TimesToCome Mobile

One of the fun things we first did when GPS hit our WM phones was to Geocache. Geocaching is a game in which people leave small items semi hidden with gps coordinates for you to find. An excellent starting place is Geocaching.com.

I signed up for an account and found at least 50 caches with in a bike ride of my home. I spent much of last summer locating and tagging the caches I located. It’s a nice way to break up a bike ride or walk.

The TUAW has an article on how you can use your 3G iPhone to join the WM mobile users in Geocaching.

Try changing the file extension to .3gp ( 3rd generation mobile video ).

Mp4 s copied from cell phones to OSX often give ‘An invalid sample description was found in the movie. ‘ Changing from .mp4 to .3gp allows OSX to play the movie.

This supposedly works on Windows as well but several people were unable to successfully change the file extension in Windows. If that doesn’t work try changing the extension to .3g2.

3gp is a stripped down version of mp4. In addition it contains information about the size ( height and width) of your video and the bandwidth speed of your phone. Supposedly QuickTime and RealPlayer play them, but good luck getting that to work.

See discussion:
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Shopping with a smart cell phone makes it much easier to see what you need and purchase something at a fair price. We’ve been able to check to verify the correct memory for computers while out shopping, check other car dealers prices while out car shopping and find alternate store locations.

Now you can be shopping at a big box store, especially those known to have several prices on things, text a product name, bar code or upc number to Amazon and receive back their product listing and price. From there you can purchase it from Amazon or continue your purchase at the local store.

“With today’s launch of TextBuyIt, any Amazon.com customer can now use any mobile device to shop and buy from Amazon.com, at anytime, anywhere they are,” said Howard Gefen, Director of Amazon Mobile Payments. “With TextBuyIt, if you’re walking out of a concert and want to buy a CD from the artist you just saw, or if you’re at dinner and a friend tells you about a great book you should read, all you have to do is get out your mobile device, send a text message to Amazon, reply to the response, confirm your order, and your item will be on its way. It’s incredibly simple and convenient.”

In less than a minute and using only text messages, Amazon.com customers can find the product they are looking for and complete a purchase using TextBuyIt. Simply send a text message to “AMAZON” (262966) with the name of the product, search term or a UPC or ISBN code, and, within seconds, Amazon replies with the product or products that match the search, along with prices. To buy an item, customers simply reply to the text message by entering the unique single digit number next to the item they want. Customers will then receive a short phone call from Amazon with the final details of their order and asking them to confirm or cancel the purchase.

When customers choose to purchase something for the first time using TextBuyIt, they will be asked for their e-mail address and shipping ZIP code they use for their Amazon.com account. With this information, Amazon uses customers’ default settings for payment method, shipping address and shipping speed, including 2-Day shipping for Amazon Prime members. [read more Amazon TextBuyIt ]

Just be careful not to announce such bargains to fellow shoppers or Best Buy might have you arrested.

Best Buy called the cops on Alex because he told another shopper that the Jawbone headset he was considering was poor quality and marked up $30 from the manufacturer’s price. [ read more Best Buy calls cops on your for telling fellow customer jawbone headset is overpriced ]