29 What song is that?

Heard a great song playing on the radio and want to know what the title is and who sang it?

Use music identification software, which are increasingly common in cellphones, with many of them available free. Handsets have in-built microphones, which make them the natural choice of device for such applications.

Apple's iPhone has the popular free Shazam (www.shazam.com) tool that does this. Shazam has also released the app for the BlackBerry, Symbian and Windows Mobile platforms.

Midomi (www.midomi.com) is another popular app. Some phone vendors like Sony Ericsson have created their own versions of this software like TrackID.

For PC or Mac users, turn to Tunatic (www.tunatic.com). But you need to install a microphone first for the software to work.

30 Find your BlackBerry PIN

The identification number is found on every BlackBerry and is unique to each device. For most users, it is a quick way to add contacts to BlackBerry Messenger, the internal instant messaging service.

The PIN allows BlackBerry users to send messages and files.

But few users know their PIN offhand and would have to go to Options>Status>PIN. (Options=spanner icon)

It is far easier to start a new e-mail or SMS and type in 'mypin' in the message field. Hit Enter and the PIN comes up and the message is ready to be sent to another BlackBerry user.

31 Using special characters while typing

The irony is, some of us know how to cough up the acute accent on smartphones but not on a regular keyboard.

That is the - in words like fiancé, which the French called the accent aigu. It is used so frequently in the English language, in food (Nestlé), with celebrities (Michael Bublé) and business (résumé), we never think twice about it.

Sometimes, we can even get off not using it when spelling.

But no, it is not passé to use it. Other languages like Spanish and Italian use the accent as well and it can make an overseas business e-mail all the more polished.

On the iPhone, type out the word you want to spell and for the letter with the accent, hold onto the alphabet on the touchscreen and a selection of special characters will pop up, which you can then select from.

For the BlackBerry, type in the letter and, while holding the button on the Qwerty keyboard down, scroll up and down using the scroll wheel until the special character you need shows up.

32 Useful widgets

Customise your widgets on the Home screen by pressing 'Options', then 'Edit Content'.

Choose from the list of installed widgets or head to Ovi Store to download many useful ones like The Straits Times widget for breaking news, or the iGV widget to get the latest movie listings and showtimes.

33 Backup Android contacts

The coolest thing about Android phones is that you now need to maintain only a single database for both your Google Contacts and Android phone.

The phone follows whatever is in your Google Contacts. So if you switch to a new Android phone, just key-in your Gmail address and password and the phone will synch all your contacts over the air.

The danger: If Google's servers crash or you accidentally delete your Google Contacts, they are gone forever. The smart thing to do is to backup your contacts.

Go to Google Contacts in your Gmail and choose 'Export' at the top right hand corner. Select Everyone and export to Google CSV format.

34 Never delete an SMS again

Install an app called SMS Backup on your Android phone and you will never have to worry about running out of space to store all your sent and received SMS messages on your phone.

Whenever you send or receive an SMS, a copy of it is automatically saved to your Gmail account. The SMS messages are grouped as threads and linked to your contact list.

So when I open up a friend's profile in my phone contact list, I see his phone numbers, e-mail addresses as well as all the SMS messages that have been exchanged between us since I bought my Android phone last month.

You can get SMS Backup free from the Android Market service on your phone.

35 Don't get lost

You are waiting for a friend in a park at East Coast with no landmarks that you recognise.

With the Maps app, you can lead your friend to you.

Open the app, tap the circle at the bottom left hand corner and the iPhone will put your location on a map as a pulsing blue dot.

Touch the dot and a dialog box pops up with an address. Tap on the blue arrow in the box and it will direct you to a page that lets you 'Share Location' by e-mail or SMS, then sends your friend a link to Maps so that he can find you.

If he does not have an iPhone, send your location by e-mail. He can locate you using Google Maps. The Google Maps link can be accessed by any ordinary Web browser on a smartphone or laptop.

36 Watch your data usage

So you love using your iPhone to surf the Net, watch Youtube and check your e-mail. But exceed your data plan limits and it will cost you.

To track your usage, download SingTel Data Usage or iBBOM from the App Store. Both apps are free and will tell you what you have used and what is left in the bank.

37 Punctuate quickly

The iPhone's virtual keyboard is tiny, with a four-row Qwerty display that offers no numbers or punctuation marks. To type a number or a semicolon, you have to call up another virtual keyboard by touching the "?123" softkey at the bottom left corner.

Most users then go on to touch the desired punctuation mark in the alternate keyboard, then touch the bottom left softkey again to return to Qwerty.

What a tedious way to add a comma. Here is a trick. When you touch the bottom left key, do not release it but slide your finger over to the comma or semicolon to select. Then as soon as your finger breaks contact, the keyboard reverts immediately to Qwerty.

This story was first published in The Straits Times Digital Life.

For more The Straits Times stories, click here.