Eight Nifty Cell Phone Travel TipsFor
most of us, a cell phone is as much a part of our packing list as a
toothbrush. While cell phones are invaluable to make and receive calls,
that little electronic marvel in your pocket is chock-full of nifty
travel tricks you may not have imagined. 1. Flashlight
Most
contemporary cell phones have a very bright display that can be used as
a flashlight in a pinch. Let’s say you drop your keys under the car
seat, or you need a bit of light to read the menu in a dark restaurant.
Simply turn on your phone and point the screen where you need some light
— you'll be amazed at the brightness of that tiny screen. 2. Photographic Memory
Buying
a cell phone without a camera these days is like trying to buy a car
without air conditioning, so chances are good that your cell phone has a
built-in camera whether you wanted one or not. As a general rule, the
pictures taken with a cell phone are low-quality and worthless for
photographic prints. You can, however, use your cell phone camera as the
“photographic memory” you wish you had. Need to remember where you
parked your car in the airport lot? Take a quick photo of the location
and its surroundings. When you get back to town, simply pull up the
picture stored on your phone and tell the shuttle driver exactly where
to find your spot. Don’t want to forget your room number? Since most
hotel keys are no longer imprinted with room information, shoot a
picture of the number on your door so you can later recall whether it
was room 1114 or 1411. If you take just a bit of time to learn how to
use your phone’s camera (or find some 12 year old who will be thrilled
to teach you), you’ll find yourself using your “photographic memory”
even when you are not traveling. 3. Travel Alarm Clock
Nearly
every cell phone has a built in clock, and most automatically reset to
the local time simply by turning them off and on. Chances are that there
is also a built-in alarm clock that can be used as a reliable
alternative to the hotel’s unreliable clock radio or when you are out
and about. If you plan a day of sightseeing, browsing museums or
shopping for souvenirs, be sure you don’t miss the last train back to
your hotel by setting your cell phone’s alarm to alert you when it’s
time to return to the station. 4. Electronic Rolodex ®
Your
phone almost certainly has a phone book function, and you may already
have set up a handful of frequently dialed numbers (spouse, home, work,
etc.) Before you head off on your next trip, program in a few more phone
numbers such as your airline’s customer service number, hotel
reservation line, and rental-car company phone number. That way, if you
are delayed and need to contact your hotel about a late arrival, the
number is handy. You may also wish to program in the major air carriers
(United, American, Southwest, etc.). In the event that your flight is
canceled or some other travel mishap occurs, and the line at the
customer service counter snakes through the terminal, you can dial up
your airline’s customer service number (or another carrier) and work on
rerouting your itinerary without waiting in line (and before all the
flights are booked by those in front of you).
As a bonus, you can
also enter the names and addresses of friends and family. That way,
while sipping coffee and writing postcards at that sidewalk café, you
can easily look up addresses on the phone. The only tricky part here is
that entering the addresses manually on a standard phone without an
alphabetic keyboard can get tiresome. However, many phones support
downloading address and phone info from common e-mail programs such as
Microsoft Outlook or Lotus Notes. The staff at your local cell phone
store may also have some ideas to load your phone from a standard text
file, so check with them.
5. Electronic Itinerary
Most
phones these days support SMS messages also known as TXT messages. These
are short text messages (160 characters or less) that are the cell
phone’s version of e-mail. SMS messages can be sent directly from cell
phone to cell phone and are the rage for the under-30 crowd. Since
typing with a phone’s keypad is rather tedious, there are numerous codes
to spell out thoughts with just a few letters (CUL8R = See you later).
What most people don’t know is that it is quite simple to send an SMS
message from your computer’s e-mail account (using a real keyboard!) to
your cell phone - you just need to know the SMS address (see below). So,
once you have your itinerary, send yourself an SMS message with the
flight number, departure and arrival times. Send yourself another with
the hotel name, address and reservation confirmation number. Send
another with the airport shuttle info and one more with your rental car
details, keeping each message less than 160 characters. Since it is
almost always easier to pull out a cell phone and recall an SMS message
than it is to dig through your brief case to find the right sheet of
paper, you will find yourself sending all sorts of notes to yourself so
that they are quickly accessible. One note: unless your cell phone’s
rate plan includes a set number of included text messages, you will be
charged from 10¢ to 25¢ per message. If you find you like this feature,
for just a couple of dollars per month, you can add 50 or 100 messages
to your phone plan. 6. Flight Status Notification
We
all know that we should call the airline or log into their web site to
find out if our flight is delayed before heading off for the airport.
However, in the hustle and bustle of getting packed up and ready to go,
we are rarely so conscientious. Most airlines offer a Flight Status
Notification on their web site which takes advantage of your phone’s SMS
messaging. Just visit the web site’s flight notification page and enter
the flight number and date, along with your SMS address. A few hours
before departure, you’ll receive a notification directly to your phone
of your flight’s status along with gate number and other details, and
additional messages will arrive with any gate changes or delays. The
best part is that since most flight delays are not published until an
hour or so before departure, the notification can reach you even when
you are en route to the airport, allowing you some extra time for a side
trip to Starbucks that you might have otherwise skipped. 7. Fingertip Information
One
of the slickest uses for your phone’s SMS messaging is a free service
from Google (the huge Web Search Engine) called Google SMS. It’s like
having a local Yellow Pages in your pocket! For example, you can send a
short text message such as “Pizza 91320” to the phone number 46645
(GOOGL spelled with the numeric phone keys) and in a minute or two you
will receive a text message back with all the pizza joints in that ZIP
code. Need to find the closest Starbucks in Chicago? Just text
“Starbucks Chicago IL” to 46645. White Page look-ups also work if the
individual is listed in the phone book – just send their first and last
name along with their city and state (text “John Smith Anytown CA”).
And, it is not just an electronic phone book. Google offers an amazing
selection of information via its SMS service such as weather forecasts
(text “weather dallas tx”), currency conversions (text “5 usd in yen”),
language translations (text “translate good morning in French”) and even
driving directions (text “santa monica ca to pasadena ca”). The service
is only currently only available in the USA. For more information go to
the Google SMS web site at http://www.google.com/mobile/sms/ 8. A Computer In Your Pocket
The
features above can be found on just about all popular cell phones. If
you are a frequent traveler, you may wish to step up to the new breed of
smart phones. It is said that today’s smart phones contain more
computing power than the Apollo moon rockets! With a one- or two-year
cell phone agreement, basic phones run from free to $100. Smart phones
cost from $100 - $400 but offer the tech-savvy traveler a host of
additional features such as full e-mail access, iPod-like music player,
video player, internet access, world clock, games, electronic books and
more. And unlike your home computer, these features are much easier to
use. Besides, it fits in your pocket better than a laptop! So, dig
out your cell phone manual and learn how to use its features. A few
minutes invested will pay dividends when you hit the road. Happy
Travels!
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