Traveling Uses for Cell Phones

Don't have a PDA? Not a Blackberry addict? The mid-range typical hand held phone won't brew you a latte, but has a lot more personal organizing functions than most business travelers think to use:

• Time Piece, with settings for different time zones so you won't ring Hong Kong at 2AM
• Travel Calendar. For days, weeks, months
• Travel Alarm. More reliable (or set as a backup) for hotel wakeup calls
• Event Reminder. Use your travel alarm if you don't have an event reminder function per se
• Calculator. Not so good with arithmatic or long strings of sums? Let your fingers do the adding
• Currency Converter. Euros, yen, Canadian?
• Helpful Information Notepad. Make a memo of your travel itinerary, flight times, bus lines, what level you are parked at, what street your hotel is on, happy hour times, ferry boat hours and what have you. You can either use the memo function in most phones, send yourself a text message, or even call your voice mail with information you might need to remember later. Alternatively, record your own voice for of-the-moment notes
• Address Book. You can also make mailing lists and print them out later
• Make a Travel Category in your phone directory. Add: frequent flyer membership numbers; phone numbers for hotel front desks, travel agents, airlines for confirmations/delay times, favorite rental car agencies, health insurance lines, physicians, your veterinarian, housesitter/pet walker and for the AAA Travel Hotline
• iTunes Music Players. Many cellular phones these days have MP3 Player capacity
• Gameboy - see if your phone has any simple games like solitaire or poker
• Stock Tip Checker
• Sports Scorecard Checker
• Tip Calculator. In the US, cabbies, waiters, hair stylists and baggage porters all expect a tip
• Personal Privacy Device. If you pretend to be listening to music, people in planes are less apt to chat you up
• Email reader. Most phones are networked these days
• Play with languages to help you learn when you travel abroad. Phones have multiple language settings for your amusement
• Luggage Inventory. Take a picture with your camera phone of your bag contents before you zip things shut. This will help recovery when your checked baggage gets lost
• Mileage Log. Take pictures of mileage "befores and afters" on each leg or a road trip
• Packing Checklists. Make yourself a memo of everything you need for the next trip while you're killing time between flights. Review this checklist before packing for future trips
• Other Lists. Make a Before You Leave Checklist with things you won't want to forget. Did you turn off the stove, feed the fish and close the garage door? Checklists give peace of mind
• Video Journal. Use the camera or video camera to make slices of life moments from your travels for family back home
• Learning Tool. Video snippets of lectures, record proper foreign pronunciations from friendly locals, take pictures of power point slides...think "outside the snapshot"

Remember that many mobiles have an Airplane Setting. This means you can use your non-calling options on flights without disrupting air traffic signals.

Have you found creative uses for your mobile phones? List your uses/ideas in the related discussion.

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