The mobile phone may not yet be your all-in-one communications device, but some very innovative Web sites are making the PC-to-mobile connection a very attractive way to stay in touch.

There are many times when we are on the road and need to be connected, but a notebook computer is not always the best solution. If you are an IT worker on the go and the helpdesk needs to get in touch with you, a quick SMS can be an excellent way to transmit the necessary information, and if it can be done automatically, that is so much the better. On a helpdesk, a notification could be sent to an appropriate technician if an urgent job has not been responded to within a certain time frame, or if a server is experiencing problems or has gone down.

I have my system set up so when a person leaves a message on my office voicemail system, the message pops up in my e-mail box. That is rather useful if I am on the phone--I can check the message directly from my pc. If I'm working from home, the situation is similar, but if I happen to be out and about, as soon as a message hits my mailbox, a rule sends an e-mail message to an e-mail to SMS gateway, and the subject of the message "Voicemail Message" is transferred to my mobile phone as an SMS. It does not tell me who has rung, or what it is about, but I have the option of dialling back into the voicemail system and collecting that message over the phone. Rather than sending an SMS from a phone, if you are sitting in front of a Net-connected PC, it is cheaper and often faster (though the new dictionary-based text features are much better) to jump onto a Web site and type out an SMS.

It is often all about setting up systems to leverage the technology we have available to us.

Now that we can buy soft drinks from vending machines using our mobile phones, it might be the beginning of the end of our wallets. How soon will it be before we can open our houses and cars with our phones?

3bells

The 3bells site offers Web-based SMS, e-mail to SMS, icons, and ringtones.

In the Help/FAQ it states "Currently, Horoscopes and Quote of the Day are available. Weather and News Headlines will be online very shortly", but the Horoscopes and Quote of the Day service (called "Info on the Go") has been suspended for the time being.

3bells has its own currency, the "bell", but there is very little information on prices before you sign up. Each new user receives five free bells. After subscribing, you'll find that you can purchase 50 bells for $10 or 184 bells for $35, for a total cost of from 19.02 to 20 cents each.

The joining process is a little restrictive in that you must provide a user name within a fairly strict set of guidelines: A-Z, a-z, ".", and not much else. But you are not told of this until you have done it incorrectly the first time and then you have to go back and fill in the whole form again (as it did not retain the rest of the information).

The site has a "remember me" option, which saves you from having to re-enter your login details--it takes you directly to your home page.

Overall, this is a fairly good site and worth keeping any eye on, but it currently does not have as many features as some of the others out there.

BlueSkyFrog

BlueSkyFrog operates three different Web sites: business.blueskyfrog.com for business customers, www.wapmebaby.com for WAP users, and www.blueskyfrog.com.au for consumer SMS functionality.

BlueSkyFrog for business is designed to allow you to send text messages directly to the mobile phones of your customers, staff, or friends, on any network, to destinations within Australia or internationally. Access is available from the Web site, e-mail client, or by installing the SMS Access messaging gateway onto your own server.

Prices range from AU$12.50/month for a single user to AU$5.00/month/user for from 100 to 999 users with 10 free messages per user, per month (this assumes a 12-month commitment). There is an Easy Start package that gives three months' access and 30 messages for a starter price of AU$50. Extra messages are available at prices from AU$22 for 100 messages up to and beyond AU$7,750 for 50,000 messages.

SMS Access provides a framework and software developer's kit for developers to incorporate SMS facilities into their server and Web applications. Licence fees range up to $19,888 per month for unlimited messages, but if you only have up to 120 messages per month, no SMS Access licence fee is required. You will, however, be required to prominently display the Powered by BlueSkyFrog click-through logo on your site.

The Consumer BlueSkyFrog site is fun, bright, and user friendly. Once you create a login profile using your mobile number and a password (plus other details), you can access all the site's features. According to the description on the site, "BlueSkyFrog brings the Internet to your mobile". SMS services include sports results, stock prices, news headlines, quotes, and much more. You can also schedule reminder messages to be automatically sent at certain times.

