Cell Phones, Editor's Picks, BlackBerry, Reviews
SimulScribe Launches SimulSays
The iPhone may be getting all the attention for its visual voicemail – a feature that turns your audio messages into MP3s you can listen to at your leisure -- but it's hardly the first offering of its kind. In fact, a nifty service called SimulScribe has been providing this very feature for more than a year now.
SimulScribe not only offers visual voicemail, but also something called voice-mail-to-text, which means the service automatically transcribes your audio voice mail into text. That text is then sent to whichever e-mail address or cell phone (via text message) you designate (easily updated on the SimulScribe site). You can also check your messages in text or audio form by logging into your SimulScribe account online.
Best of all, the service works with any phone: You just forward your calls (from as many phones as you want) to a personal number that SimulScribe assigns you. That number is your new voice mail. You'll be setting your phone to ring first, so you can pick up calls, but if you don't pick up, your call is forwarded to the new number and voicemail. People who call you won't know the difference.
SimulScribe just launched SimulSays, a service for BlackBerrys that shows up as a separate app on the BlackBerry interface. SimulSays sends you a notification any time you receive a message, lets you check audio or text versions of those messages right in the app, and even lets you reply via text or call the sender right from the message.
The service costs $9.99 per month for 40 messages, with each extra message costing $0.25 each.
If you're one of those people who can't be bothered to check their voice mail because it just takes too long, you'll benefit from this service. We've been trying it out for a week now and can easily say it's changed our lives – for one thing, we've been getting back to our friends a lot more quickly since we're getting our messages in near-real-time.
Though it's not a perfect transcriber -- leaving question marks here and there when it can't understand what the caller is saying -- SimulScribe still catches quite a bit, even swear words, so keep your language in check next time you leave someone a voice mail.
But hey, don't take our word for it: SimulScribe lets you try out the service for one-week for free. Check it out.
From Cool Hunting and SimulScribe.
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