Comments on: New technology lets you read your voice mail

Several companies are betting on voice-recognition applications that transcribe those rambling messages into e-mail or text messages.

[WebGlue]

Just what I DON'T need

This is great... let's all go back to reading text when Voice Mail has been such a failure...

NOT!

I literally try to find everything I have to read in Audio form and especially have trouble doing so with technical books, and now instead of using a more intuitive form of communication such as literal voice where you CAN understand complicated voice inflections and intention of the message ... we should go back to email where things can the meaning and intention can so easily be misunderstood ... causing enormous headaches...

This is the stupidest thing I believe I have ever heard...

I know...

Why don't we take phone calls from our friends and convert them in telegrams over the telegraph instead of using the phone...

Boneheads...

[d21mike]

Not so fast

This is one of the main features of the new iPhone. It is a way to organize you voice mail so that you can listen to them in the order you want and to also have a history (like email). Maybe you did not notice that you also get a WAVV file of the actual voice mail so you can either read or listen or both. Your choice. I see this as a step forward not a step backwards.

[dontrott]

stupid? no, innovative!

"This is the stupidest thing I believe I have ever heard" -- lol, pardon me for saying so, but if THIS is the stupidest thing you have ever heard, then you must not hear much. Just off the top of my head I can think of numerous other things which qualify as (comparatively) stupid. This is innovative, IMHO.

I can clearly see the advantages to this type of system. This is along the same line as Cisco Unity (with Call Manager) which is unified messaging. I have worked in a company with this and found it to be extremely useful in keeping everything organized since EVERYTHING could tie back to my Outlook.

[extinctone]

Your missing the target market....

Business Users.

I am an NYC R.E. Agent and I use SpinVox with my Blackberry. It's a godsend to not have to take time away from my business to listen to someone drawl on when I only need one key piece of information from them. Or never having to find a pen and pad or bust out my memo function just to jot down a phone number. And on a BB it even gives you one click calling from the SpinVox generated email. I'm literally saving 30-40 minutes a day using this.

If you have no time pressure when it comes to your Voicemail and the amount of things your doing at once, then by all means, keep doing it the old fashioned way. But you'll see VM-to-text become a standard feature on business oriented mobile accounts.