Free Alerts Service; Tips and Help Online

Alerts.com looks like a useful new service, so this week we’ll take a quick look at that as well as note other online tips and help, including tips from Microsoft and the relaunch of our forums.

Receive Information on Your Phone via Alerts.com

Alerts.com is a new freebie that lets you select information you want to receive on your phone, such as news, gas price updates, weather, low airfare price updates, traffic updates, and job postings. You can specify the time and day you want it delivered, and how — e-mail alerts, text message, and even via a phone message.

Once you choose what information you want, you’ll continue to receive alerts until you opt out. Other alerts include press releases, birthday reminders, wake-up calls, your horoscope, and daily tidbits such as quotes and words of wisdom.

I’ll be adding this to our listing of Best Free Phone Resources. These resources work from any phone.

Video Tips from Microsoft

Microsoft has posted 10 one-minute videos on YouTube that give you a quick understanding of some of the special features of Windows Mobile 6 and how to do some specific things. The videos cover the e-mail smart filter that lets you quickly find specific messages, the sophisticated functions of the call history in Windows Mobile 6, using PowerPoint, the new enhancements for Internet Explorer, and the integration with Windows Live. Since I’m still using a Windows Mobile 5 device, I found these videos a quick way to find out what I’m missing.

Simply go to YouTube and search for “Windows Mobile tips.”

Also, we recently looked at Microsoft’s new Total Access site for Windows Mobile users. I wanted to direct you specifically to their Windows Mobile Tips and Tricks page, which has a lot of useful information that will help you get the most out of your phone. And PDA Street sometimes has good tips, including a short guide on how to manage your ActiveSync settings.

Bluetooth Help

Motorola has launched a new site that helps you with your Bluetooth connections. It’s a “plain English” guide to pairing devices. It shows you what devices are compatible with your phone’s Bluetooth and walks you through the steps of making a connection.

Speaking of Bluetooth, PDA Street has a short guide to Bluetooth syncing. The Geekzone used to offer the premier Bluetooth guides, but the site hasn’t been updated in years.

Smartphone & Pocket PC Forums

We recently launched a newly designed and reorganized version of our forums. They’re a great opportunity to get your questions answered by some top experts. This iteration uses the Drupal content management system, and we hope that the more elegant design and robust database, as well as the more relevant categorization, will meet your needs.

Our moderators are very knowledgeable, and they and others will likely be able to answer your questions.

Microsoft’s Forums

Also, Microsoft has forums where most questions seem to get answered by experienced users. The 10 different forums include getting started, tips and tricks, phones, accessories, and more.