Through the service, besides being able to receive e-mail messages on your mobile, you can also send messages from your mobile directly to an e-mail address. From your PC, BlueSkyFrog also makes it possible to send messages to multiple mobile phones.

Other services include ringtone download and an editor that lets you create your own custom ringtones.

How much does all this cost? BlueSkyFrog services are charged in its own currency: bugz. When you first register you are given 10 free bugz, and you can build your account in the following ways:

• You can use BPAY and buy bugz direct from your own bank account;
• You can buy bugz using your credit card;
• You can accrue bugz by recommending friends to BlueSkyFrog.

Bugz cost between 17.28 and 20 cents each, depending on the quantity you purchase. Service costs vary from 1 bug (for sending an SMS from the Web) to 5 bugz for an icon or budget ring tone. Premium ringtones cost 11 bugz because BlueSkyFrog must pay licensing fees.

One feature we found on this site that we did not find on any other was the ability to design your own logos. You can either draw them using the online editor, or upload a 72 x 14 black-and-white bitmap.

This site has all the basic SMS features and a whole lot more. You can have many different types of news, sport, finance and entertainment delivered to your phone, and you can even have all the latest Slashdot articles delivered (see the geek news site).

Entellect

Entellect has a range of products to help the mobile user. The Desktop SMS package will send messages to cellular phones and pagers on over 200 networks around the world from a Windows PC. The free download of the software includes three free SMS messages. All networks within Australia are covered, though the system says it cannot guarantee delivery to Optus network.

The software interface is very space-age looking, with heavy piped edges and scrolling messages. As far as using the system is concerned, it is simple, uncluttered and useful. After the first three free SMS messages users must register the software and pay 22 cents for each SMS sent. Messages can be purchased in lots from 100 to 10,000 though there is no cost benefit from purchasing larger volumes.

Entellect also offers "Mobile Office" connectivity, which is a way to use Outlook for your mobile phone. If you have a WAP-enabled mobile phone, you can access your diary, e-mail, contacts, and tasks from anywhere in the world, right from your mobile phone. There is no need for another mailbox--mobile office accesses your existing Exchange Mailbox using the WAP protocol. No synchronisation is involved--changes made from the phone or the desk are all stored in the same place for instant access where and when you need it. While out of the office, you can be notified via SMS of new e-mails, reminders for meetings, or to-do items. If a meeting changes while you are out of the office, you'll know immediately via SMS and can accept or reject the changes straight from the handset. Mobile Office allows business users to retrieve and work with information from the corporate MS Exchange Server.

Mobile Office features include access to all e-mail, filtered by read and unread status; access to contact information; access to calendar information--view, create, and change appointments; and access to Tasks and notes--view, create, change. The functionality of the product is excellent, and it would be a real benefit to road warriors, but it does take some time to get used to WAP. From an Emulator on a PC it works well, but when you have to start making do with a tiny screen and the limited buttons of a mobile phone, it will take some getting used to.

Your Palm handheld, in combination with a mobile phone or modem, can also be used to wirelessly access Mobile Office. It works using the built-in data capability of these devices to establish a connection to the Internet for your Palm handheld. Using this solution you don't need to buy a WAP-enabled phone to take advantage of Mobile Office--and you can take advantage of the large screen and ease of input on the Palm device to access your office information live.

Mobile Office is installed for you on your own Microsoft Exchange Server. Pricing is based on a setup fee plus a number of tiers. Tier One has a maximum of 20 users and costs $2000. Tier Six ranges from 500 to 1000 users and costs AU$32,750. Additional users over this level are charged at AU$10,000 per 500 users.

GoMo

The GoMo (Go Mobile) site is part of the Strathfield group, and allows you to send SMS messages both within Australia and around the world.

