I always wondered how Jott was ultimately going to make money. They hooked us on their free service and now they are going to charge us for it. Fair enough!
If you don’t know what Jott is, here is a post I wrote previously about it. Basically it’s a transcription service that works from your cell phone when you call Jott’s number, converting your spoken message into text and sending it where you want it. For me, this mostly takes the form of a random idea or task while I am driving, and in minutes it is converted into an e-mail and shows up in Outlook and my Blackberry. It’s an important CAPTURING tool to help you get things off your mind and into your time management system.
I just found out about the Jott for Outlook application, which enables you to send your Jotts directly to your Outlook calendar, an Outlook task, or an e-mail draft. I am LOVING this, because before I would Jott something like, "Need to send an e-mail to (so-and-so) about (something)." Now I can just start crafting the e-mail itself and finish and send it later. I also used to Jott things like, "Next orthodontist appointment will be on September 5th," and now I can just Jott that directly into a new calendar event.
Anyway,I have been sucked in. I am doing the Pay-As-You-Go plan where you buy a certain number of minutes, and I will see how long that takes to use up and go from there. They also have monthly plans if you are more of a power user. How do you use Jott? And if you don’t, what are your favorite methods of capturing things into your system?
Well, after doing extensive research, I read out of a book, using the same phone, into both Jott and Reqall (www.reqall.com), I found that Reqall, hands down, did better voice recognition. This was way back in the day (I mean 2 weeks ago) when both services were free. Jott has a few extra features, but Reqall has a few Jott doesn’t have. Bottom line, Reqall is Free, Jott isn’t. You decide. I covered both in my blog at http://www.clydesblog.net in June of this year and will update it again soon, after playing with the new applications they both have – where you can put the program directly on your iphone and use your iphone to record directly into the program without calling a phone number – very cool!
On the other hand, Lorie is someone whose opinion I respect like no other, so I better give Jott another look!
Speaking of voice recognition – don’t forget 1-800-GOOG-411 (466-4411) to get free business listings on cell phone.
I started using Jott about three weeks ago… and I love it. I am only the occassional user at this point though. I use it for follow up to phone calls. If I am in the car and I promise someone some information, I use Jott to send me a simple reminder. Jott is the bomb.
John
ReQall is excellent!
Just remember there is no , “U” after the Q; sorta wish they spelled it ReKall with a “K.” Oh well, it’s free (for now).
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