Pay for parking via SMS

A transportation authority in Italy has release a great new service that enable drivers to pay for parking via an SMS message. Not only does this service allow you to pay via SMS, you can receive an alert about when your parking is going to expire.

Drivers wishing to use the services provided by Atac must provide credit card or bank account info via their website before using the service.

And yes, this is only available in Italy through Atac, but you can bet your butt that it’ll be coming soon to a parking garage near you!

[Read more here.]

Still poking at your phone to text message? Try this!

Now that cell phones are getting smaller and smaller, it’s getting harder and harder to hit those tiny keys. Nuance Communications has released a new software specifically for mobile phones to eliminate having to poke at your phone. It is a mobile speech platform that translates voice into text.

Not only goes it do that, but it does much more. Users can speak natural queries to find ringtones, locate the nearest Starbucks, search the Web, or dictate a complete SMS or email, and much more. This is much better than other speech programs that are available, only allowing basic queries like “Call Sarah at work”.

Ok, so this sounds pretty cool, but is it fast? The answer is yes! So how fast? Well Nuance had a competition versus Ben Cook, the worlds fastest SMSer to put it to the test. Well, the Nuance software beat Ben and other SMSers hands down. To take a look at more info about the contest, click here.

[For more info about the software, visit Nuance.com]

The 9 use cell phone charger!

Nowadays everything has more than one use, but the cell phone charger was always just that. Well thanks to Athena Brands, Inc, the cell phone charger has much more than one use!

Ok, well maybe it’s not your typical cell phone charger, but it will charge your phone and thats what counts. Did I mention that this is the outdoors man (and woman) dream come true? Well anyways, it is! This device has a wooping nine (9) functions! It has:

1. A lantern
2. 15 red and white LED emergency flashing beacon
3. An AM/FM radio (I know, impressive)
4. 120 decibel siren
5. Night light (same as lantern, maybe)
6. Ultrasonic moqsquito repeller
7. DC charger
8. Mp3 cord
9. And of course, the cell phone charger!

But wait, so you’re camping in the middle of the woods and the lantern/radio/cell phone charger/etc goes dead, now what! No worries, Athena has thought of everything! More…

Is SMS part of the past due to it’s brother?

Well probably just not yet, but in a few years it may just be part of the past that you once knew. And who is its brother? VSMS or SVMS, or possibly better known as bubbletalk. Call it what you want, it is still the same thing - Short Voice Messaging Service.

It works the same way that text messaging works, but now with your voice. All of the options are the same - reply, forward, discard, etc - but now it’s a music to the ear (ok maybe not if your ex left a VSMS). Either way, VSMS will eliminate having to poke at the tiny numbers on your phone to send a short message to a friend.

So when’s this coming? Where it is available? Check out more at bubblemotion.com

SMS controlled irrigation system? Are you serious?

No, this is not a joke. Just when you thought SMS couldn’t go any further, it has gone just one step further - and I’m sure new ideas will pop up daily.

An irrigation system was recently installed at a sports field in Willoughby, Australia, the northern part of Sydney. The system is controlled by a computerized system, but if rain is in the forecast city officials can turn it off via a text message.
The system is called “Cloudmaster”, and has been installed at six other local high school fields. City officals said that Cloudmaster will reduce water waste by enabling staff to monitor and control irrigation from a remote location rather than manually changing the program at each site.

My question is, why not connect remotely with a PC? Wouldn’t that be the same exact thing, only you wouldn’t have to install this new irrigation system?

Anyways, article was found here.

Now you can be James Bond - Control your car with your phone!

Ever wanted to control your car via your computer, or even cell phone? Well, you guessed it, it’s here.

Before you even get to your car, you can have the windows down, radio on your favorite station, and the car started for you. Talk about impressing your friends - and now you can do it a with a few pushes of some buttons.

Technology from Connect2Car has made all of this possible, and even more. You can control everything in your car with their device, here is a short list of some of them; windows, putting the top down, radio on/off, start the car, honk the horn, and more. Even better, if you have a custom car with hydraulics, lambo doors, TVs (they’re almost standard now though), or anything else, you can probably control it with your phone using the Connect2Car device!

Best of all, the pricetag isn’t unreasonable. Starting at $219 (USD) and up to $539 if you want more advanced controls.

[Check out more info @ Connect2Car.com]

Email to SMS is becoming a great new service

Ever been writing an urgent email and wanting to send it to your pal, who you know isn’t near his computer and isn’t going to be for a few hours. Well the solution is here, and it looks to have a great outlook.

Recently domain and web hosting providers have been offering a new service free of charge to anyone using their primary services. One is VoxDomains.com and another is Bonphire.com, both of which seem to work the exact same way. When you are composing your email, you can choose whether you want the email to go to email only, SMS / text messaging only, or both. From there you can enter the email addresses and/or phone numbers. There’s also a function that allows users to keep the email within the 160 character limit for text messages.

[To check out more on this, take a look at VoxDomains.com and Bonphire.com]

Ever want to just scream after you’ve ‘lost’ your phone? Now the phone will scream for you!

Did you know that approximately 10,000 mobile phones are stolen every month? Perhaps you have been one of the unlucky victims of phone theft, and yes, it sucks. All of the data remaining on the phone is now in the hands of someone that wants to use it for everything he or she can. To top it off, studies show that on average, it takes 30 seconds for someone to notice that their phone is missing. Ahhh!!

Well, Synchronia has released a mobile phone software that will do just that, SCREAM! With Mobile Manager from Synchronia you can remotely turn on a scream feature, which will release an annoying and embarrassing high pitched noise from the phone. The software however can go far beyond a scream. With it you can remotely lock and wipe the data from the phone. It can also be used for business to update and remotely install software on company smartphones.

[To learn more about the software, visit Synchronia.com]