Telephony

Being able to dictate letters and notes used to be a power and status symbol because it usually meant you were important enough to have a secretary or admin to take your mini-cassette recorder and type away.

But here’s one example where technology is the great big equalizer.  You no longer need to have an assistant nor do you have to be someone important to have your notes transcribed for you.

Here’s some options to get emails, notes and letters recorded and transcribed for you:

• I used to call the service run by Jott.com to get notes and reminders sent to my email.  It even has a neat feature that lets you update your blogs with the transcribed notes generated.  But alas, they started to charge money for their services (GASP!)
  
• Next, there is dial2do.com – you can have your calls transcribed and send to yourself or others.  This service also connects to Twitter and other services.

• Google Voice gives you the ability to have your voicemails transcribed too.  Here’s a simple Google Voice “hack” which lets you have the service transcribe your own notes and have them delivered to you via email immediately.  Perfect for writing things down when you don’t have a pen and paper handy – like when you meet someone and want their contact info or their website address.

Here are some scenarios in which to use this type of feature:

• When meeting someone for the first time and you want to get their contact info – just call and then give them the phone to speak their name phone number, email, website, etc.
• After getting off the phone with a customer service rep regarding a complaint or other issue, immediately pick-up the phone and call to record the details on the incident including the person’s name.  The email will be your time-stamp of the day/time of your call so that if you ever need to refer to that call again, you have all the details.
• When you want to remember the telephone # or web address of a company that you see on TV or while driving, just dial and repeat what you just saw!
• Create a “TO-DO” category/folder and filter in your email box and prepend every note with “TO DO LIST ITEM” or something similar the filter can handle.  You’ll have a simple to-do list IN your email without using separate programs/apps/features.  Just delete the email when you’ve complete the task.

What other types of uses can you think of for using voice transcription via phone?  Leave your ideas and leave a comment below.