Odds and Ends

In Deer Valley, Utah they sure do - and this blog entry is coming to you from a picnic table at 9800 feet on my personal favorite Blackberry Curve 8300.

When I was a kid (way before everyone carried a cellphone, a wireless PDA or a blackberry), we always took ski vacation somewhere in the Rockies. I have “fond” memories of stopping constantly at the mid mountain lodge so my dad could use a payphone to call his office and check in; we were stuck standing in a crowded lobby with other families waiting for a turn on the payphone while all that fantastic ski time went wasted.

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The holidays are stressful enough; add in travel, weather delays and other travelers, and you might be tempted to stay home. But don’t despair, the Wirefly Blog team has assembled the Top Ten Mobile Travel Tips to keep your holidays bright.

Before you Go

1) Save all your contacts before you go; including cell phones and destination phone numbers. If you’ve made any travel arrangements, save those numbers as well. Include your travel agent if you’re using one – it’s easier than trying to find those papers in a crunch.

2) If you’re traveling overseas, know the local emergency number – in many countries it’s 112 rather than 911, but better to be sure before you need it.

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No more searching for quarters or running back to your car to feed the meter before parking enforcement gets there. Sound good to you? Sounds great to me, especially in the Washington, DC, area where parking violations can run up to $125 per incident. San Francisco is testing a system to allow drivers to pay parking meters with their cell phones.

To initiate the service, a driver need only call a toll free number on the meter and establish an account, by providing a credit card number. At that point,l To pay for meter time, it’s a matter of entering the amount of time needed and the meter number. Drivers will receive a text message before time runs out reminding them and prompting them to add more time without having to return to the meter.

Parking Enforcement will have special wireless devices in order to check the status of each space so that tickets will not be given to those who have paid by cell phone. San Francisco will be testing three different services for 90 days and collecting feedback from users and residents. We’ll be watching and hoping the pilot program goes well.

What makes Wirefly better than any of the carrier sites (besides much lower prices) is that we allow people to shop across all carriers. That makes comparing wireless rate plans a snap.

To make that task even easier, we redesigned the Wireless Wizard — a unique and very cool plan-comparison tool that lets you enter basic information about your current cell phone plan and then shows you which plans would save you money on your monthly bill. Even if you know you got the cheapest plan when you first signed your contract, the way you use your phone might have changed. Combined with the fact that carrier plan options change all the time, that’s a great reason to go back and make sure you’re still on the cheapest rate plan available.

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The phone number used to be as familiar as our own home numbers. Where I grew up it was 844-1212 and a familiar, soothing voice would say, “At the tone, the time will be…” But as of this week in California, the time ladies are falling silent. Old equipment isn’t worth repairing, the phone companies are eager to turn those reserved exchanges into working phone numbers, and cell phones have replaced the need for dialing to get the current time.

When the time service originated, an actual person read the time live when a call came in – that gave way to recordings in the 40s. But now that equipment is obsolete and the phone companies are electing not to replace it as the service is no longer as popular.

Apparently watch manufacturers are having similar problems marketing to those who have grown up with cell phones – they never developed the habit of wearing a watch except as a fashion statement. The most common reason cited for preferring a cell phone for telling time is that it automatically updates with time zone changes.

According to the Washington Post, Sprint Nextel Corporation’s plan to build a cell phone tower disguised as an agricultural silo in Loudoun County (a Washington DC suburb) has been put on hold. County officials voted to send the proposal back for more debate.

Wireless companies regularly disguise cell phone towers to better fit into their environments, but even then can find strong community resistance to the idea. (Everyone wants great reception in their driveway; but no one wants a fake silo or fake palm tree in their neighborhood.)

Photo by jimmywayne22

Ever reach for your phone convinced it was ringing or vibrating, only to realize you didn’t have an incoming call after all?

You are not alone, says a study conducted by David Laramie and presented at the American Psychological Association’s annual convention. And the more you use your phone, the more often it happens.

There have been a few theories for this “phantom ringing”, ranging from the scientific to the nefarious. Is it a conspiracy by the advertising industry? Or do you subconsciously believe you’re so popular that surely someone is calling you right now?

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