getting used to because the difference between the motions is very slight for the first centimeter or so.  Once you understand how Palringo responds, though, the convenience of the left-right flick more than makes up for any accidental scrolling.</p>
<p>There are more features in Palringo, but hopefully you get the gist of the app.  It has some of the limitations inherent to all 3rd party apps.  For instance, because the iPhone won&#8217;t run background processes, going to the home screen closes Palringo and signs you off.  There is no logging feature (which I believe is possible under the iPhone SDK) so any chats you had before closing the app are lost.  Even so, the client passes all of my general benchmarks for a good IM client and I will definitely use this one for any of my messaging needs.</p>
<p>[rating=3]</p>
<p>What are some of your favorite iPhone IM clients?  Does this one do it for you or is there something else out there that&#8217;s better?</p>
<p><em>(By) Jimmy Rogers is a biology major at George Mason University and an avid freelance tech blogger.  Check out his blog, <a href="http://masontechbeat.blogspot.com/">Mason Tech Beat</a>.</em>
<p>Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!</p>
<p><em><strong>New on Twitter ?</strong> Now you can follow <a href="http://twitter.com/MakeUseOf">MakeUseOf on Twitter</a> too.</em></p>

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		<title>Post Messages To Twitter Using Your Mobile Phone &#8211; &amp; Get Your Invite HERE!</title>
		<link>http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/post-messages-to-twitter-using-your-mobile-phone-and-get-your-invite-here/</link>
		<comments>http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/post-messages-to-twitter-using-your-mobile-phone-and-get-your-invite-here/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 05 Jul 2008 15:04:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Travis Quinnelly</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Mobile Apps]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Web Apps]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mobile tips]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Twitter]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[voicemail]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.makeuseof.com/?p=3420</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Even though Twitter has experienced a pretty hard time staying up 24/7, that hasn&#8217;t slowed down the development of numerous applications that integrate with Twitter.
At Make Use Of, we&#8217;ve covered a ton of tools to make your Twitter better. From 4 Tools for More Productive Twittering, to other  Tools and Apps to Improve your [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img src="http://www.makeuseof.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/twitterfonelogomain.gif" alt="" align="left" />Even though <a href="http://twitter.com">Twitter</a> has experienced a pretty hard time staying up 24/7, that hasn&#8217;t slowed down the development of numerous applications that integrate with Twitter.</p>
<p>At Make Use Of, we&#8217;ve covered a ton of tools to make your Twitter better. From <a href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/4-tools-for-more-productive-twittering/">4 Tools for More Productive Twittering</a>, to other <a href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/tools-apps-and-bots-to-improve-your-twitter-experience/"> Tools and Apps to Improve your Twitter Experience.</a> All you really have to do to see everything we&#8217;ve listed on Twitter is to check out the <a href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/twitter/">&#8220;Twitter&#8221;</a> tag here on the website.</p>
<div style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3421 aligncenter" title="TwitterFone-main" src="http://www.makeuseof.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/twitterfone-main.png" alt="" align="center" /></div>
<p>Today, I bring you a new service for Twitter. It&#8217;s called <a href="http://www.twitterfone.com/">TwitterFone</a>. TwitterFone is unique in that it offers users of their <strong>free</strong> service the ability to send Twitter messages using their voice. Yeah, that&#8217;s right&#8230;your voice.</p>
<h2>Twitter&#8230;.over the phone?</h2>
<p>Yes, that&#8217;s right. Tweet to your heart&#8217;s content without internet access. Really, all you need to do is call TwitterFone, say what you want to &#8220;tweet&#8221;, and then hang up.  Just a minute or two later, your Twitter page will update. Magic!</p>
<h2>How does TwitterFone do this?</h2>
<p>TwitterFone transcribes your voice message into text, then posts the message to your Twitter account.   It&#8217;s free to sign up or the Make Use Of team wouldn&#8217;t bother with reviewing it.  However when you call up Twitterfone, you are charged the normal cost of a national call in your own country.</p>
<p>They&#8217;ve also got <a href="http://www.twitterfone.com/help">numerous numbers in many countries</a> so a lot of Make Use Of readers should be able to use it in their country.</p>
<p>As the name suggests, this service is for Twitter only. This is not some multi-purpose &#8220;voice lifestreaming&#8221; service.</p>
<p>One thing I hope they improve on is the ability to do Twitter replies and direct messages. Currently, only personal tweets are possible.</p>
<h2>Cool, what do I need?</h2>
