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Good riddance to guidebooks

Need directions? A phone number? The name of a seafood restaurant? All those answers - and more - can be found in the palm of your hand.

By MICHELE SCHWARTZ
Published February 26, 2006

Travelers have more reason than ever to bring along a cell phone, thanks to new text-messaging tricks - all of which are free (excluding your provider's fees).

Google, Yahoo and a company called 4INFO are making accessible all sorts of information that travelers will love having at their fingertips. Basically, you send a text message to the company's five-digit "short code" to request the information. Yahoo's code is 92466 ("Yahoo" spelled on a keypad), 4INFO's is 44636 ("4INFO" on the keypad) and Google's is 46645 ("Google" without the "e").

Portable phone book

Type whatever you're looking for, along with a city or ZIP code - such as "museums Chicago" or "seafood 20815." Google, Yahoo or 4INFO will perform a search and then send the results and the contact information to your phone.

Weather

All three companies use "w" as shorthand for "weather." To get forecasts, type in a "w," along with a ZIP code or city and state. Yahoo, Google and 4INFO will respond with a three-, four- or five-day forecast, respectively.

Translation

Google has a cool language feature, with "t" standing for "translate." If you text-message "ticket to spanish," the response will be "boleto" - Spanish for ticket. This translation feature works with words and simple phrases, and translation between English and French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish.

Flight updates

Send 4INFO a message with an airline and flight number for updates on that day's arrivals and departures. If you don't know the flight number, use the airline name, plus the airport codes or the departure and arrival cities.

Directions

For driving directions with mileage between departure and destination, text-message Google. Send "san diego ca to la ca" for instance, or "wash dc to bwi," or whatever your basic itinerary is. Turn-by-turn directions will appear within a minute.

Currency conversion

Send a message to Google using currency codes ("65 euro in USD") or plain language ("5 british pounds in American money") for that day's exchange rate.

Trip planning

Here's one that doesn't involve dialing short codes. Yahoo has a feature called Search Local that lets you transmit information from a computer to your cell phone. Say you locate driving directions, or a restaurant that sounds good, on Yahoo: Click on "Send to Phone" and the directions or the restaurant's contact information pops up in a text message a few seconds later, free of charge.

Service sells some answers

A fairly new company is offering some free information but also will answer specific questions, at 49 cents each, for users of cell phones and wireless handheld devices such as a BlackBerry.

The company, AskMeNow, has users download software for free access to weather reports, movie times, sports scores, directions, travel information, stock quotes and more.

The pay feature, AskMeAnything, lets users call a toll-free number or work through the downloaded application to ask questions - from trivia to historical issues - and receive answers, not Web links. Questions entered by voice go through a voice-recognition system; the company promises a rapid response time.

AskMeAnything questions are researched by the conpany's staff and the caller is charged 49 cents per question, added to the caller's cell-phone bill; standard minute and text-messaging rates apply.

Go to www.askmenow.com for more information.

Reprinted with permission from Budget Traveler magazine.

[Last modified February 26, 2006, 08:31:21]