MyRatePlan.com's Cell Phone Finder
I don't actually remember signing up for PC Magazine, but I've been getting a copy in the mail for the past several months and it's been nice. As incredible as it seems to want a dead-tree version of tech news and analysis that's usually at least a month or two out of date, I still actually enjoy flipping through the magazine (usually when I'm on the john.)
This month there's a list of a 100 undiscovered web sites, and there was a mobile oriented one that, well, I hadn't discovered yet: MyRatePlan.com's Cell Phone Finder. This is really cool! It's a Flash app that lists all the mobile phones in your area, then you can drag slider controls to choose price and weight and other options, and click on buttons for carrier, manufacturer and must have features and the phones that don't meet your requirements disappear. It's actually quite neat! Check it out for yourself - it's like a live version of that collage I made last Christmas, no?
As a mobile developer it's great to think, "Okay, most people spend around $90 on a phone, which ones does that leave me?" Or "What are the CDMA phones like that are on sale now?" and within a few moments you get a clear picture - literally - of the available handsets. I can see this being very useful.
Now if someone would just make a version that was 1) world wide and 2) included all the phones available for the past 18 months too, that would be *really* useful. :-)
-Russ