<p>Just a Twitter account, a private beta code, an email address, and a mobile <del datetime="2008-07-01T13:21:24+00:00">phone</del> fone.</p>
<div><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-3422" title="TwitterFone-settings" src="http://www.makeuseof.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/twitterfone-settings.png" alt="TwitterFone Settings" width="506" height="216" /></div>
<p>To get setup with the TwitterFone service, you&#8217;ll need an invitation code (don&#8217;t worry, I&#8217;ve secured some so you can register). Once you have that, you&#8217;ll register for your account. This is just your basic signup form with fields for your email address, Twitter info, and your mobile number. For security&#8217;s sake, they&#8217;ll send you a text message with another code in it and this must be entered for the service to enable. After that, you&#8217;re ready to tweet using your mobile phone.</p>
<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3424" title="TwitterFone-tweet" src="http://www.makeuseof.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/twitterfone-tweet.png" alt="TwitterFone-tweet" align="right" />Once you&#8217;ve tested the TwitterFone service, you&#8217;ll see something akin to this. You&#8217;ll see by the tweet here on the right, its not perfect. But it has gotten all of my words correct.</p>
<h2>Invitation Codes</h2>
<p>If you&#8217;d like an invitation code to join TwitterFone, please fill out the form below and I&#8217;ll send you one. Once they&#8217;re all gone, I&#8217;ll remove this form.</p>
<p><strong>Update:</strong> Unfortunately, TwitterFone invites are all gone. But not all is lost. You can request one <a href="http://www.twitterfone.com/invite_request">here</a>.</p>
<p>So if you&#8217;ve used Twitterfone, what do you think about it?  Let us know in the comments.</p>
<p><em>(By) Travis is a husband, engineer, entrepreneur, technology swami, visual communicator, WordPress lover and writer in his spare time. You can check out his personal blog at <a href="http://www.tquizzle.com">TQuizzle.com</a>.</em>
<p>Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!</p>
<p><em><strong>New on Twitter ?</strong> Now you can follow <a href="http://twitter.com/MakeUseOf">MakeUseOf on Twitter</a> too.</em></p>

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</ul>

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		<title>Free Voicemail Replacement with YouMail</title>
		<link>http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/free-voicemail-replacement-with-youmail/</link>
		<comments>http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/free-voicemail-replacement-with-youmail/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 04 Apr 2008 17:57:29 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dave Drager</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Web Apps]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[better alternatives]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[productivity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[voice messages]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[voicemail]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/free-voicemail-replacement-with-youmail/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Voicemail for cell phones has basically been the same since it was first released. Someone calls you and if you don&#8217;t answer or your phone is not available on the network, the call is forwarded to voicemail. A signal is then sent to your cell phone that there is one or more messages waiting and [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Voicemail for cell phones has basically been the same since it was first released. Someone calls you and if you don&#8217;t answer or your phone is not available on the network, the call is forwarded to voicemail. A signal is then sent to your cell phone that there is one or more messages waiting and you dial in to pick up those messages.</p>
<p>What a 20th century solution!</p>
<p>Wouldn&#8217;t it be great if you could have your voice mail e-mailed to you or otherwise retrieve it without having to call back in to your number?</p>
<p>Enter <a href="http://www.youmail.com">YouMail</a> &#8211; a free, ad supported service where you transfer your voicemail handling to an external provider. Right now it is only available in the US and works on AT&amp;T, Nextel, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon and more. In turn, they offer some killer features:</p>
<p><img src="http://www.makeuseof.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/youmail1.jpg" alt="YouMail Free Voicemail" /></p>
<p><strong>Customized voicemail greetings for people in your address book.</strong></p>
<p><img src="http://www.makeuseof.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/youmail2.jpg" alt="Voicemail to email" align="right" /></p>
<p>If you want your family to have a different voicemail greeting than your work people or your crazy friends then this is a great way to do it. Add their phone numbers to your address book and then assign them to a group. You can then assign a specific greeting to a caller or to a group.</p>
<p>You can record your own greeting of course via the web or by calling in to a number. However there are many free greetings available to choose from, and there are even some premium &#8220;cool&#8221; ones available for a fee.</p>
