Genuine Curiosity

Author Dwayne Melancon is always on the lookout for new things to learn. An ecclectic collection of postings on personal productivity, travel, good books, gadgets, leadership & management, and many other things.

 

Plusmo == way cool mobile feeds

If you're looking for a new way to track RSS feeds on your mobile phone, take a look at Plusmo. What's a "Plusmo" you ask? Plusmo is a free service that lets you run cool mobile widgets on your phone. Mobile widgets are tiny apps that offer a much better mobile experience for a specific purpose. There are over 20,000 widgets on Plusmo, most of them created by users.

I discovered it because someone is using it to read my RSS feed, and it showed up in Feedburner's report this month as an "Uncommon use" for my feed. Naturally, I was curious so I tried it out and I really like it. You can use Plusmo to "widgetize" any RSS feed (blogs, news feeds, etc.), as well as use existing widgets. One thing I like: it syncs the content to your device so you can read it when you aren't online (like on an airplane) - that helps me use my time more effectively.

What can I monitor?

To give you an idea of what you can monitor with Plusmo, you can subscribe to local weather & traffic, news headlines, comic strips, sports, and loads of other widgets. Plusmo installs an app on your phone that manages displaying and synchronization of content, and it allows you to easily add, remove, and tweak widgets.

Plusmo supports all J2ME MIDP 2.0 and MIDP 1.0 enabled mobile phones, RIM/Blackberry devices, Windows Mobile Smart phones and Pocket PC enables PDAs. Currently, it only supports AT&T / Cingular and Sprint as carriers, but they are adding new carriers and supported devices all the time - you can see the current list of Plusmo's supported devices on their site (the list of carriers is on their FAQ page).

To install, the easiest way is to point your phone's browser at http://plusmo.com and follow the instructions. You can also sign up via their site, which will use your choice of SMS or email to send an install link to your phone.

If you're traveling overseas and need to rent an international mobile phone, our cell phone rental services have you covered. With a world phone, you can make and receive phone calls from anywhere!

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Blackberry: 1-800-Whatever

I've been using a Blackberry with a full keyboard for quite a while, and have always been frustrated about dialing letters or words since the Blackberry doesn't have any kind of indicator what letters go with which numbers. For example, when I want to dial by name on a company phone system, I have resorted to doing the mapping in my head: something like "Let's see...ABC is 2, DEF is 3... dangit!"

Well, I just found out there is a much easier way: When you have to dial by name, wait for the prompt and simply press and hold down the "Alt" key on the Blackberry and use the keyboard to type the name you are trying to dial. The Blackberry will automagically send the right tone to match what you've typed. Awesome time saver.

When dialing 1-800-Whatever, the same technique applies - just punch that into the dialing field in the Blackberry's phone screen, and it will do the math for you.

Bonus feature:

If you work for a company that uses a main number with an automated menu where you can dial individual extensions, try this. Type an extension into the phone screen (such as "x123") and the Blackberry will prompt you to set up your phone for automatic enterprise dialing.

After this is set up, you can simply type the extension number for anyone in your company into your Blackberry. The Blackberry will then dial your main number, pause for the specified number of seconds, then punch in the extension number.

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Yapta gets foxy

I've written about Yapta a couple of times in the past (see "Related items" following this post) and how it's useful for today's airfare climate. As a refresher, you use Yapta's browser add-on to track airfares by "tagging" (or "bookmarking") the exact flight itineraries that you want while searching on airline websites. Once a trip is tagged, all key flight information - including price, airline and travel dates - is automatically stored on the traveler's "My Trips" page at Yapta.com and users are subsequently notified via email when prices drop.

If prices drop after you've purchased the ticket, you are notified when you're eligible for a travel voucher or refund from their airline.

What's new?

In the past, Yapta only worked with Internet Explorer. Well, good news to you Firefox (Windows and Mac) users: Yapta released their Firefox plug-in today. It's free if you want to give it a shot. You can get more info or download the Yapta plug-in for Firefox.

Yapta can be used to tag flights on the following sites:

http://www.Alaskaair.com
http://www.aa.com
http://www.Continental.com
http://www.Delta.com
http://www.JetBlue.com
http://www.united.com
http://www.usairways.com

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Learning from the site of a Trucking Accident

What the heck does the title of this post mean? Well, I'm referring to the TruckingAccident.org Blog where I found a great resource for the road warrior in a post called "The Mobile Productivity Toolbox: 100 Resources to Keep You Productive When on the Move."

Some of the new finds (for me, anyway) from this list include:

  • #4: Mobivox: Get cheap Skype calls even when you're away from your computer and WiFi with Mobivox's service.
  • #7: ProjectStat.us: If you're traveling, you may not be able to field lots of calls and emails about progress on projects. Keep everyone out of your hair by letting them find out with ProjectStat.us. [Note: ProjectStat.us is awesome - and I love their logo]
  • #61: oh don't forget: Get reminders sent to you via SMS with this service. You don't even need an account to do it.

And, as the name of the post implies, there are 97 others. Go check it out!

Oh - and if you are a blogger, you might find some gems in another one of their articles: "Travel Blogging: 100 Resources To Help You Post on The Road."

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Yapta helped me get cheaper flights

A few weeks ago, I wrote about a free service called Yapta, which stands for "Your Amazing Personal Travel Assistant" (get Yapta now, or read my previous post about Yapta). Shortly after I started using Yapta, I bought a couple of plane tickets for a family trip and used it to watch the fares to see if they dropped. My tickets were about $760 each when I paid for them (yep, I know - pricey).

What does Yapta do?

The way Yapta works is that you can tell it what trips you're shopping for, or which tickets you've already bought. From there, Yapta starts monitoring the prices and lets you know when they drop (you can set how far they need to drop before you're notified). If the price drops, most airlines will either give you a refund or issue a travel voucher (depending on their policy) if you contact them before the price goes back up again (you've gotta act fast - those fares change quickly).

Yapta can track fares from the following airlines (currently US-heavy), but they have been adding more to the list:

  • AirTran Airways
  • Alaska Airlines
  • American Airlines
  • ATA Airlines
  • Continental
  • Delta Airlines
  • Frontier Airlines
  • JetBlue
  • Midwest Airlines
  • Ted Airlines
  • United Airlines
  • US Airways

Well, did Yapta work?

About a week ago, I got an email from Yapta on my Blackberry saying the fare had dropped, and I was elegible for a voucher from United Airlines for the difference. They even told me where to call and what to say to get my voucher (pretty cool). I called United, and the price had dropped to $601 per ticket so I got vouchers in the amount of $308.

Now that is what I call an amazing personal travel assistant. It's free - what are you waiting for?

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