Voicemail to Text: Callwave, PhoneTag, and You

For about a year I was a mildly happy user of CallWave.  To be honest, their service didn't do a great job of converting my voicemails to text - and it usually messed up the transcription in ways that made me laugh.  So I kept their beta service active on my phone, figuring it would get better.

After about a year, I never saw much improvement in the service.  They did send me a nice email asking if I'd be interested in upgrading.  It seemed that the only plan that would "cover" my needs was around $40/month - eek!  I opted to continue using the free "beta" service, as I saw nothing that led me to believe the actual transcription quality was any better on their premium offering.

Then, about two months ago, they sent me a fairly nasty note saying I had 48 hours to upgrade before they discontinued their beta service.  This didn't rub me the right way: I don't like having a gun held to my head, wasn't pleased with their offering or pricing, and felt that if they were going to put me (a free, leechy user) over a barrel once, they'd probably do it again.  So I started shopping. [To be fair, a day later they ended up extending this period to 2 weeks, but I was already gone by then...]

I came across several, but Simulscribe (now PhoneTag) and SpinVox were the only two that stood out as viable options.  I liked what both services offered and intended on trying them both.

However, after nearly two months with Simulscribe/PhoneTag - I have been very, very happy.  The quality of the transcription is excellent, and the service consistently works well!  I'm going to stick with them - and hopefully convince someone else to try SpinVox at some point in the future so I can compare.

Signup with Simulscribe using this link, and you and I will both get 30-days free.  Yay!

MC Yogi's "Vote For Hope"

A friend of mine forwarded this great video of MC Yogi's "Vote For Hope" - written and performed by MC Yogi and produced by Robin Livingston.

The production quality impressed me, and it's a good tune too!  I actually d/l'd the track from Yogi's site and have it in today's playlist.  :)  Check it out!

Even Google isn't very optimistic today...

I realize the Dow is down Goog, you guys included.  But you really couldn't find one more or less article related to this to report on?

 

Artists + Technology = Hilarity

So a good friend of mine is an excellent artist - with talent (and hair) flowing freely from his ears.  But sadly, when it comes to technology he can be all thumbs.  To be fair, he's actually better than what I would expect from his paintbrush wielding brethren - but if I had a quarter for every time I told him to "Google it," I'd be Larry Brin.

This is the Callwave transcript (which is about as accurate as a Magic 8-Ball) from a voicemail I received from him today.  It makes me laugh, out-loud, every time I read it.

know I'm curious to know if you've ever come across, somebody you know client or whoever that is literally taking their computer and like throwing it out window or just like rush it was a baseball bat, or something like that because, I'm really about to do that and secure snow, if anybody's ever really done that I'm sure you got some stories it's will after one and I'm it's still trying to figure out this Microsoft contact me see outlook, and I'm when I type in the phone number of the client, in is here all the stupid noises from my computer it like he wants to dial the number like the computer wants to dial the number and then it gets locked into this setting that I can't get out of you want to cancel yes so you understand, if you do see that and you sure you want to cancel, yes and it just takes me back it's like the cycle won't let me do it even control alt delete any more like unplug the computer so I'm gonna stop reason long winded, voice mail and just I hope you give me a call back when you get a chance give me some tips.

Fortunately he doesn't know how to use the internets, so I doubts he'll ever find this post.

This is Jesus - and you've been a very naughty boy

As if we don't already all hear enough strange voices in our heads, The Sierra Nevada Corporation has decided that instead of just working on their seasonal brews they would instead ramp up production on a super-scary ray gun that makes you hear things by turning your skull into a giant woofer. Great.

The best quote of the whole Gizmodo article has to be this one:

"The pulses create a shockwave inside the skull that's detected by the ears, and basically makes you think you're going balls-to-the-wall batshit insane."