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The universal mobile communications in-box is emerging as a trend at CTIA 2009 in Las Vegas. Variations on the theme combine visual voicemail, text messages, e-mail, calling, and call forwarding in one online deck that's as easy to manage as your e-mail in-box.
RocketVox is a slick, powerful freemium in-box that's a long shot against Google Voice.
(Credit: RocketVox)Skydeck (Skydeck review) has a traditional e-mail layout that does calls, voicemail, text, visual voicemail, and call control for a fee. RocketVox is a great-looking private beta that manages e-mail from multiple accounts (including Gmail), IM, SMS, voice-to-text, VoIP calling, visual voicemail, faxing, conference calls, calendars, and screen sharing with a vague social networking angle. RocketVox is currently an AIR application that will graduate to a Web service later down the road, and will also take on a freemium model ranging from $10 a month to $25 for professionals.
The much lighter YouMail does a visual voicemail Web service and mobile management app, also with the in-box metaphor, but emphasizes social interaction and customization, like personalized greetings in addition to technical offerings like voice-to-text transcriptions. At CTIA, YouMail announced an upcoming iPhone app that has been submitted to the App Store.
Even Microsoft has been touting its online mobile backup and sync service, MyPhone. MyPhone is in very early beta stages and can't do too much at the moment beyond syncing photos and text messages in a searchable in-box, but it will become more capable as Microsoft nears its Windows Mobile 6.5 release, in which MyPhone will play a larger role. Look for contacts, calendars, tasks, multimedia content, and documents as the service matures.
A glimpse of the Google Voice in-box
(Credit: Google)Despite the diversity, the forthcoming Google Voice--with its universal number, visual voicemail, and advanced calling features--could mow them all under when it enters public beta. Google has been effective at dominating much more established software providers with its technology, its brand clout, and its ability to integrate with other successful Google services.
Since Google Voice will be free, Skydeck, RocketVox, and YouMail are in big trouble on the voice transcription front. YouMail has a niche that Google could well blow open with its own customization features and on-phone management app. RocketVox is the most compelling solution of the bunch at this year's show, but it's going to have to really work some magic to counter Google Voice's advance. Ironically, Microsoft's less feature-rich MyPhone backup and sync service stands the best chance of gaining its own identity, if only because it will come preloaded onto Windows Mobile 6.5 phones and will provide a seamless, out-of-the-box solution for those phone owners. This is definitely a space we'll be keeping a sharp eye on in the coming months.
If you want to convert a series of 1's and 0's to text, ask a computer. If you want to convert a voice message into a text message, ask a human.
VoiceCloud transcriptions are made from people!
(Credit: VoiceCloud)That's the crux of the argument given by VoiceCloud, which launched into the voice-to-text fray on Tuesday with a speedy, employee-focused transcription service.
Speech-to-text is a huge trend in wireless and Web apps this year that--judging from the numerous services showcased at the CTIA Wireless conference in Las Vegas this week--is heating up as an important frontier in cell phone software. You may have read about Spinvox and SimulScribe, and CallWave, but according to VoiceCloud CEO Gerald Marolda, his company's service gives a faster, more faithful experience than letting software do linguistics.
With VoiceCloud, the voice message is broken into chunks using an in-house, proprietary software, and each audio segment is sent to an available transcriber who types the section and resubmits it. The software takes over from there, recombining the textual fragments and pushing them, quickly, to an e-mail or SMS message--your choice.
"Many companies claim to use voice-to-text software," said Marolda, when asked why he preferred people power. "But there is no technology in the market that exists right now that gives you the accuracy you need." Instead, VoiceCloud's CEO suggests that many competitors outsource editors or have humans double-check software transcriptions. VoiceCloud's free beta service is available from any cell phone browser and is optimized for the iPhone.
Crowdsourcing gets it right
YouMail's CEO, Alex Quilici, agrees that voice-to-text as it stands is essentially broken. But instead of employing Homo sapien ears like VoiceCloud, he opts for community cooperation and socially-derived ratings as the sure fix, believing that bipeds can be leveraged to correct transcription mistakes over time.
A new feedback loop joins the readable voice-mail service of YouMail, a neat bit of webware for managing voice mail like e-mail. A pop-up feedback form on the online account offers the opportunity for the masses to send programmers ratings, red flags, and helpful edits that will be integrated back into the transcribing process. Oft-repeated errors will be the first to undergo scrutiny, and responsive users giving sound feedback can help speed the correction process, Quilici added.
In addition to releasing the voting function for transcription quality, YouMail also has rolled out SmartGreetings, a feature that personally greets callers whose names match entries in a database of 4,000 "common" names. Maybe YouMail will get people power to grow that database, too.
When it comes to editing incorrect voice-to-text transcriptions, Homo sapiens have the magic touch.
(Credit: YouMail)
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