GoMo uses its own currency called "Pins". New users receive 10 free Pins which may be spent on Web-based SMS within Australia (1 Pin each) or Internationally (2 Pins). There are also reminder notes, which you can set up to send you an SMS at some time in the future (great for remembering dates such as birthdays and anniversaries). More Pins are available from 18.5 cents each. You can add a banner to your own Web page to earn 20 Pins and, as the site says, "We will continue to monitor all sites that link to us and they will receive extra benefits in the future".

There are also logos, pictures, and ringtones available at AU$3.50/minute plus GST (this part of the site is powered by iTouch). This site is bright and friendly and very easy to navigate.

ICQ

ICQ, the Internet messaging system, also has SMS capabilities. If any of your ICQ contacts have registered their mobile number for SMS you can send them a message with only a few clicks.

This system also allows replies directly back to the same number that will appear as an ICQ message in your ICQ mail box.

This is an excellent system if you already use ICQ, but the main problem is that it will only send messages to Vodafone mobiles at the moment.

iTouch

iTouch works more in the corporate sector than many of the other sites listed here. The brand name for these services is Business Mobility Solutions.

The first step up the solutions ladder is Corporate SMS. This is divided into three different applications, depending on your business needs.

• WebSMS delivers bulk or individual SMS via a Web browser.
• EmailSMS is an e-mail to SMS gateway.
• FtpSMS uses File Transfer Protocol to send an SMS message to a large number of mobile phones. It is ideal for those who want to send a message to hundreds or thousands of recipients simultaneously.

As an example of how this service can be used, IBM in South Africa has set up a system that uses Corporate SMS to alert engineers of faults on their servers and send pricing information to sales staff on the road.

The second step is WAP, which allows access to a company's backend database (within the WAP limitations) to collect up-to-the-minute information.

The third step is a range of field to office data integration packages known as iSell, iService, and iDeliver. These PDA-based solutions make the back office more available to sales and service people in the field. The aim is to reduce paperwork and possible errors that can occur when information must be entered and re-entered. The solutions make it possible to track billable and non-billable time and make that information available in real-time (or close to it).

iSell is a sales and CRM (Customer Resource Management) solution that allows staff to process orders at the customer's site. The system is being used by Kapiti Cheese, whose sales staff can now deal with orders at the customer's site, instead of calling it through later. And customer service personnel no longer have to re-enter the order back at the office.

iService is a dispatch and management solution that allows a company to track job progress through their service engineers in real time. This allows simpler maintenance of Service Level Agreements (SLAs), better tracking of work in progress, and reductions in paperwork.

iDeliver is a freight and courier solution for real-time job tracking and improved customer service. It allows easy collection of data, sent back to the be stored at the home office for later retrieval either from the office or out on the road.

iTouch has developed over 50 custom solutions for other types of mobile system requirements. One example is a Palm application that is used to collect statistics during rugby matches for reporting to a central database. The application enables the selection of teams and players, and it records the venue, weather, field, and crowd conditions. It also tracks substitutions, scores and injuries.

On the consumer side, iTouch also features a link to the Big Brother site, from which they provide SMS updates on what is happening in the Big Brother House.

Mobe-mail

The Mobe-mail site has free Web-based SMS and e-mail to SMS. There are further premium services available for a fee.

Mobe-mail allows members to resend the subject line of a Mobe-mail e-mail as a short message directly to any suitably enabled mobile phone in Australia. Messages can be sent to phones regardless of the carrier used by the recipient, and can be up to 80 characters in length.

If the person that you are sending the message to is not a Mobe-mail member they will automatically have an account opened for their phone number. They will then be able to access our site using their mobile phone number and a password, which will be sent to them via SMS.

Mobe-mail is planning to introduce a wide range of information services via SMS, with members able to request a variety of information, from sporting results to finance information.

Some of the messages seemed to take quite some time to be delivered (up to 22 minutes), and after the third message we received a message that said "you have reached you mobe-mail.com.au SMS notification limit--please check the mobe-mail.com.au Web site for additional messages", which means you can really only be notified of something four times a day.

