The BlackBerry Patch: Finding Information Quickly

The BlackBerry can do a lot more than let you check your email and calendar and make phone calls. Here are some services that can help you quickly and easily find what you’re looking for:

Google 411

Google offers free voice-activated national yellow pages.  It can be used on any phone by dialing 800-GOOG-411 {800-466-4411}.  It will ask you for the location and the name of the business.  If your cell phone has text messaging, you can request the phone number be sent to you via a text message (if you use the command “text message” after it finds the result).  Otherwise, if you stay on the line, Google will connect you to the business for free.

Cha Cha

What do you do if you need to know the capital of Delaware to win a bet, but have no idea that it’s Dover?   Answers to a lot of questions with quick answers can be retrieved via a service called Cha Cha.  To access the service, either dial 800 2 CHACHA {800 2 242242}, or text CHACHA {242242} and ask your question.  The service will send you back a text message with the answer.

Jott

Jott (Jott.com) is a service that allows you to record a note to yourself.  Jott states, “Simply call Jott and tell us where you want your message to go. We capture your voice, turn it into text, and send it to the destination you chose.”  Jott is free if you are willing to accept some ads and a smaller feature set, but you can pay for the service to eliminate the ads and access the advanced features.