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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.

17 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. We have those here? by Bastian · · Score: 4, Funny

    The only services of that type that I've seen mentioned in the US are download services for ringtones, games, etc. I don't think most Americans really use their cell phones for anything but making phone calls, taking the odd photograph, and configuring to play loud, annoying, horribly distorted snippets of Backstreet Boys songs whenever someone calls you.

    1. Re:We have those here? by Seumas · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yeah, I've had a Treo 650 for about a year and a half and I only use it for phone calls. In fact, I've shut off all of the other services and disabled downloads and everything else. The only thing I didn't shut off was text messaging, in case people need to reach me that way (maybe five messages a month). I use about 2,000 minutes a month, but I don't use email or web browsing or calendaring or any other crap. I used the camera once or twice in the last couple of years, but I couldn't be bothered to figure out how to copy the images over to my computer. Not to mention, the Palm OS software for the Treo was ridiculously stupid, so I didn't bother with it. I used the note-taking facility a few times, too -- because I didn't have a pad of paper handy.

      If the person is not asking what "cell services" are best in the united states in as much as "what cell phone company should I go with", then I'm not sure what the poster is expecting. There aren't really any services. There are services where you can pay $10 for a ringtone or a dollar a day for really insultingly stupid jokes and a few other things, but they're usually just poor scams to work you out of your cash and are very difficult (or so it seems) to shut off once you have been snared into them.

      If I want to use email or something, I have a laptop. Or a desktop. If I want to talk to someone, I could peck away at a stupid qwerty keyboard the size of a credit card or I could just press a button to call the person directly and... I dunno... TALK to them. Really can't imagine what kind of services people would *want* on their phones. *shrug*

  4. Re:on the cheap by TheSHAD0W · · Score: 5, Funny

    I dunno, I'd have problems going with a service called Net 10. I'd be worried that their phone calls wouldn't be routeable.

  5. Uh....WOOSH! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I think you all are missing the question. It's what services you can access THROUGH your cell-phone plan. NOT what cell-phone plans are good. So what services do you all access that makes your cell-phone more useful?

    1. Re:Uh....WOOSH! by porcupine8 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I think you missed the parent's point. Some of us are just looking for one that lets us make calls. Period. The cel phone would be useless without it, and anything else isn't valuable enough to waste our money on. Nothing more useful than that.

      --
      Warning: Apple/Nintendo fangirl. Likes her electronics cute & cuddly. May be rabid.
    2. Re:Uh....WOOSH! by Ash+Vince · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I use a train time info service quite a lot.

      Basically I text them the name of a local train station (local to which ever pub I am in usually) and they text me back the list of trains on the departure board and what time they leave.

      So I can leave the pub at the last possible moment and still miss one and wait an hour.

      --
      I dont read /. to RTFA, I read /. to offend people in ignorance.
  6. Re:Only 5 by clonehappy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Out of about 30 comments, only 3 or 4 people have even bothered to skim the story. It's not asking about cellular providers, it's actual phone-based services (location-based, web, etc.). I know no one ever reads TFA, but please at least RTF summary.

  7. 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
  8. 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.

  9. 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.

  10. Verizon! by Viceroy+Potatohead · · Score: 3, Funny

    I like the "Teaching remedial math to call-centre employees" service that Verizon recently offered. I think it's got a great future.[/snark]

  11. Re:uh by ColaMan · · Score: 4, Funny

    I use my phone to call people... sorry, I don't buy into all of the extra "services" designed to get me at $0.10 here and $1.00 there....

    next post.....

    Oh, BTW I am posting this using my Cingular data card :) $49 unlimited 3G access...

    *head explodes*

    --

    You are in a twisty maze of processor lines, all alike.
    There is a lot of hype here.
  12. ZYB works in the US as well by ZYB · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I just want to clear up a small misunderstanding here. ZYB https://zyb.com/ that Cnet lists in the article is not a UK service, it is a world-wide mobile backup service that also works in the US. ZYB is absolutely free (forever), but your operator will charge you for the data-traffic you use. For the first synchronisation of 80 contacts an 60 calendar events the data amount should be below 100kb. Subsequent synchronisations use around 10-20kb of data traffic depending on the amount of new information added on either the phone or on ZYB.

    Runar Reistrup, ZYB

  13. The Slashdot Godwin? by ReverendLoki · · Score: 3, Funny

    And some of us think those optional "services" are all irrelevant, much like the menu fades and "glass" (transparency) features touted as a reason to upgrade to a new OS.

    And thus we are introduced to the /. addendum to Godwin's Law:

    "As the length of any thread on Slashdot increases, the probability of a comparison involving Microsoft and/or Bill Gates approaches one."

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