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What are the Best Cell Phone Services in the US?

Posted by Cliff on from the and-what-is-it-about-them-that-you-like dept.

James Hewfanger asks: "Cnet.co.uk has run an article on the five best cell phone services in the UK. These include a text-based service that gets you the number of a licensed cab company in London, Google Maps and Gmail on your phone, a service that can tell what artist and song you're listening to, an online service that backs up all your cell phone contacts and a text-based service that answers any question you can throw at it. What, however, are the five best cell phone services in the US?" Wirefly's cell phone plan comparison tool gives a good up-to-date look of all cell phone plans on the market.

6 of 239 comments (clear)

  1. TellMe (1-800-555-TELL) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    News
    Driving Directions
    Sports
    Travel (flights, hotels, ...)
    Movies (via fandango)
    Weather

    All voice activated with very good support for keypad.

    Historically they had free directory assistance.
    at times they had traffic information, it's now 511 (run by them)
    They run 1-800-555-1212 (toll free directory assistance)

  2. Google by ari_j · · Score: 4, Informative

    Text anything to 46645. That's the only such service I use.

    1. Re:Google by nickj6282 · · Score: 3, Informative

      I use this a lot, and it's fantastic. I'm on a text plan so I don't worry about the cost (google doesn't charge anything). You have to be with one of the major carriers though, when I tried to use this on US Cellular it wouldn't work because they don't support the five digit text numbers. Google SMS is a great way to get info on the go and has been my "yellow pages" for a long time.

      On the subject of other cell services, I used to use Infone before they went under at the beginning of last year and I haven't found anything like it yet to replace (other than google SMS). They were good because they'd give you directions and phone numbers and anything else you'd ask for and even text the info back to you so you'd have it.

      Also, Cingular has their MediaMax data plan for $20 a month. This gives you unlimited mobile web from your phone, which is useful for grabbing an email or two on the road. But what they don't tell you is that you can use this as a dialup connection for your laptop/PDA if you have a phone that will work as a modem. I can connect to my Motorola SLVR via bluetooth (or USB) and get online anywhere on my notebook. It's slow as hell, but IM and browsing work OK through it.

  3. Flurry by sbyrnes00 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Flurry - (http://www.flurry.com) Mail and news on my phone. Also useful are: Google Local (http://www.google.com/gmm) Maps on my phone. Opera Mini (http://www.opera.com/products/mobile/) Web browsing on my phone. EQO (http://www.eqo.com/) VoIP and IM on my phone. Note that these all work with data services from Cingular and Sprint, but T-Mobile has recently started preventing the use of these services on their phones unless you buy an "unlimited" plan. Verizon either charges a few dollars a month for them or doesn't have them available in the first place. If you have Boost mobile service, you should also check out Loopt (http://loopt.com) - a service that lets you tell your friends where you are.

    --
    http://www.flurry.com
    E-mail and news on y
  4. Best five services in Japan... by KNicolson · · Score: 3, Informative

    1. Deco Mail: most of the new phones now have HTML mail and large libraries of animated emoticons and the like - wifey's has over 1,000, plus lots more downloadable free. They can also be forwarded to PC mail clients and displayed successfully.

    2. NaviTime: doesn't just tell you where to go, but copes with which exit from the subway station to get, if a taxi would be faster than trains, even which carriage to board to be closest to the exit!

    3. Napster: well, maybe not.

    4. iPot: mobile phone in granny's kettle so you can get an email if she doesn't use it for a day.

    5. Anti-bullying kiddie phones: junior points camera at bully/perv, sounds the alarm, and parent gets a photo plus GPS coordinates, etc.

  5. Come on people... by todesengel · · Score: 3, Informative

    Do people not even read the /. summary any more? The question is regarding the top cell-phone based services, not cell-phone carriers.