Ultimate shopper cell-phone apps

I recently discovered two very interesting and seemingly helpful text-message based cell phone apps, one from google and one from nearbynow.com.  For the person who loves impulse buying, by sending a text-message to nearbynow.com with the name of a product (sweatshirt) it will send you back a list of stores that sell that product that are near you,  based on the gps location of your phone.  Not only will it tell you what stores sell sweatshirts, it will also tell you the locations of those stores based on how close they are to you, and in some cases provide you a map of the mall it is in.  How helpful this is depends on how many stores in your area allow the service to search the inventories though, so Oxford is pretty slim, but most major cities should be pretty good. You can also use this service online by searching the product you want then clicking the “find local” button.  Once you click this button and choose a location it will put the item on hold in that stores inventory.  Next someone at nearbynow will call that location to confirm inventory, size, and color of the item you want then reply to you with a message like “You’re Air Jordan’s are waiting for you on the second floor of Macy’s! Ask for Jeff.”  Either way, with acceptance and integration into more people’s lives it could be helpful.

The second application is for penny-pinching bargain shoppers.  Say you’re in best buy about to buy that flat screen but you really think it might be a lower price online….well send a text to google mobile and they’ll search the web for top suppliers for that topic and reply to you with the websites and prices it checked.  Ensure the best decision every time!  It doesn’t work with all phones yet..but with google I’m sure it’s a matter of time as long as people embrace this technology.

update on friend-stalking

In one of my previous posts I talked about a phone application called loopt.  With loopt you can find anyone who chooses to use the application by using their cell phone to pin point them on a map.  To my knowledge this was only possible for iphones, blackberries, etc. but now there’s a choice for everyone else!  Mologogo is a web application that after registering, you can find other registered users (hopefully people you know, creep) based on the gps location of their cell phone.  Once located you can send you friends messages about where they are, if they want to meet up or anything.  It also gives the option of marking key points on a map that you might want to visit later or direct a friend to.  Seems more secure than loopt as long as you make your profile private, but still gives your friends/parents/stalker the chance to always find you…