Bydio

Yup, they’re annoying, they’re long, they run up your bill… they’re cell phone voicemail messages.  David Pogue of the New York Times found out how to get around the messages and get right to the *beep*:

Verizon: press *

Sprint: press 1

T-Mobile or Cingular: press #

But you have to know which carrier the person you’re calling is using.  Well, he has a solution for that, too:

Just add the instruction in your greeting! That’s the best of all worlds: your callers hear your voice but not the recorded lady’s, and they don’t have to remember what the keystroke is.

So in your cell phone greeting, tell people they can press “X” to go right to the beep.  Simple.

Just so you know, I’m on T-Mobile.

David Pogue, rock on!