Pix2Fone Browser Extension

CNET Editors' review

by: CNET staff on November 22, 2010

Pix2Phone Browser Extension is a free browser extension and Web service that makes it simple to save or transfer pictures from your PC or the Web to your mobile phone. Instead of paying for cell phone wallpaper or messing with USB-to-phone cables and other complex methods, you can save just about any image in your phone with a few clicks, or you can send an image from your picture library, if you prefer. Your cell phone and provider plan must allow WAP or SMS access to use Pix2Phone. It works in Internet Explorer as well as Firefox; we tested the Firefox add-on.

We installed Pix2Phone and restarted Firefox. Before you can use Pix2Phone, you have to activate the free service, a simple process that involves selecting your phone model and entering your mobile number and an activation code. It lists a lot of phones, but if yours isn't included, there's a link to request that it be added. We browsed to an image, right-clicked it, selected Save Picture to Mobile Phone, and activated the service. The program automatically optimizes images for each particular phone, or so it claims. The final step displayed a preview of our image and offered two options, to download the image to our phone via WAP or as a download link via a text message in SMS. We selected the WAP option, and moments later our phone notified us that it had arrived. We opened the image and selected it as wallpaper. The text message option involved selecting our carrier from a drop-down list, entering our cell number, and clicking Send SMS. Soon the familiar sound told us we had a new text message displaying the link, ready for Web access. The service Web site offers plenty of information and instructions, too, including an animated demo and a user forum. You can also send images from your computer to your phone via the Web page. We clicked the Send Now link on the Web page, and a pop-up dialog let us browse our PC, select an image, and send it directly to our phone.

Pix2Phone makes it a lot easier to send images to your cell phone than going through the steps individually. The service is free, and free of adware and other unpleasant surprises, too. It's well worth a look.