Note to Myself: “Jott” is Genius!

jott1.jpgYesterday on Amtrak en route back to the Bay Area for a Preteen Alliance event, I was ‘totally wired’ on my laptop blogging my brains out to make use of my travel time. Suddenly, I hit a fact-check glitch. Dang. No internet.

As we chugged by a few weak wireless signals, I considered signing on to an unsecured network, but thought it might not be sporting of me, so left a ‘data dump’ into my voicemail to keep from forgetting all the random resources pinging in my brain. Now, I can just “Jott” it down!

Jott.com enables you to use your cellphone to send e-mails and text messages via voice transcription. It’s still in beta testing, but I’ve just put it through the paces and think I’m in love. Sublime in its simplicity, you’ve gotta check out Jott in action.

Whether you’re an Executive Director, harried mom, writer/creative with a hot idea, or busy blogger (“all of the above” here) turning your phone into a dictation device is a colossal timesaver! With a quick “call, speak, send” you can leave reminders to yourself, send hands-free text messages, ping a group list with one phone call, and translate voice into text e-mail form!

Talk about multi-tasking efficiency! Your voice is typed into e-mail without ever taking your hands off the wheel, stove, baby, deadline, whatever…it’s like a hands-free e-blast. Easy AND effective. I’m absolutely loving this!

Why Jott? Writers like me can ‘save that thought’…tweens and teens can save their thumbs from texting minutiae, and those that feel gathering families for dinner is like herding cats will appreciate that “Jott” can put everyone in synch with no excuses for ‘not getting the message.’

Founded by John Pollard, (former bigwig in the Mobile Devices group at Microsoft) it’s backed by VC biggies and is soon to be my speed dial fave.

It makes sense that the inside scoop was on Robert Scoble’s PodTech interview a few weeks ago, but alas, I’m in info overload mode a lot lately, so it zinged right past me ‘til now…Youth might say,“props” to TrendCentral for the “shout out.”

I sent a triple-play of long and short pings repeatedly trying to fool it, overload it or otherwise alter message meanings and it zipped into my e-mail efficiently with an A- for clarity and context! (minor stumble; annunciate VERY clearly, as “marker message” became “mark a message” but the gist of it is flawless)

In keeping with the ‘audio’ mode, Jott even has a voice comment section where you just say ‘voice’ and leave feedback on their site!

While you’re there, check out the ‘Talk’ tab where you can see how people are using Jott at home, work, or school by clicking on the various YouTube videos. (sales pros must love this!)

Right now it’s only available in the USA and Canada, or my nephew in the U.K. who’s a Skype & Fring fan would be all over this! Fring btw, is also in beta testing mode, a free mobile VoIP software that allows you to talk & IM via your phone’s internet connection. (more on that later!)

I’ll be importing my own Jott contacts, tuning into their forum to find bugs and best uses, checking out their blog, and pinging our own youth advisors and parent posse to see if it’s ‘just me’ being overzealous (because I’ve needed this forever) or if this is universally useful to all!

Count ME in for uncluttering my head, getting rid of my ‘to do list’ and draining my brain by ‘jotting it down.’

Ahhhhhhh…This is media at its most sublime, making life a little easier.

As Albert Einstein said, “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.” Bravo, Jott.

I realize there are a lot of “Jott Blog Experiments” pushing the envelope out there, but you’ve already got a HUGE fan here for its purity and purpose at Shaping Youth…

Kids, give this time; you’re gonna love it…it’ll give those digits a rest.

Other notables in this category:

ReQall: On call mobile memory aid

Spinvox: Spin my VMail!

Simulscribe: Read your voicemail

Phonewire: Voice to text transcription technology

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Comments

  1. Being that writing is an art as well as music, I have to share my love with Jott with you! I love using Jott to help remember my ideas that I would normally forget before I get to my guitar. And I’m sure everyone has discovered this already, but the whole texting while driving ordeal has been solved with Jott! I feel this is only the beginning. I can already see this helping the business world. And from my understanding… Jott will be releasing a business model of Jott! Lets just hope they keep the free service up like they plan. LOVIN IT!

  2. Makes perfect sense for guitar lyrics…I used to dabble in that a bit myself. Wonder how it would transcribe HUMMING a tune…heehe. Bet THAT would stump the gizmo. Actually, I forwarded the bit on the ‘real estate’ Jott to multiple pals in that biz, as it definitely looks like a business-driven model is taking shape there…

    Has anyone tried the others within this category? Do tell! –A.

  3. About singing guitar riffs into Jott…hahaha all it says is “speech too loud speak quieter” haha. But I still get the recorded transcription and 30 seconds is all I need to remember an idea! I feel really silly hearing myself do that…BUT it works!! I’ll check out those other apps you posted. Thanks!

  4. Today I used Jott in traffic to amuse myself testing capabilities by reading bumper sticker sayings…couple of minor glitches, e.g. one that read “No you can’t have my rights, I’m still using them” came out as ‘No you can’t have my LIFE’…etc.

    Another cryptic ad campaign via muni transit bus signage had cartoonish critter figures with a web URL that I kept trying to recall and they’re doing an outdoor media blitz to spark interest, so I left a Jott to myself to see if it had blogability or involved children’s media/mktg; Jott translated it to this: (complete with a question mark as if the poor transcription was trying hard, but a bit befuddled…yes, I’m anthropomorphizing…cut me some slack)

    I was looking for “windorphins” and it read: “The website that I am trying to remember is called Windows-End(?) and I would like to leave a message to myself to check out the dotcom that is being found on the transit buses in the San Francisco Bay area.” Close! I still got the gist of it…Oh…another new use? Calling in the license plate of the bozo driving like a maniac that cut me off so I could forward it to the safety folks (ever seen those ‘how am I driving’ signs? Well, now you can remember who it is, and TELL ’em! 😉 It also placed a question mark on the word ‘Subaru’ even though it spelled it right…

    I think I’m getting a bit too joyous over Jott …but hey, when the Bay Bridge is backed up big time, it’s fun to put it through some paces…

    Jott on…

  5. <p>haha yeah the transcriptions can get pretty funky at times. I know they use human transcribers BUT they also use voice recognition software; I can see certain words getting transcribed differently.</p>
    <p>BTW…great use of Jott while driving! haha I never thought of using it for a__es cutting you off. haha</p>

  6. I believe that Jott is a writer’s best friend. My muse usually wakes up when I’m driving or otherwise engaged so I can’t write down the wisdom she imparts.

  7. Totally agree with you Lynn…I somehow just found this comment belatedly, sorry. I haven’t loaded the “Jott app” for the iphone as it gave me trouble (most of the iphone has!) so instead I’ve just put it in manually and it’s back to basics and giving me what I need as a writer! 😉 I’ll check out your blog for other cool tools…I can use all the help I can get!

    Amy Jussel’s last blog post..Techno-Leaders Converge at She’s Geeky Jan. 30-31, 2009!

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