The premium service currently offered gives you the option to receive SMS notifications on all e-mails you receive each day; these cost 20 cents each, with a minimum spend per month of AU$5, which includes the first 25 messages.

One great feature of these messages was that they included more than just the subject of the e-mail. In fact, the SMS contained a "full-page" ad, then the sender, then the subject, and then as much of the message as it could fit into the SMS limitations.

Overall, this is an excellent service for Web-based SMS and low-volume e-mail to SMS.

Mobilealert

Mobilealert has a bright and colourful Web site which allows you to send SMS messages from their Web or receive SMS from e-mail sent to yourmobilenumber@mobilealert.com.au. An excellent feature of this site is that you can SMS direct from the front page. All you have to do is put in your mobile number, your password, the recipient's mobile number, and the message.

On the down side, it took over 24hrs to get the SMS with the password to enable us to activate the account.

Each new account receives 1500 points for free and 500 points each day you log in.

Sending an SMS from the Web interface costs 200 points, while scheduled messages and e-mail to SMS messages cost 250 points each. You can earn extra points by clicking on advertising links (+50) and signing up friends (+500). The maximum number of points a user is allowed to accrue is supposed to be 2000, though at time of writing, we have 2500 point in our account.

Many of the details of the points system were gleaned from the "ongoing" page two, which is a little hard to find. This could be greatly clarified to make it simpler for new users (and it is a frequent question in the message board.)

The site has a great message board but the SysAdmin only seems to have been active on it for only the first few months up to 15 October 1999. There is still a lot of useful information in there and people do answer questions, but the interface is bland and there is no way to search.

Generally, this is an excellent site but the delivery speed may be the problem.

Mtnsms

This service is all very smiley and bright and happy (with the default of a bright yellow background). In fact, you can change the colour of the background by selecting the colour you would prefer from the "Mood Flower" in the bottom left-hand corner. There is very little information available before you sign up. Message sending is limited to Vodafone customers in Australia.

The messages are sent very quickly and you also have the opportunity to auto log in, so that the site will remember you next time you log in from that computer (great for your own machine, lousy for shared computers and general access labs). There is no visible message limit, and there are a range of forums available for chatting to other users.

There are some fairly impressive membership/usage numbers on the site (these were shown at time of writing):

• Size of our community: 5,711,929
• SMS sent in last 30 days: 32,626,898
• New members in last 24 hrs: 14,768
• Number of users in last 24 hrs: 602,391
• Messages sent in last 24 hrs: 1,028,211

From the language on the site, it may be a bit difficult for some to take the service seriously. According to the "vision" statement:

1. we r all connected
2. less is more
3. now is the only moment

The terms and conditions disclaimer says:

• we will trust & respect each other :)
• we will b here as long as the universe wants us :)
• u will tell all your friends about us :)
• we are here 2 connect the planet. we respect the privacy of our users. abusers of this service will be tracked and their details shared with the recipient of abusive sms as well as the police if required. message the world with good will & make the planet a better place.

This site is useful, though the choice of networks might be a limiting factor to many people.

Phone Tones

Phone Tones, or Fone Tonez as they are also known, has a huge range of logos for Nokia handsets and ringtones for both Nokia and Ericsson phones. All ringtones and logos cost AU$10 each. The site is quite well laid out and easy to use.

Quios

The Quios (pronounced Kee-Os) site has two separate sections, a business site, and a personal site.

The business site offers three different services that allow your business to contact people on the move, whether they are customers or staff. Q-Messenger is Web-based SMS solution and Q-Caster is an XML gateway product, which enables instant messages to be delivered to end users from any business application. This solution is highly scalable and can deliver millions of messages per day. PlanetQuios is a hosted mobile community application, providing a platform to businesses where customers of similar interests can connect.

The details on the Quios Web site are fairly thin and there is no Australian contact, but if you need a system with virtual communities and excellent worldwide coverage, this might be the way to go.

