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4INFOTEXT MESSAGING APPLICATION OVERVIEW 4info is a free service that can be accessed on any US carrier and cell phone with Short Message Service (SMS) capabilities. You access this service by simply text messaging a Common Short Codes Number (CSCS) at [44636] with your query. 4INFO is not limited to access by text message, it can also be used with the following: Mobile Web (WAP site accessed @ http://wap.4INFO.net), WWW, and Text Alerts (messages automatically sent to your phone). 4INFO returns concise results abbreviating were possible and will also make recommendations. This application offers great shortcut features for personal and common use. Personal shortcuts can be created when you open a free account with 4INFO and they allow you to define abbreviations for your most common searches. An example of this is creating a code "wnyc" for "weather new york city". Personal shortcuts can currently be used for stocks, weather, sports scores/stats, and movie theaters. Common Shortcuts are similar except they have been put together for free as part of the service. Here are a couple of examples of this: nba = basketball, for the latest scores/stats in the National Basketball Association or m 10003 = movies 10003, for all theaters in the listed area code. These helpful features allow for quicker access to the results that you need, these results also include:yellow pages, horoscopes, hotspots, jokes, news, flights, package tracking, Amazon price checks and more. Lastly, 4INFO provides a mobile downloading center for Cingular users and this allows you to purchase ringtones, games, wallpapers, and much more. This is the only feature that doesn't work for all US providers. Overall, 4INFO seems like a great application to get information on-demand via. cell phone. I have never actually used this application or any text messaging application. However, I tested all the features with 4INFO's live web demo at http://www.4info.net:80/howto/ and found it to be very useful. One thing that stood out was Price checks, this only pulled off of Amazon. I think that they should use a broad search for price comparision like http://www.pricegrabber.com/ so that you can really get an idea for the online market. Also, for sports stats, I noticed if you spelled a name off by one character the query would fail. They should make the search stronger and post options menu for different results in cases like this. Outside of that, I was able to get scores by typing team names (last game and time and place for next game), news like my serach for news hostage (>Journalist's Fate Unknown As Deadline Passes KYW-TV Philadelphia), phone numbers/address for locations, theaters/movie times without a problem. After testing this online, I definately plan to use it in the future and look forward to expierincing it on a cell phone when I need info on the go. |