From Jott to reQall

Good things will go away, and when they do, they are replaced with better things. That's a principle I am seeing play out time and time again in the world of technology. It's also a principle that we see demonstrated in many areas of life. In this series of posts, we will examine some of the tools which served me well...until they ceased to exist. The over-arching theme is that what is good gets replaces by something that is better.

In December 2007, I posted "Who Do You Want to Jott?" It was a service that let me call a phone number I had stored my phone's contacts as a speed dial, leave a voice message, and have that message show up in my email with everything I had said transcribed into text. When I handled my email, I would also handle the message.

Like the other posts you will read in this thread, I found myself without Jott. Well...not exactly. Jott was still there, but it was no longer free. I started searching the Internet to see if there was something else that did the same thing. I found the answer in this post.

reQall has been serving as an alternative ever since. This video gives you an idea of some practical applicationsl:





If you visit the reQall site today, you will see that they are now transitioning to be more of a Siri-like service. The site shows them to accepting beta testers for the new service they will unveil:





Voice input is something that began for me with Jott. When the service was no longer free for me and others, it was a disappointment. But the disappointment did not last long. Probably nothing has come further in the last several years than the concept of voice input on our mobile devices. An upcoming post on Google Now will illustrate what I mean. Check back in a couple of weeks for that one

Good things will go away, and when they do, they are replaced with better things.

Jott

Jott offers another alternative to Dail2Do, discussed in the last post. I had used Jott back in the days when it was free. When they began to charge, I switched to reQall. Here is a video which highlights the features of Jott.

Jott Express

I have received a couple of comments since my post on Jott. In particular, a reader encouraged me to look at Jott Express, which is a free feature. Jott Express functions as a "to-do" list on your desktop. From your cell phone (or any phone), you can speak messages to yourself which will be transcribed into text on Jott Express.

You can go here to see a short video about Jott Express and download it to your desktop.

I did download it and found it to be extremely easy to use. I do not foresee using it personally simply because it gives me one additional place to look for my tasks. With my current system, all papers requiring my attention are in my tickler file. All things digital which require my attention are in Outlook. All of my RSS feeds dump into Outlook. I want to voice reminders to wind up in my Outlook e-mail as well.

That being said, for the person who does not have a fully-developed system, Jott Express may just be the thing.

We all know people who have Post-It notes scattered all over creation and are already having to look in far too many places to find what they have written. Jott Express allows the person to speak into the cell phone, which most people have with them all the time, and have it all wind up in one place. Jott Express could well be "just what the doctor ordered" for the person who is overwhelmed and needs some type of system.

Oh No...Jott's Not Free! (But reQall is)

Just a week ago, I was writing about Jott. I have been using it since December to leave quick voice messages for myself and close friends which would be automatically transcribed to e-mails. I wrote about my experiences here.

Well, here is the bad news...as of September 8, Jott is no longer a free service. While one plan is still listed as free, it removes the service's best feature--being able to send messages straight to someone's e-mail.

A quick internet search of "alternatives to Jott" put me onto this Lifehacker post. In a few minutes, I was up and running with reQall.

The direction are pretty straightforward. You will be asked to set up a free account by supplying your name, choosing a user name and password, providing the phone number (or numbers) from which you are going to be calling, and supplying an e-mail address.

In the "Notifications" section, I put check marks beside "e-mail." Finally, I added the reQall phone number (1-888-973-7255) to my BlackBerry contacts and set it as a speed dial key.

I composed several sample messages. Within 10-15 minutes, the messages I left were showing up in my e-mail.

The major way I had used Jott was to send reminders to myself, so reQall is a good substitute. What about sending messages to someone else? Add them as a contact at the reQall site and you can "share" a message.

What you have read here are my perceptions after just a few minutes with reQall. Does anyone else had more experience with this or similar services?

How Accurate is Jott?

At yesterday's workshop for the University of Alabama Superintendent's Academy, one of the technology time-savers we discussed was Jott. You can click here for a post I had written about this wonderful tool earlier.

I demonstrated how the process works by sending a Jott to a friend. One of the questions about Jott was how accurate the text translation is. My response was that it was about as accurate as my English. If I pronounce words distinctly, the translation is accurate. If I let my lay Southern drawl slip in, it shows up in the spelling of the text translation.

Printed below is the how the message was translated:

I am having a wonderful workshop here with some of our educational leaders, future superintendents, a whole room full of them, so as you are reading your email now, you will be reading the words that I am speaking right now. I'll talk to you later.
Bye.

You can't get more accurate that that!

Who Do You Want to Jott?

"Jott" is my new toy, and it is so easy, I can't believe I haven't used it before. The idea is that you speak into a telephone and your message is transcribed into an e-mail which winds up in someone's Inbox.

To get started, go to http://www.jott.com and create an account. You will have the opportunity to add people to your Jott address book. You will also be asked the telephone number from which you want to "Jott." In my case, I chose my BlackBerry since it is with me all the time. That's all the setup that is required.

Now, when I am in traffic and want to sent someone an e-mail message, I pull out the BlackBerry and hit a speed dial key that I have programmed to call Jott. The next thing I hear is a voice saying, "Who do you want to Jott?" I reply by speaking the person's name. The voice repeats the name and asks if it is correct. Once I say, "Yes," I start recording my message. Jott will let me talk up to 30 seconds.

Once I have sent the first message, Jott will allow me to compose a second message to a different person. There is no limit to the number of messages I can send during that one phone call to Jott.

Best of all, Jott is absolutely free! Who do you want to Jott?