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Earlier this week, I bashed Google's visual voice mail service for its inability to transcribe my voice messages into understandable English. (OK, most of the article really focuses on a new flexibility in Google Voice, which I do like.) To be fair, poor transcription isn't all Google's fault. They're offering a free service based on a computer-aided technology that improves each year. The real problem is that machine transcription just isn't good enough.

Up until yesterday, I hadn't received more than a handful of visual voice mail message translations imbued with any meaning in my native tongue. In fact, I turned off SMS forwarding because I couldn't handle the streams of nonsensical texts that would pour in for each voice mail left. Thankfully, I won't miss the yucks stemming from mismatched voice-to-text at all, not when I can still read the messages in my online Google Voice in-box over and over again.

Do you have any favorite mistranslations produced by free computer-aided transcription engines? Share yours in the comments--or better yet, e-mail me if you'd like to take place in our anonymous gallery--and I'll share three errata from my in-box below.

The longer the message, the more creative the transcription.

(Credit: Screenshot by Jessica Dolcourt/CNET)

Despite its brevity, the only accurate word in this transcription is "hello."

(Credit: Screenshot by Jessica Dolcourt/CNET)

That's right! You go and procure the message, people!

(Credit: Screenshot by Jessica Dolcourt/CNET)

Google on Monday will begin giving users a new way to use their existing mobile phone number with parts of its Google Voice service.

No, it's not a full number port, which the company still says is coming and will eventually allow things like call screening, conference calling, or listening into a call before picking up--all with your existing number. Instead, Google is taking advantage of conditional call forwarding to let users send unanswered calls to Google's voice-mail service in place of the one provided by a user's carrier.

Once sent to Google, those voice messages are transcribed, then made available for playback and review online, or as an SMS message. Users can also take advantage of Google Voice's customized greeting service to give callers a different voice-mail greeting depending on what number they're calling from.

Google Voice users can now choose to use their own number, or take one of Google's.

(Credit: Google/CNET)

In order to use the new service, a one-time setup is required, which has both new and existing Google Voice users walk through a wizard that asks for their mobile number and what carrier they're on. It then offers up the special numeric code they have to dial to enable conditional forwarding from their handset to Google Voice.

For users who have a Google Voice number in the same account as their existing mobile phone number, it will be business as usual; Google Voice's voice-mail section will denote which number it was from. Google Voice's senior product manager, Vincent Paquet, explained to me that this system has been designed so users don't have to make any tough choices about which number they want to use. It will also allow users to sign up to Google Voice without having to register a new number.

Smartphone users with visual voice-mail services (such as the iPhone) may find that these extra features aren't enough to warrant making the switch. However, users with older handsets are likely to find Google's offer enticing since it enables them to manage voice-mails both from their phone and on the Web.

The deal is made even sweeter by the fact that all major U.S. carriers are on board, Paquet says. This may come as a surprise to some, considering that just last month, Google, Apple, and AT&T clashed quite publicly over the rejection of Google's Voice application from Apple's App Store in July. But with this new service, Google is merely playing by each carrier's rules, using a feature that's long been available as a way for users to pass on calls they cannot take. There's also some serious potential for carriers to generate extra income in SMS fees for transcribed voice-mail messages that users would have otherwise spent just a minute or so listening to from their phones.

Google Voice remains in private beta, although earlier this month Google began putting invites into the in-boxes of its users, allowing them to invite their friends.

We've told you about Callwave already, but now we've had the opportunity to put the company's Vtxt application through its paces. Vtxt takes spoken voice mail messages and converts them into text. When someone calls and leaves you a voice mail, Vtxt will send you a text message and an e-mail with a transcript. You don't get the message word-for-word; rather, Vtxt gives you the gist of the message so you can understand what the person said.

The result is a useful and user-friendly service. Both the text message and e-mail arrive within seconds, so you have ample time to decide if the message is urgent enough for you respond straightaway. The gist transcription isn't always perfect--but that's sort of the point, in a way. And in any case, we were pleased with the results overall. Read more.

As our lives get busier and we become more reliant on text messages and e-mail, voice mail is starting to seem a tad archaic (not to mention impractical if you're sitting in a business meeting or loud bar). A company called SimulScribe has come up with a technology that claims to be the answer.

The New York-based start-up uses voice recognition technology to transcribe voice mails into text. Instead of having to sit through Grandpa Bill's three-minute voice mail, you'd get a written message, via SMS or e-mail, approximately two to five minutes after the voice mail was left, with every word Grandpa said. If you want to listen to your message the old-fashioned way, you can still call your voice mail and check it.

