• WHAT: Local information including events, gas prices, places to take a date and more
• WHY: Instead of searching for info about your neighborhood it's always ready for you
• COST: Completely free (carrier data charges apply)

There are as many ways to get information about what's happening in your local neighborhood as there are neighborhoods.  I get my information from Yahoo local, a couple of daily and weekly alerts sent by email (check out Daily Candy for a cool email if you're interested in getting one cool thing each day sent to you) and even a local newspaper.  But sometimes you need something while you're out, something spur of the moment, something special to keep the kids occupied or keep the romance alive with a spouse.  What to do?  Stop and pick up the newspaper?  Of course not - after reading The Wireless Wizard for a while you've become an official Wizard's Apprentice and know that there's a way to do it from your cell phone.  So here we go...

The people who invented this service call it a "lifestyle portal" - I call it a "local concierge in your pocket."  (Hey, after spending 1000+ nights in hotels around the world, I can't help but think in terms of the staff at places I stayed who guided me to the best restaurants, sights, jazz clubs, shopping, etc. when I see a service like this.)  The service is called "GetMobio" and it's totally free - presuming your phone can support the software (most phones can but you need to check on the GetMobio web site.) 

Your first step will be to go the GetMobio site and create an account.  All that's needed is your mobile number (so that they can send a text message to you with a link for you to download the software) and one, or more, locations.  This is actually one of the nicer features of the service - you can have multiple locations such as home, office, gym, Mom's house, etc., programmed in so that when you are at those locations finding things is easy.  Once you download the software to your phone it'll reside in the "Games and Apps" area.  You'll only need to enter your user ID one time and from that point forward you'll just launch the application and it'll remember who you are.

There are multiple categories of things to do, places to go, sights to see, events to attend and they're all segmented into cleverly designed areas that give you a clue ahead of time about what you're likely to get.   You'll find sections for "Date Night" (including restaurants, coffee shops, florists, etc.), "Out With the Kids" and even "Panic Kit" for when you need something to do or buy at the last minute. With a touch of whimsy they've put ice cream places in the "Chilling Out" section. 

I have found a couple of glitches in that some of the local "events" aren't exactly local, and sometimes clicking the "Back" button while in the application causes it to hang for a while.  And who put the "Cricket Centre" in their sports section... does anyone really care about cricket?  There's no baseball or basketball coverage or schedules, no hockey listed, no high school or college sports broken out into a separate category, but there's cricket. Besides all this, if GetMobio is really trying to be a lifestyle portal, in my humble opinion they can leave the sports coverage (along with news, stocks, entertainment, etc., which aren't offered yet but might be if sports is already offered) to the other portals.  I hope they don't get carried away trying to make GetMobio all things to all people - a lifestyle portal or local concierge that focuses on doing one thing very well could be so much more appreciated by users. 

But overall it's pretty stable and even on at standard data speeds (i.e., not EVDO or HSPDA... fancy acronyms for high-speed data connection) the pages load quite snappily.

So, if you're not a Yahoo user and don't want to open a Yahoo account, this is an excellent alternative to the "Yahoo Go!" service (which will be reviewed in a future post).  And even if you are a Yahoo user - as I am, for a number of reasons - this makes for a great application that you can access for quick, deep information about what's happening in the local area. 

Full disclosure here - at one time I was the President and Chief Operating Officer of Go2Systems, which was putting together "live" directories like GetMobio has here, but with a twist.  Go2 was attempting to get businesses to "accurize" their information, which would have made a wonderful service if only businesses would have cooperated.  In any event, this service offers a great local directory with some fun ideas about what to do on a date night or while you're out with the kids.