This is the first in a multi-part blog series test that will review various “voicemail-to-text” (”V2T”) services that are becoming popular on the web. These services work with your existing phone carrier (cell or land line, and some offer enterprise service) and transcribe your audio voicemail messages into text and deliver the transcribed message to you via e-mail or SMS so that you can read them, rather than have to listen to them. Some people refer to this as “visual voicemail,” which is also an accurate description, but should not be confused with the feature of the same name offered on Apple’s iPhone, which is great, but different than V2T.
It is probably the most popular in the US. Ads for the service, denigrating voicemail, are popping up on New York City taxi cabs. There are even Apple “I’m a Mac - I’m a PC” rip-off ads found on YouTube, like this one:
Funny, but it makes the point. SimulScribe does not just display the numbers of the people that leave you voicemail, it transcribes the audio of the voicemail into text. I tried SimulScribe, and was impressed. I initially had it set to deliver the transcribed text message to my GMail address. It worked as advertised. I then added the feature that sends the message as an SMS text message so that I could read it on my phone. That didn’t work so well because one relatively short voicemail came in 5 separate text messages - but I think that is a function of the SMS (AT&T) and not SimulScribe. For me, it is not a big deal to rely on email because I get my email on my iPhone. The big question is: accuracy of the transcription. Does SimulScribe accurately transcribe what callers are saying? To test this, and the other competing services that I’ll write about in future posts, I left myself the following voicemail (for each, I used an iPhone, spoke in my normal tone, volume, speed and clarity):
Hey, it’s Patrick. I wanted to let you know that I am testing some voicemail to text services and writing about them and the results of my test in my blog, LawyerKM. You can read about the results at www.lawyerkm.com. If you’re not familiar with LawyerKM, it’s a knowledge management blog for lawyers and people in the legal profession. That’s it for the audio test of [name of the service]. Thanks.
So, how did SimulScribe do? Look for yourself - here is the transcribed message that I received in my email. It took 6 minutes, 34 seconds from the time I hung up the phone to the time the message arrived in my e-mail inbox.
Hey, it’s Patrick. I wanted to let you know that I’m testing the voicemail to text services in writing about them and the result of my test in my blood lawyer Ken. You can read about the results at www.lawyerken.com. If you’re not familiar with lawyer Ken, it’s a knowledge management law to lawyers and people in the legal profession. That’s it for the audio test of SimulScribe. Thanks.
So, not dead on, but not bad (I like “blood lawyer Ken”).
Note that this is not an either/or service. You can also still listen to your voicemail the old fashioned way if you want. To do so, you dial in and access your audio voicemail messages just as you do now. Unfortunately, if you have an iPhone you can’t use Apple’s visual voicemail function while using SimulScribe because the voicemail is handled on SimulScribe’s system, not AT&T’s. Another handy feature is that you can opt to have an audio file (mp3, wav, or GSM) delivered as an attachment to the email that contains the text of the message. So, you can read and/or listen to the message from your e-mail.
KM is more than just identifying, capturing, and disseminating intellectual capital. It’s also about using technology to help us do things more efficiently and effectively. V2T services are good tools to help us be more efficient and effective. Most lawyers get a lot of voicemail messages everyday. If your voicemail system is like mine, then you have to work through a maze of voice prompts and menus just to hear your messages. It is surprisingly time-consuming. It is faster to read those voicemails. Plus, V2T obviates the need to take notes from those voicemails - it already there. You can forward the message to others and save the message indefinitely. You can also access the audio and text of your messages even if you don’t have access to your email. Just sign in to SimulScribe on the web to access and manage your account.
All in all, we love the V2T concept and SimulScribe does a good job. There are three pricing options: $29.95 per month for unlimited messages; $9.95 per month for 40 messages ($.25 for each additional); and a $.35 per message option. In coming weeks, we’ll review other services and see how they compare. If you use any V2T products, please drop us a line and let us know how you like them.
LawyerKM :: Knowledge Management for Lawyers and Law Firms
Our readers will know that June 29, 2007 was a very special day for LawyerKM. Well, mark October 26, 2007 down as another one. Yes, today is the day that LawyerKM’s Gmail got IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol). And that’s a very good thing for our iPhones.
We could get into all of the technical goodness, but the bottom line is this: Synchronization. Up until now, with POP (Post Office Protocol), our Gmail didn’t synchronize. When we deleted an email on the iPhone, it remained in Gmail and we had to go on the web to really really delete it. (We hate duplication of effort.) And we couldn’t tag our emails either. Now, Gmail on the iPhone is just like Gmail on the web. Tag, archive, delete. Go nuts.
Here’s a good “how to” explaining the set-up procedure.
Google announced today that it has acquired GrandCentral. GrandCentral is a great service that gives you one phone number that will ring all of your other phones. and it does a lot more … see our previous post about it.
Technology is supposed to make life easier. Why, then, do I have so many devices? A cell phone, a BlackBerry, iPod, laptop and desktop PCs. Well, one thing that should help — at least with the phone part — is GrandCentral. The most basic feature of this service is that it gives you a phone number and then offers to connect that new phone number to all of the other phones in your life. One phone number rings all of your phones (right now - up to six phones while the service is in beta). The service is free while in beta and GrandCentral says that while there will be a pay service in the future, it will “always offer a free version of GrandCentral, even after beta.”
There are many, many more features of this truely revolutionary service. As GrandCentral puts it:
GrandCentral gives you “One Number…for Life” - a phone number that is not tied to a device or a location, but is tied to you. Use GrandCentral to centralize your communication, customize how your callers are treated, and make sure you never miss a call you want to take (or take a call you want to miss).
GrandCentral will let you define which phones ring, based on who’s calling, and even let you ListenInTM on voicemail before answering the call.
You can also block calls from certain numbers, route different groups of callers to ring different phones (Friends, Family, Work or Others), switch calls between phones on the fly, record your calls, customize voicemail greetings for different callers, upload any MP3 to play as a ringback tone, and save all of your voicemail messages for life.
Just the thing for the lawyer who needs to be available whenever the client calls.