The personal site, known as My Quios, uses Q-points to send messages. You receive up to 100 free points every month Here is how points may be used:

• Q-Messenger Plus and Address Book--10 per message sent (Web to SMS);
• PlanetQuios subscriptions--5 per report received (community information);
• Q-Remote--10 per message received (personal Web to SMS gateway);
• Q-Mail--10 per message received (e-mail to SMS gateway).

The Quios system will only send messages to the Telstra and Vodafone networks in Australia.

The Q-Remote system allows you to add a section of HTML code to your home page and people can send you SMS messages directly from your homepage.

Planet Quios allows anyone to be a "reporter". Simply sign yourself up to a topic and then post messages for other people to read. The more subscribers you get, the more points you earn. If you are a little more passive, you can simply sign up to receive the reports other people are giving. If you like a report, give it a good rating; if you don't, rate it lower and other people can use that information to decide weather they want to subscribe to that service.

Points can also be purchased online with a credit card. Prices range from 500 points for US$5 to 2500 points for US$20.

This site works well if you are looking for user-published information and you wish to publish information yourself. For general use it may be expensive, depending on the state of the Australian Dollar compared to the Greenback.

Redrock

Redrock has two services available: a simple free Web-to-SMS gateway and a fully featured pay-for-service system. The front page has a rather large Shockwave file that does not seem to display under Netscape, and the main page displays incorrectly (the menu frame is missing). There did not seem to be any problems using Internet Explorer.

On the business side, Redrock offers a range of professional services under the "messagenet" brand (www.messagenet .com.au), including Web-to-SMS, e-mail-to-SMS, as well as direct TCP/IP-to-SMS and dialup-to-SMS. Other services include System and Web site monitoring via SMS and Windows-based SMS.

Pay-as-you go pricing ranges from AU$27.50 for two users and 75 messages, to AU$297 for five users and 1200 messages. Accounts range from the Bronze at AU$33 per month for 150 messages (with extra messages at 44 cents each); the Silver is AU$110 per month with 500 messages (additional messages are 33 cents each); and the Gold account costs AU$495 per month and includes 1800 messages. If you manage to go over that limit, extra messages will cost you 22 cents each.

Redrock can also offer a variety of tailored solutions that can be hosted by the customer, through Redrock's WAP portal or delivered on Link Telecommunications two-way paging network. Solutions developed to date include job despatch applications, corporate news services and mobile e-mail.

Freesms

As the intro screen states, this site is simple and free. FreeSMS allows you to send SMS messages to Australian mobile phones with no cost to the sender or the recipient. It's free because the site sponsors pay the cost through ads appended to the end of the message.

The site is uncluttered and generally fast to load (as there are almost no images). There is one minor limitation, and that is that you can only send 20 messages per day. At one stage we found the site a little slow to connect to, and then the following message popped up: "Sorry too many users are connected. The Web server is busy; please try to connect again later..."

This site is an excellent place to send free SMS messages, especially when more bandwidth is made available.

Whizdiary

How would you like to have your own personal assistant--on duty 24 hours a day? Someone who will remind you of appointments by phoning you on your mobile? Whizdiary will send you telephone numbers, important notes, directions to your next appointment, and even a reminder to watch your favourite television show.

Whizdiary is a personal reminder service, address book, and day planner. Users can schedule reminders, days and months in advance, to be delivered promptly to their mobile phone, e-mail, or pager.

This is an excellent idea, but you can only have e-mail reminders for free--full membership costs US$10 per month with 60 free SMS messages. Additional SMS messages are available for US$10 per 90 messages.

If you are just looking for the free stuff, this site has free and instant SMS messages with no catches that we can see. One drawback is that only the Vodafone network is supported in Australia.

Yourmobile

Similar to the Phone Tones site, this one offers a few free ringtones (also limited to two per day), but most of the content costs AU$2.20 (higher from mobile or pay phones). There is quite a range of logos and ringtones and they are well sorted and can be searched by keywords.

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