------- Clearing Up the Confusion E-Zine ------- Vol 2, Issue 2 First off, I want to thank everyone who contacted me to wish me good health. I am feeling much better and it only took me about a week to dig out from under everything that piled up over the three days that I wasn't in front of the computer. With all of the stuff I did have to get done, I was trying to be as efficient as possible with my work time. I know, even without being sick, this is a goal that many of us have. Being more efficient during working hours means we are better able to relax during our downtime. To that end, I decided to try out a new tool this week to make those little pieces of time a little more productive. The system is called "Jott" and it might be something for you to check out. ---------------------------------------------------------------- In This Issue... ---------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Article: Jott This Down 2. Blog Posts 3. Shameless Self-Promotion 4. The Fine Print ---------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Article: Jott This Down ---------------------------------------------------------------- So, you're waiting in a coffee shop for your next appointment and you suddenly remember an email you wanted to send to a colleague. Unfortunately, you don't have your computer with you and you never shelled out the extra cash for one of those "smart" phones (or you just find typing on those little keyboards to be a bit tedious). Oh well, you'll probably remember to do it later, right? Right. What if you had a tool that allowed you to send out communications like this using your cell phone? Wouldn't that be cool? Someone else thought so, too. They came up with Jott. Jott (www.jott.com) is a (currently) free service which lets you send email and instant messages to other people using only your voice. The basic idea is you call Jott's 1-866 number, tell Jott who you want to contact, speak for up to 30 seconds, and then hang up. In a few minutes, a transcribed version of the message is sent to your recipients. As I mentioned, other than your cell minutes and any SMS charges for you or your recipients, there are no fees for this service. I haven't had a chance to play with it too much yet, but I can already see a number of applications. How about hands-free texting when you are driving? Recording a few points from the meeting you were just in before hopping into the next one? How about adding things to your "to do" list? That last one is a seriously cool feature. The Jott designers have set up a number of links to many popular online services, including several blogs, calendars, and task lists. I've already set up connections to Google Calendar and "Remember The Milk", my online "to do" list. The transcription (apparently a combination of machine and human processing) is pretty accurate. In my various tests, I only found one misspelling (they spelled my daughter's name as "Kaley" instead of "Kaylie"). They did indicate that they weren't sure on it. You can also supposedly spell out a word or name that they might mess up. Now, Jott *is* still in beta, so you may run into a problem or two along the way. For the price, though, it's definitely a cool and potentially useful tool to help you make use of the little bits of time in between. Copyright 2008, Greg Peters ---------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Blog Posts ---------------------------------------------------------------- Links to posts on the "Clearing Up the Confusion" Blog from the last year: Friday, January 25, 2008 -- Talkin' Trackbacks, Part 1: What and Why http://clearing-confusion.blogspot.com/2008/01/talkin-trackbacks-part-1-what-and-why.html "One of the exciting aspects of blogging is the ability to interact with your readers. There's something about the rich interplay of ideas and opinions which really fuels the creative process -- even when they tell you that you're being stupid..." Sunday, December 23, 2007 -- Remember The Milk Add-On http://clearing-confusion.blogspot.com/2007/12/remember-milk-add-on.html "Today I found out about a nifty new add-on for RTM if you are also a Gmail user and your browser is Firefox..." ---------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Shameless Self-Promotion ---------------------------------------------------------------- The "Clearing Up the Confusion" E-Zine is a production of Greg Peters, owner, chief cook, and bottlewasher of Cyber Data Solutions. CDS has been helping website designers develop better web presence for their clients for more than a decade. Visit us on the Web at www.cyberdatasolns.com to see how we can help your webmaster. ---------------------------------------------------------------- 4. The Fine Print ---------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: You can subscribe to the "Clearing Up The Confusion" E-zine at: http://www.cyberdatasolns.com/ezine Questions: If you have any questions, concerns or comments regarding the Clearing Up the Confusion E-zine, please email Greg Peters at: gpeters@cyberdatasolns.com This content may be forwarded in full, with copyright and contact information intact, without specific permission, when used only in a not for-profit format. 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