• WHAT: A virtually unlimited dictionary, thanks to Google's mobile access
• WHY: Saves carrying another device (or book) and is always available
• COST: Free (cost of sending and receiving a text message)
  

I'm on a mission to reduce the amount of gear that I haul out of the office every day.  So far I've gotten rid of the Blackberry, Treo, laptop (well, most of the time) and lots of other superfluous stuff.  The phone, of course, is always with me as I'm sure it is with you. 

One thing I don't leave without is reading material.  I've learned from past (mostly bad) experiences that it's easy to get stuck places and miserable to be stuck without anything to do.  I'm not a big fan of games (although I've got nothing against them I just personally find them a colossal waste of time) but I love to read.  Magazines, newspapers, the occasional book, whatever.  And I do consider myself to be relatively well-educated with a broad vocabulary. 

However, I don't know the definition for everything I read all the time and certainly am not about to haul around a dictionary.  But I discovered, through the continuing wonder of Google mobile, that I already DO haul around a 3-ounce dictionary that'll pretty much define anything I can throw at it.

It works easily enough - you just send a text message with a simple syntax in it and Google does the rest.  Here's how:

1. Create a text message with the word "define" followed by a space and then the word for which you'd like to get a definition.
2. Send the message to "GOOGLE" (466453, thanks to fixed SMS codes you don't have to spend a lot of time figuring out which codes are assigned to which companies).
3. Almost before you can take your finger off the "Send" button you'll have a message (or two, depending on the length of the definition) from Google. 
   

The only cost involved is that of the sending/receiving text messages.  Google doesn't charge for the service and, at least for the time being, isn't even including ads in the definition replies. 

I'll be talking more about some of the many cool things you can do with Google Mobile later on in this blog.