<p>You might think it is a great idea to have Mr. T saying &#8220;I pity the fool, leave a message&#8221; to your callers but I&#8217;m sure your boss won&#8217;t be impressed when he calls to see why you are late to work again! Now you can pick who gets what greeting.</p>
<p>Also a feature which is both funny and useful is the &#8220;ditch&#8221; function. If you really don&#8217;t want someone to call you any more, assign their number as a &#8220;ditch&#8221; number. A message which says your phone is disconnected will play for them, hopefully persuading them to stop calling you.</p>
<p><strong>Voicemail Notification via e-mail, web, and text message</strong></p>
<p>Pick your poison. I choose all three. When someone calls and leaves a message, I get SMS and e-mail notification that I missed the call. Since everything is connected these days, this works really well. If I don&#8217;t hear my phone ring or I leave it at home, I still get an instant e-mail notification.</p>
<p><img src="http://www.makeuseof.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/youmailemail.jpg" alt="YouMail Email" /></p>
<p>Along with the web component, you can share your voicemail messages via email or by copying code to include it on your blog or website.</p>
<p><strong>Beta Feature &#8211; Voicemail to Text transcription sent to your phone!</strong></p>
<p>Just released is a feature that will take a voicemail and attempt to transcribe that voicemail to text. Through some testing I&#8217;ve done, I&#8217;ve discovered it works pretty well, usually enough to get the gist of the message. Basically, the clearer the line is and the slower the caller speaks, the better the transcription will be.</p>
<p><img src="http://www.makeuseof.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/youmailtxt.jpg" alt="youMail txt" align="right" />The transcription can be sent right to your cell phone, so you know what your messages are before you even need to listen to your voicemail. It&#8217;s great to see this if you are in a meeting or on the road, and you can tell if you need to call back right away or if it can wait (or even if you can ignore it).</p>
<p><strong>In Summary</strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.youmail.com">YouMail</a> is awesome and I recommend it for anyone with a cell phone to try out! Instructions for many cell phones and carriers are listed on their site. It is usually a combination key press that you send, just like a phone call. All of the features above then work, and you can still access your voicemail just like before by reassigning your voicemail key.</p>
<p>A concern of mine is how they stay sustainable &#8212; what is their revenue source? Their business plan calls for keeping their accounts free &#8211; and including ads on their notification and translation services. That is perfectly OK with me considering the services they provide. I used to use a service called <a href="http://www.callwave.com">CallWave</a> &#8211; which I would recommend too but they recently left &#8220;beta&#8221; stage and all free accounts have been removed. Their cheapest plan is $14.95/mo, and  in addition to a $80 phone bill, I just can&#8217;t justify the additional cost.</p>
<p>Really, the services that YouMail provides should be provided by your carrier. But until they get on the wagon and start offering new services like this (and it should be included in your account as a free, not a pay-for feature!), then YouMail is a great voicemail replacement.</p>
<p><em>(By) Dave is an IT Manager by day and technology consultant by night. He is interested in all things internet but is specifically interested in system administration, network security, history, and backpacking. He lives near Philadelphia with his family. See his blog @ <a href="http://www.systembash.com">www.systembash.com</a>.</em>
<p>Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!</p>
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		<title>15 FREE Useful Services To Access from your Phone</title>
		<link>http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/15-more-things-you-can-do-with-your-phone/</link>
		<comments>http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/15-more-things-you-can-do-with-your-phone/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 24 May 2007 23:45:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Aibek</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Lists of tools]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mobile Apps]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[411]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fun]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Interesting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[local directory]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mobile tips]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[office worker]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[phone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[phone number]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[reminder]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[shopping]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[SMS tools]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[voicemail]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/15-more-things-you-can-do-with-your-phone/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Here on makeuseof, it&#8217;s all about cool free websites, software and tips. While this post perfectly fits into this philosophy, it&#8217;s slightly different from most of the stuff we have published before.
