For most of us, electronics are like the weather: we complain a
lot but don’t do anything about it. So periodically you come
across products that solve those complaints and make you wish
you had done more than just gripe. This is the first in an
occasional series of items I have found that intrigue me in that
way.
Top of my list: SimulScribe (simulscribe.com). It is a $10-per-
month voicemail service that you can use to replace your
cellphone, office, or home voice mailboxes – or any combination
of them. That alone is valuable, giving users a needed central
collection point for messages. But the key innovation in
SimulScribe is that it uses speech recognition technology to
transcribe your voicemail and then sends it along to you as an
email that contains both the transcript and an audio file.
Transcriptions aren’t perfect – bad connections and certain
voices fool it – but they are usually good enough to give you
the gist of the message and let you assess its urgency. When in
doubt, you play the audio.
This is a huge time-saver: no wasted calls to check on empty
mailboxes; you get the messages as they come in. It is a plus
for smartphone users, as you can discretely check your voicemail
on screen without making a call. I personally find it helpful
since I pay little attention to my cell while I am using my
office phone and vice versa. My guess is that sooner or later,
all voice mailboxes will work this way.
Check out the SimulScribe service here:
© 2007 Al Gordon.
In addition to his computer interests, Al Gordon is a political
and media consultant in the Boston area.
