Liz Lawley points to two features we all can use on our cell phones:
mobile phone services that make me happy
Over the past few weeks, I’ve found myself using two services a lot on my mobile phone, and when I talk about them at conferences people tend to “oooh” and “ahhh”…so I thought I’d post about them here, as well.
The first is one I thought most people knew about, but I’m finding that’s not true. It’s Google’s “411” service for automated directory assistance. You call 800-GOOG-411, and are prompted for city, state, and business name or type. It then gives you a list of matches, and you tell it which item on the list is the one you want. Then they connect you. There’s no charge for this at all, which makes it a whole lot better than the phone company’s directory assistance. And the voice recognition quality is very good.
The second service I’m enamored with is also based on voice recognition. It’s called Jott, and when you call their number it listens to your message and transcribes it for you. You can have it send the resulting text to you or a contact via email or SMS. You can even have it send the text to a web service like Twitter, Remember the Milk, or your blog. It’s ideal for times when you say to yourself “I need to remember to…” but you don’t have your computer or a notepad handy. The voice recognition is really amazing, and it will let you spell out words that it might not interpret correctly. This evening, for example . . .
(Click here to continue)
I love Jott also! Keeps my brain from overloading.
However, I prefer live agents to automation and use 800-411-SAVE for free directory assistance. They use real people and lookup business, people, and government listings in the US and Canada.
They've now got a funny video posted ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLvUGXL4oCY
Posted by: AlanM | May 30, 2008 at 09:05 AM