Let Your Cellular Phone Do The Driving

Nobody likes a backseat driver, but a mobile phone that gives driving directions could come in handy, especially for business travelers and for tourists visiting unfamiliar territory. Televigation's new TeleNav service provides directions across the continental United States and Hawaii. The service has great potential, but it's too glitchy to recommend for now.

TeleNav requires a Nextel phone with GPS and a subscription to Nextel's Total Connect data plan (the TeleNav service adds $10 a month to the plan price). Nextel's cellular network enables the service, so if you don't have a signal, the GPS can't find you and can't give you directions.

I tried out TeleNav using Nextel's i730 phone in Los Angeles and in the San Francisco Bay Area. There are three ways to input locations for which you want directions: Dictate your destination address into the phone, type it in via the keypad, or access the service via a Web-connected computer first.

TeleNav's voice recognition method sounds convenient, but the service often didn't understand the street names I dictated. And typing in an address using the dial pad was even more cumbersome, not to mention time-consuming. Accessing the service by PC in advance requires more planning, but it's also the most straightforward method, and it worked the best.

TeleNav has BizFinder for locating businesses, too, but I found the yellow-page information terribly outdated. Despite such hang-ups, once I provided my destination address, TeleNav's mapping database was usually good enough to get me there with turn-by-turn instructions. The most helpful part: If I missed a turn, TeleNav recognized that I had gone off-route and offered to reroute me with a fresh set of directions.

Televigation's TeleNav service still has too many rough edges at the moment, but with some work this phone-based navigation tool could become a real travel aid.

Nextel Cell Phone Ringtones -The Beauty in the Beast

Nextel cell phone ringtones are refreshing to the handsome and rugged Nextel cell phones. Depending on your personality you can add to that Nextel power horse of communication, a sweet side using a ringtone.

Imagine your Nextel cell phone ringtone goes off and the person next to you is thinking that's a sexy ringtone. Then you drawn out a Nextel i875 they will just go like "Wow, didn't expect that is what was ringing."

Nextel mobile phones are said to not offer very diverse selection of phone. This has some element of truth as most Nextel phones are manufactured by Motorola. And without the sting of competition one can get lax.

But even with few handsets to select from Nextel phone are some handsome pieces of gadgets. And what better way to further customize it than with a complimentary cell phone ringtone.

Though referred to as Nextel, the cellular company is now Sprint Nextel Corporation. This is after Sprint, another telecom, bought out Nextel in 2005. And as much as the company today is widely referred to as Sprint both by media and employee, many Nextel subscribers still refer to it by it's former name.

Getting cell phone ringtones on a Nextel network many end up being a little tricky. Nextel does not use the regular systems. Unlike other cellular operations, Nextel utilizes the Specialized Mobile Radio band (SMR). But the over 18 million subscribers still need Nextel cell phone ringtones.

Some ringtone service providers have taken this into consideration. The fastest way to tell if a ringtone service provider provides for Nextel is to check for the Nextel logo. This may eliminate the hassle of subscribing and having your subscription rejected. Note that a Sprint logo does not necessarily translate to mean Nextel cell phone ringtones are available. Remember even after merging, Sprint and Nextel still use different systems.

If all else foil, simply subscribe. If you are rejected, well, now you know for sure.