New and rapidly expanding cellular communications technology, combined with design advances, have turned some mobile phones into mini-computers capable of pretty amazing feats.
As a shopping guide, or to help you use what you may already have, here's my list of 10 cool things you can do on your cell phone:
1 ID that song: Ever been driving around and heard a song on the radio and wonder who it's by and what its title is? Cingular, Verizon Wireless and other providers have special song ID features. You dial a code number, hold the phone to the speaker for a few seconds and within moments you'll see the artist, title and album appear.
2 Have your phone wake you with music: Forget buzzes and beeps. With the new Chocolate phone by LG, you can set your music as an alarm. The Chocolate also features a customizable audio equalizer, so when you're listening to rock music you can set a rock audio effect.
3 Text message a landline phone: Several companies now offer text to landline messaging. From your cell phone, you can send a text message to any landline phone just as you are used to doing with mobile. Some companies charge the sender 25 cents per message but this is a very cool feature. Your text message is converted into a recorded voice message that is played back for the recipient, who can reply to your cell from the landline.
4 Scan in a business card: On certain phone models like the LG VX9800, you can take a picture of a business card and have the contents transferred to your phone's address book.
5 Have your text messages read back to you: Several wireless phones have a text-to-speech feature that will read text messages to you. There is also a $28 application called Vemail Voice Email 2.0 (http://www.nch.com.au/vemail/index.html) that enables you to read e-mail and easily reply by speaking.
6 Hear turn-by-turn directions: Verizon Wireless offers something called VZ Navigator that turns your cell phone into a navigation assistant. Lots of providers have add-on devices that do this but this is all self-contained on eight of Verizon's most popular phones. Type in an address and it gives you audible instructions on how to get there. It also has a database that helps find ATMs, gas stations, restaurants, grocery stores, banks and more. It costs $9.95 a month or $2.99 if you only need it for a day.
7 Print pictures: As cameras in cell phones get better and better, this feature really helps. Some phones like the Samsung SCH-a990 let you print photos directly from your phone to a Bluetooth-enabled printer.
8 Watch a movie: This may be the coolest trick of them all. Using a $27.95 application called DVD to Pocket PC (http://www.makayama.com/dvdtopocketpc.html) you can copy full-length movies from a DVD onto a memory card on your phone. The quality is really quite good. A 1GB memory card can hold a dozen or so movies.
9 Multitask during meetings: Both the new Palm Treo 700w and 700p smartphones have a nifty feature that lets you ignore a call and quickly compose a text message such as "Busy in a meeting" or "Can't talk right now" by selecting the "Ignore with text" option from the incoming call screen.
10 Don't be in the dark: Use your cell phone as a flashlight. Turn on the screen to give you enough illumination to put your key in a lock. Some phones like the Audiovox CDM 8940 have a camera flash that can be turned on as a steady light for 10, 15 or 30 seconds.
Mike Wendland is a nationally syndicated technology reporter and the publisher of the Tech Tips Today (http://www.techtipstoday.com) blog.