Kadoink's phonecast lines officially open for texting

On Thursday, Kadoink, an audio-messaging service, officially announced its beta Web site. The audio-delivery service, summarized at the Under the Radar Conference, sends MP3s, and voice and text messages to individuals or groups from your phone or the Web, harnessing one of seven widgets to automate updates.

Kadoink's phonecasting audience takes in social butterflies, particularly the party-going set. Ka...doinkers (?) are encouraged to send voice and music clips from gatherings, concerts, and other too-cool-to-be-true events. It does require an initial time investment to create friend groups online or by phone, the latter method that requires texting-specific messages to Kadoink's shorthand code.

Like Utterz and YouMail, Kadoink is a mix of Internet management with voice activity initiated from your cell phone. For instance, the service's music-sending, group call, birthday widgets, and so on, you create online within your Kadoink account, then can publish to one of many social networks and blogs.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

I quick-published a birthday widget on my Facebook profile from Kadoink.com via the MyStuff application. Then, I entered my cell number into the Facebook widget to leave myself a birthday greeting. A few seconds later I received the call; Kadoink's automated voice service prompting me to leave a birthday greeting. A text message then graced another phone, informing me of the birthday greeting that I can collect on my actual birthday.

The system appears to work more or less seamlessly, though some functions seem more useful than others. Gloating to five friends at once about a great concert I'm attending is a worthy application. If I want to leave a friend a birthday message, I'm more likely to call her up myself.

Verizon, Sprint-Nextel, and AT&T/Cingular users can text Kadoink's code--33033--to send messages. T-Mobile and Alltel users will find limited functionality while Kadoink continues negotiations.