SimulScribe seems to combine the functions of GotVoice, with its PC capabilities, and SpinVox with the SMS function. The service also claims to have over 90 percent transcription accuracy, and unlimited voice mail storage. When I tested it out with company CEO James Siminoff, my poorly voiced message was accurate enough to have meaning. During the demo, Siminoff said the company has programmed its transcription software to not clean up or correct the content of the voice mail, to maintain authenticity.

Although the service, which is free for a week to try and then costs $9.95 a month for 40 messages, will work on any cell phone, it performs optimally on smart phones. On Monday, SimulScribe plans to announce its partnership with popular VoIP service Skype, providing Skype users the capability to receive their voice messages in text. More announcements are rumored to be on the way in late spring.

CallWave is about the coolest free cell-phone utility I have ever seen, and it goes a long way toward making me not care so much about the "visual voice mail" that Steve Jobs touted for the upcoming iPhone. The CallWave service, which is live now, replaces your standard carrier-provided voice mail with a much better system, and it lets you pick up incoming cell-phone calls on any other phone or even your PC.

My voice mails now come as e-mail attachments.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

I've been using the competing GotVoice service since I first wrote about it in May to get my cellular and home voice mail messages via PC. But CallWave goes well beyond GotVoice. Both can alert you via e-mail when you receive a new message and then play the message over the Web. But while GotVoice is a hack--it periodically has to dial your voice mail to collect the messages, which introduces an unpredictable delay into the alerts--CallWave is a replacement voice mail service. Once you program your phone to use CallWave instead of your carrier's voice mail (instructions are provided when you sign up, and they're simple), CallWave intercepts all calls you don't answer. When you get a message, it sends your cell phone a detailed SMS with the name and number of the caller, and the duration of the call. It also sends you an e-mail with a Web link to play the message; optionally, it can send messages to you as e-mail attachments.

The only disadvantage when compared with GotVoice is that CallWave only works on cell-phone voice mail, and only supports one number per free account; GotVoice will also handle landline voice mail, and it can handle multiple systems per account. I'm still using it for my home phone voice mail. In addition, with CallWave, you lose the use of your phone's message indicator.

There's a CallWave Windows application with additional powers. When a caller leaves you a message, one option is to have the application play it immediately on your PC. If you want to call the person back, CallWave will call one of your phones (landline or cell) and then connect you to the caller. It can also turn your PC into a VoIP phone and return the call that way (this feature is in beta, but it worked great for me). You can also send the caller an SMS directly from the application.

The CallWave Windows application.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

You can even use the application to answer a call while someone is leaving a message. If you press the "take call" button while the caller is either listening to your greeting or recording their message, CallWave will tell them you want to talk to them and then call the phone of your choice (or your PC) and connect it to the incoming call. This feature makes it easy to continue to use your cell-phone account when your cell phone is turned off or out of reach.

Though I doubt that CallWave was designed for it, you can use its call-connection service to make free long-distance calls (I couldn't get it to work for international calls, though; for that see TechCrunch coverage of AllFreeCalls.net). CallWave acts as the middleman, placing calls to your phone or PC and to the person you're calling. If you're on a landline, the call is essentially free. I look forward to the day when CallWave also interoperates with Skype.

CallWave is full of other well-thought-out features, and it genuinely makes your cellular account more useful. The fact that it's free blows my mind. There's a paid version as well ($9.95 a month) that lets you listen to voice mails as they are being left. The company also offers other paid telephony services.

Did I mention how cool CallWave is? OK then.

At the Silicon Valley New Tech Meetup tonight I got a demo of Pinger, a cool little voice messaging service that works on your cell phone. You dial the Pinger number, speak your message to the service, say the name of person you want to get it, and it sends an SMS to your recipient. The recipient gets a text message with a phone number attached to it. The recipient selects and dials that number to hear the message immediately and can respond immediately by voice, too.

It sounds an awful lot like voice mail, doesn't it? It is, sort of, but in the demo, it looked like a more simple solution for sending a voice message when you're sure what you want to do is send a message, not engage in a dialogue. Pinger is also good if you don't like sending text messages.

It's a cool tool, but it seems a bit lonely as a service by itself. It really should be integrated into a larger communications product. On the plus side, if you want to use it, you don't have to deal with your cellular carrier. Just sign up and go for it.