33 ways to sex up your cell phone

(16) Pay with your cell phone, part 2. Paypal, an online payments processor, lets you send payment to people via your cell phone. After registering for a free account at Paypal, you can activate the mobile payment option. To get money into or out of your account, you can “add” either or both of a bank account or credit card. (You can also get paid from Paypal by check.) When you want to make a payment with Paypal on your mobile, you can send an SMS text message to Paypal, specifying the person who is being paid, either by their Paypal account name (email) or their phone number. They will have to be registered with Paypal as well.

(17) Go green. Use your mobile in an environmentally friendly way. Cellphones (and many other electronic devices) are generally manufactured with toxic chemicals which create disposal issues. If you want to do your part to ensure that there will be a next generation, you should consider joining the efforts of companies and organizations who are developing cell-phone disposal options that will help make the next generation of mobile technology more “green.” The consortium isn’t just a paper tiger; Nokia’s phones, for instance, have not contained polyvinyl chloride (PVC) “for the past year”, and the company expects to fully stop using components with brominated flame retardants (its motherboards are now BFR-free) “by early next year.” Want to make a difference now? Unplug your charger after using it; your planet will thank you.

(18) Go batteryless. Go green, part 2. The Aimulet LA is a new type of communication device that is made of bamboo and has no battery. Instead, they phone is powered by spherical solar cells, which are are ecologically-friendly and activated by light.

(19) Make a custom skin. There are tons of vinyl, stick-on skins offered by Skinit.com. But even with all the categories and designs they offer, the company knows that the ultimate in personalization is… personal. Photo-upload capability is provided, meaning that you can create your own one-of-a-kind skins from your own digital or scanned photographs. The skins — whether chosen from the many graphic designs or whether designed from your photo — cost $14.95. For your techie friends, think about customized skins as a gift idea; the site sells PIN card codes (one code = one skin) you can give to friends and family, and let them design their own style. If skin isn’t your thing, how about fur? Fun Friends uses “cutting edge plush technology” to bring you cute cat, dog, monkey, mouse — and a host of other — covers for both bar-type and flip-style phones. These furry covers usually cost under 10 dollars each, and they can be combined with a matching $2.99 keychain/ backpack accessory for the full look.

(20) Fix unsightly blemishes. If your phone’s display looks like an icerink after a hockey game or two, you may be interested in Displex Display Polish, an inexpensive product which removes scratches.

(21) Surf the web, even with an old, cheap phone. Don’t let not having a smartphone or PDA prevent you from Internet content surfing. Opera Mini, the software of the Opera web browser has been developed for all WAP-enabled phones, is now in its second release. Version 2.0 enables browser skins, “speed-dial” bookmarks, and rich-content (such as MP3s) downloading. What will it look like (and how will it work) when you’ve installed it? Check out the simulator on the Opera Mini website. Find out more about the mobile web, and the .mobi domain.

(22) Create an IM-like away message for callers and texters. Jaiku lets your friends know where you’re at, and whether you can respond to their calls and text messages. Very much still in beta, the application publishes your

… IM-style away line, your phone profile (ring volume, vibrate), location (country, city/region, neighborhood), Bluetooth devices around, upcoming calendar events, and the amount of time your phone has been idle.” (from the Jaiku blog)

Certainly worth investigating, the service currently works only on Symbian-enabled Nokia Series 60 Second Edition phones, and moves a lot of data. If your carrier charges data traffic by the kilobyte, you may wish to pass on this.

(23) Chase teens away without bugging the adults around you. The discovery that an irritating, high-pitched sound that kids and teens can hear but cannot be heard by adults has led to interesting applications. Used by adults via loudspeakers to disperse unruly packs of teenagers from malls, the ‘Mosquito’ sound has been adapted by teens into ‘Teen Buzz’ – a ringtone adults can’t hear. With students’ texting alerts set to Teen Buzz, teachers will need eagle eyes to catch cheaters. If you’re a parent, the sound can be used to de-child the TV room prior to mature programming. With the spread of the ringtone into mobile phones, the technology is certain to find other mobile applications such as a chemical free bug repellant that emanates from your phone.

(24) Gambling through your mobile. Imagine if all the time you spend waiting – waiting for dates, buses, and airplanes, could be spent doing something fun. Something like playing games and winning cash for instance. Mobile gambling has been around for a few years now, and its spreading quickly. As noted by Impact Lab — if you’re a UK-based mobile phone user between 20 and 35, there’s a 50 per cent chance you’ve already tried mobile gambling. Established poker sites like PokerRoom.com provide real mobile poker play for mobiles. Just make sure you don’t lose your online poker bankroll and that online gambling is legal in your country.

(25) Upload videos to YouTube. If you’re not into cameraphone art contests (see item #4 above), maybe you want to share your video masterpiece with the world at YouTube (now owned by Google). YouTube allows mobile uploads which means that you can touch up your videos and pictures without having to start up the computer.

(26) Connect your laptop to the Internet with your cell. If you have a cellular wireless plan (see item #9 above) for your cell phone, you can use your wireless plan to hook up your laptop (or desktop) to the Internet. This is usually called “dial-up networking” and there are a couple of ways you can do it, depending on your phone: either with a special USB cable or using Bluetooth. Engadget tells you how to connect a Pocket PC phone, but the process is similar for most phones.

(27) Watch time-shifting mobile TV. If you don’t want to pay for expensive mobile TV broadcasts (see item #7 above), you can also watch content that you’ve recorded onto your hard drive. One option is TivoToGo Mobile, another is Orb. Your ability to use either service may vary by where you live, but assuming you can use the service, you can watch your fave shows on the go. Orb also lets you access your photos, audios, and other video content download from elsewhere. Orb is free, TivoToGo Mobile requires specific equipment.

(28) Boost your call signal. Stop dropped calls by boosting your cell signal through a personal amplifier. A antenna setup for a single cell phone will run you only $200, whereas an antenna for all the calls made in your house or car will cost you closer to $400. Either way, this is a great way to eliminate once and for all the ‘dead spots’ in your home, car, or any other building.

(29) Blog from your phone. Have a weblog and want to post to it on the go? TypePad Mobile and other web services let you do this. TypePad Mobile works with Palm OS 5, Windows Mobile 5, and Symbian Series 60 phones/ PDAs (at the time of this writing).

(30) Add some input. If you are planning to blog from your phone/ PDA, typing up stuff is much easier with a fold-out portable keyboard. Almost every smartphone and PDA has a compatible keyboard available.

(31) Mess with NoMess. A fun yet challenging game is NoMess (or PalmGear), which is sort of a combination of othello, go/ gomoku, and chess. It’s super-addictive, and will make any long airport or traffic delay pass really quickly. It can actually function as a stress-reliever but the game requires patience and forethought. Unfortunately, it’s only for the Palm OS platform (any PalmOS-based phone/ PDA, not just Palm devices).

(32) Play Quake. You’ll need a Nokia N93 phone, but with it, you can actually play Quake online. Yes, that means actually playing with and against other players around the world, all from your cell phone. Pretty awesome.

(33) Get a Mobal world phone. Anyone who travels around the world knows what a pain it is to try to call home. Mobal solves all of this by offering a mobile that works anywhere in the world. This is a great gift for the world traveler, whether that’s you or a friend or family member. There are two packages, including the 140-countries and 160-countries plans. The latter includes US service. Both packages include a lifetime phone number that works in all of the countries where you have service.