Nifty local playthings 1
Feb24
Type in your US zip code and Podbop will give you MP3s of all the bands that are playing in your neighbourhood. Sign up for their podcast and always have a free sample of what is playing around town in your ipod. Bite to eat before the show? Zipmenu lets you view New York restaurant menus and order food online. No more spelling out your name and address on the phone. Google SMS lets you find places to eat on the road. Text your zip code + “pizza” and get a list of the nearest pizza places. Also good for movielistings, directions and weather reports. Who could feel helpless in this city?
4INFO (shortcode 44636) has a similar mobile search text message offering, but provides several additional services that Google does not: sports scores (“lakers” “duke”), fantasy stats (“kobe bryant” “jaromir jagr”), flight times (“swa san jose san diego”) and a beta version of mobile download search. All these services can be accessed via SMS (44636), WAP at http://wap.4INFO.net , or at http://www.4INFO.net.
Why 4INFO instead of Google?
“When asked recently for the address of a trendy downtown Manhattan club called Butter, both 4INFO and Yahoo! located it on the first try. But Google sent back results better suited to baking.”
- Wendy Widman, Forbes.com.