Many don’t know this, but there is something called a QR code, which is basically a barcode format holding certain data. The example below holds my name, email and phone number. If you have an Android based phone you can use the bar code scanner application to add my contact information to your phone. You simple run the application, hold the phone so that the barcode displays on the screen within the box and it will give you a prompt asking if you would like to email me, call me or add me as a contact.

This image was also created using the Google chart api, so it is very easy to integrate into a site that holds contact information. I think I will add a QR code to my business cards to make it easier for people to save my information. I should also mention it does not have to be an Android based phone. Do a search for QR codes on mobile devices and you should be able to find some solutions.

Today I was in need of sending text msgs to my cell phone using email, but without it arriving as an email it needed to arrive as a standard SMS message. I came across an article on Tech Recipes that solved my problem. Here is the combined list of email addresses. Replace ‘phonenumber’ with your 10 digit phone number (5405551212@tmomail.net).

T-Mobile: phonenumber@tmomail.net
Virgin Mobile: phonenumber@vmobl.com
Cingular: phonenumber@cingularme.com
Sprint: phonenumber@messaging.sprintpcs.com
Verizon: phonenumber@vtext.com
Nextel: phonenumber@messaging.nextel.com
US Cellular: phonenumber@email.uscc.net
SunCom: phonenumber@tms.suncom.com
Powertel: phonenumber@ptel.net
AT&T: phonenumber@txt.att.net
Alltel: phonenumber@message.alltel.com
Metro PCS: phonenumber@mymetropcs.com

This is inspiring me to write a monitoring script that is just for sending email to phones, but that will be another post.