uboot.com > Reviews > The ultimate site to Txt ur m8s

Author's product rating:   

Navigation	Good
Features	Excellent

Advantages:	Absolutely free, totally addictive, and lots of fun .  And it wont fry your brain .
Disadvantages:	Chat rooms are a bit lacklustre, and what exactly does Uboot mean?

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I thought I had better write I review on Uboot as it seems to be the site which has swallowed up most of my surftime for the past few months, and decided I needed to justify my actions. So here goes......

Uboot is predominantly a SMS site, used to send text messages to mobile phones, absolutely free of charge. Being very anti-mobile myself, I do not own one of these "wonders of new technology", meaning the only way I can communicate with my more accessory-concious friends is to use this site to send them a text, save from using the home phone and racking up an astronomical bill, making my parents rather less than happy. So Uboot has been a bit of a Godsend, meaning I can keep in touch with my peers without having to fry my brains out, or annoy everyone around me when I sit on a train and my phone goes off. I still retain my dignity, thank God, and this is mainly thanks to Uboot and its SMS sevice.

But Uboot isn't simply a site for people who refuse to buy a mobile phone, oh no. The site is literally saturated with extra features for those who like to communicate, both with those that you know and those that you've never met before. Having registered with the site, which only takes a minute and requires you to give your name, E-mail, and mobile number(if you have one), you are given full access to all the site's features. I've tried to tell you about them all, but not being a mobile user I cannot guarantee that I've given you all the info.....you'll have to take a look for yourself.

Firstly, there's the fact that you are given a Uboot specific mobile number, so that other people online can contact you, in SMS, as an alternative to e-mail. It's quite fun, though you are limited to 160 characters,as you are with all text messages from the site. If you own a mobile, Uboot can link this number to your mobile so that if one of your online buddies contacts you, you can get their messages wherever you are, and it is far safer than handing out your real mobile number online. As well as the SMS number, you will recieve a free email address, which will be yourusername@uboot.com. You will probably already have a main email address, but this serves as a good spare, should you want one. The email and SMS services are generally very fast and reliable (I've had no problems) and being free they are a great resource to have access to.

To accompany the email/SMS aspect is the adress book, a very handy little thing which will hold the emails, mobile numbers, and uboot SMS numbers of your mates, so you don't have to go through the lengthy process of typing in a number every time (Uboot is obviously tailored for the lazy generation). The book will store both Uboot members and non-members alike, and will automatically store someone you text, if you so wish. A similar feature which can be used on Uboot and on mobiles (though I've not tried it on a phone) is the buddy list. This is where you compile lists of up to ten people, say "workmates" or "clubbingbuddies" and Uboot will allow you to compose a text message which will be sent to everyone on the list, both on their phones and on their uboot numbers, if they have them. Very handy for messages like "r u coming out 2nite?" (written in authentic phone language), wher all your mates can then reply individually.

Moving away from the SMS aspect are the chatrooms, where you can meet up with new friends, or chat with present ones, while you are on the net. I have to admit I have not used them much finding them a little hard to follow and a bit boring. So I'll move on to my favourite feature, the nickpage. This is where every Uboot member is given their own miniscule amount of webspace, with space to write about yourself, your interests, your favourite webpages and the like. It comes with a counter to see how many visitors you've had, showing how popular, or unpopular, you really are, and, the best bit, a message book where anyone can leave you a note about anything. Try it for yourself to see how much fun it is. The URL for your page will be www.uboot.com/u/yourname and it is a really fun part of the site.

I think I've probably said enough about the site now, and I hope I've justified my somewhat excessive usage. Give it a go, and you might get as hooked as me. If you do join, leave me a message on my nickpage and tell me what you think.