Leave the guidebook at home, pick up the phone

Philips Simplicity Concierge is a service that lets you leave the guidebook at home when traveling to London, Paris, Tokyo or 17 of the largest cities in America.

The service takes information from a variety of publications owned by Conde Naste, such as concierge.com, newyorker,com, wired.com and vanityfair.com, and makes them accessible to travelers through their cell phone by text message.

If you forgot your travel guide in the hotel or just didn’t want to lug it around, you can send a text message to the Cell Phone Concierge with the city code and the category code (dine, shop, feel, see, fun). The system will send you a text message in return with lists of destinations, restaurants, shops and entertainment options: in short, everything you need to know to have fun in the city, minus the heavy guide book.

www.concierge.com