Basically, what you&#8217;ll see below, is a list of web services where your phone (not a PC) plays a main role. Whether you need [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img src="http://makeuseof.com/images/phone-tools.jpg" align="left" />Here on makeuseof, it&#8217;s all about <em>cool free websites, software and tips</em>. While this post perfectly fits into this philosophy, it&#8217;s slightly different from <a href="http://www.makeuseof.com/archives-2/">most of the stuff</a> we have published before.</p>
<p>Basically, what you&#8217;ll see below, is a list of web services where your phone (<u><em>not a PC</em></u>) 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&#8217;s all here and <u>freely</u> accessible from your phone. Most of them we have mentioned before, but this time they&#8217;re all on one page along with some new ones. Enjoy!</p>
<p><font color="#4088b8"><strong>FROM ANY PHONE</strong> [Mobile or POTS (Plain Old Telephony Service) ]</font></p>
<p><strong>(1)</strong> <a href="http://free411.com/" target="_blank">Free411</a> (US only) &#8211;  free alternative to costly 411 directory service, simply dial 1-800-FREE411 and get the listing you need.</p>
<p><strong>(2)</strong> <a href="http://www.jott.com/Jott/login2.aspx" target="_blank">Jott</a> (US and Canada) &#8211; simple and convenient service that lets you leave yourself notes, ToDo&#8217;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.</p>
<p><strong>(3)</strong>  <a href="http://telepixie.com/" target="_blank">TelePixie</a> (US only)  &#8211; fun service that lets you schedule free memo phone calls i.e. wake-up calls, reminder, weather forecasts, jokes, news, stock alerts and more.</p>
<p><strong>(4)</strong> <a href="http://www.yak4ever.com/" target="_blank" title="free and unlimited phone calls from UK">Yak4ever</a> (no longer online) &#8211; free, unlimited overseas calling directly from your phone.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.AllFreeCalls.co.uk" target="_blank" title="free unlimited overseas calling from UK">AllFreeCalls.co.uk</a> &#8211; same from UK (supports O2 Peak/Off-Peak, Orange/T-Mobile both Peak and Off-Peak)</li>
<li><a href="http://www.AllFreeCalls.ie" title="free unlimited overseas calling from iRELAND" target="_blank">AllFreeCalls.ie</a> &#8211; same from Ireland<strong><br />
</strong></li>
</ul>
<p><strong>(5) </strong><a href="http://labs.google.com/goog411/index.html" target="_blank">Goog411</a> (US only) &#8211; 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)</p>
<p><strong>(6)</strong> <a href="http://www.nophonetrees.com/" target="_blank">Bringo</a> (US only) &#8211; 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.]</p>
<p><strong>(7)</strong> <a href="http://www.gotvoice.com/" target="_blank">Gotvoice</a> (US only) &#8211; converts voicemails from your home and cell phone into MP3s and sends them to you by email. Other features include:</p>
<ul>
<li>save, organize and access your voicemails online</li>
<li>auto-share received voicemails with others (i.e. friends, coworkers, etc.)</li>
<li>send voice messages to several people simultaneously</li>
<li>reply to voicemail without ringing the recipient&#8217;s phone</li>
<li>create personalized greetings for different callers</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>(8)</strong> <a href="http://www.grandcentral.com/" target="_blank">GrandCentral</a> (US and Canada) &#8211; 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.</p>
<p><strong>(9) </strong><a href="http://www.tellme.com/" target="_blank">Tellme</a> (US) &#8211; 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.</p>
<p><strong>(10)</strong> <a href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/daily-to-do-list-for-office-worker/" target="_blank">Call-in-Sick</a> (US and Canada) &#8211; evil but rather handy service that lets you record <em>‘i am sick’</em> type message and schedule it to be delivered to your Boss early in the morning.<a href="http://www.call-in-sick.com/" target="_blank"><br />
</a></p>
<p><font color="#4088b8"><strong>MOBILE ONLY</strong></font></p>
<p><strong>(11)</strong> <strike>Zypsy</strike> (no longer available) &#8211; call provided number and leave <u>whatever</u> question you have. Receive your answer via SMS, shortly after. (<em>&#8220;Can you find iPod 20Gb cheaper than $198?&#8221;</em>, <em>&#8220;Where is the closest Fry&#8217;s to Mountain View CA?&#8221;, &#8220;Any deals or coupons in downtown Palo Alto?&#8221;</em>)</p>
<p><strong>(12)</strong> <a href="http://mobihacker.com/service/queries-with-google-sms/" title="free directory service via SMS" target="_blank">GoogleSMS</a> (USA, Canada, Germany, Japan and Spain) &#8211; get instant info about local restaurants, weather, flight information, movies, translations, driving directions, currency conversions, etc. via SMS.</p>
<p><strong>(13) </strong><a href="http://www.soonr.com/web/front/home.jsp" target="_blank" title="access your PC directly from your mobile">Soonr</a> (Mac, Win) &#8211; handy piece of software that lets you access your PC from mobile. Browse files, search docs, check your email-client (i.e. Outlook, <a href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/switching-to-mozilla-thunderbird/">Thunderbird</a>), run Skype, etc. Read <a href="http://mobihacker.com/service/have-remote-pc-access-from-your-mobile/" target="_blank">more</a></p>
<p><strong>(14) </strong><a href="http://www.text2store.com/" target="_blank" title="find free coupons directly from your mobile">Text2store</a> (US) &#8211; &#8220;<em>Tell us what you would like to buy. Receive deal alerts on your mobile phone with store info and location&#8230;</em>&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>(15)</strong>  <a href="http://www.roam4free.ie/" target="_blank" title="reduce your roaming charges">Roam4free</a> (worldwide) &#8211; 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.</p>
<p>In case, you&#8217;re aware of anything that will make this list even better, please drop it in comments. I will gladly add it to the list.</p>

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