Webware

(Credit: YouMail)

YouMail's visual voice mail app for iPhone may look less sexy than the sleek, crafted application interfaces we've grown used to, but in its first effort, functionality will be more important than form.

This last weekend, users of YouMail's freemium Visual Voicemail Plus service were able to start reading and responding to voice messages from iPhones. Like rival visual voice mail services, YouMail lets you manage voice messages like e-mail messages in exchange for making the service your default mobile answering machine. In addition to playing back voice messages in any order you choose, you're able to save, delete, and respond from YouMail.com or from your phone.

Transcribing the voice call into text costs extra with a tiered pricing plan. The personalized greeting messages you can tailor to favorite callers is free.

Future versions will likely take advantage of the push notification slated for Apple's iPhone 3.0 software update, due out June 17.

To celebrate the release, YouMail is announcing a contest on June 16. YouMail will enter anyone who downloads Visual Voicemail Plus on the iPhone or BlackBerry in a drawing to win a year of its Read-It Select Unlimited free transcription service, valued at $329.99.

YouMail is available on BlackBerry and iPhone, and can be found as a beta app for Android.

VoIP provider Skype plans to announce Tuesday that it will be working with SpinVox to provide its users with voice-to-SMS messaging in four languages.

This adds another option to Skype's messaging notifications for both Windows and Mac, and it includes a free e-mail notification or a simple SMS notification when a contact leaves a message.

Converting the messages from voice to text won't be cheap, however. Users will pay 25 cents per message, not including the standard Skype text message rate, and long voicemails could be spread out over as many as three messages. If the entire voicemail won't fit into three texts, then the message will be cut off. Also, if the message is garbled or otherwise unconvertible--because of poor signal quality, for example--SpinVox and Skype will still charge you for the failed conversion effort.

Words that cannot be understood will be converted into question marks or spaces in the body of the message. Fortunately for the cost-conscious, there are several options for cutting down on quickly running up a massive bill. Users can configure which of their Skype contacts will have their voice messages converted, so it's not an all-or-nothing deal. Messages will also only be sent after a 10-minute delay, so you don't have to worry about getting a text if you walk away from your desk for a few minutes. You'll have the option of configuring a maximum number of voicemail conversions per day, too. An obvious problem with that is missing that must-get voicemail, but at least the option will be there.

SpinVox with Skype will support English, Spanish, French, and German, and there are plans to incorporate SpinVox's current support for Italian and Portuguese, as well.

Zeroing in on that important missed call is YouMail's number-one feature.

(Credit: YouMail)

Since its inception, YouMail, a visual voicemail service for mobile phones, has had one big problem. You could view and play your mobile phone's voicemail messages online, or--beginning lat June--by pointing the mobile browser to YouMail.com, but messages weren't stored on the device itself.

Starting Wednesday, YouMail has begun to change that with a native YouMail in-box for BlackBerry phones. Visual Voicemail Plus is a free downloadable app that stores your incoming voice messages along with the caller's name, number, and time of call.

In addition to viewing and playing messages in any order you'd like, those who have signed up for the free or premium transcription service will be able to read the message content.

Other online features have carried over as well, including interacting with the voice files by downloading, saving, and forwarding them, or posting them to social networks.

The latter has always been the creepiest application, and in my opinion, a misguided attempt to tap into social networking trends. It's true that replaying calls for amusement, blackmail, or punitive action has been a common fate of cell phone messages for much longer than actor Alec Baldwin's damning outburst back in 2007, but why make it so easy to push a private call to the public domain? Let's just hope I'm the only Debbie Downer here envisioning embarrassing abuses of an innocent call.

But back to the app at hand.

YouMail's free and prmeium transcription services carry over to the mobile in-box.

(Credit: YouMail)

While I'll certainly be the first to welcome this native app with open arms, I will point out that it's a bit basic in the design department. We're sure to see more style come to the download in future releases.

The opening of YouMail's API, now in limited beta, means we're sure to see a proliferation of development, including YouMail's porting to other mobile platforms, and to other apps and widgets as a plug-in.

For now YouMail's Visual Voicemail Plus application will work on the BlackBerry Pearl, Curve, Bold, and Storm running version 4.3 or higher of the operating system, and only if you're with Verizon, AT&T, or T-Mobile carriers. New users can sign up for a free account from the Visual Voicemail Plus interface or online.

SlyDial, the telephone service that lets you dial directly to someone's voice mail, has launched three new mobile applications for users on Windows Mobile, Research In Motion's BlackBerry, and Apple's iPhone. The new apps have direct access to your phone's contact list so you can begin a SlyDial call without having to first phone in to the service then remember your contact's number.

All three are free, and with the exception of the iPhone app--which is pending Apple's approval, are available right now. The iPhone version is also the only one of the three that does not require you to be a registered SlyDial user to make calls.

Since we covered SlyDial's official launch back in July, it's added a handy feature that lets you assign numerical shortcuts to contacts you think you're going to call frequently. This lets you call them by dialing in the first four letters of their name (or nickname) followed by the # key.

Below is a demo of how this works on a BlackBerry, effectively giving you the option to SlyDial from anywhere via contextual menu:

How would you like to have your own secretary for taking and delivering voice messages? It sure beats slogging through your phone's voice mail menu, especially if you're short on time or if you want to quickly refer to a saved message.

YouMail's new transcription service, launched from beta on Thursday, adds a (premium) human touch to its otherwise free "visual voice mail" service. In addition to receiving automated transcriptions of cell phone voice messages online, YouMail users can now pay for real people to transcribe their messages and send the gist through SMS or e-mail.

Human intervention boosts the transcription accuracy to 95 percent, estimates YouMail CEO Alex Quilici. That's compared with an estimated 75 percent to 95 percent accuracy of automated transcription, a rate that varies due to factors like voice clarity, idiom use, and call quality.

YouMail is offering its human transcription service in four tiers, two of which are aimed at people with smartphones and the other two for owners of standard phones. Prices range from $3.99 per month for YouMail to text you the meat of 50 messages, all the way up to $17.99 for unlimited transcriptions sent over e-mail.

There's also a freebie that lets YouMail users have the messages from one contact auto-transcribed to text, or to have the first five calls per month from any caller converted to text. All transcriptions will also be available from your YouMail in-box online.

This move offers direct competition to voice-to-text services like VoiceCloud, which also charges a monthly fee to have people--instead of computers--type up your voice mails.

Related stories:
YouMail puts voice messages on the mobile screen
Voice-to-text services seek a human touch

SlyDial, a straight-to-voicemail call service I covered back in early April, has opened up its doors to everything this morning after undergoing three months of beta testing. New on Monday is a premium service heavy users can subscribe to in order to get all the perks of the service without having to listen to the in-house ads that run before connecting you to a call. There are a few plans available: either a 15 cents per call one-time fee, or a $4.95 monthly or $29.95 yearly plan, which only makes sense if you think you're going to be sending more than 30 SlyDial calls a month.

More useful might be the new quick-dial functionality included for registered users. You can add any contacts from your phone book and have the service automatically connect you to their voice mailboxes. It saves you from having to enter the number or make a phone call in the first place; it'll simply call you instead.

I still hold true to what I said about SlyDial in my initial hands-on. It's a potentially evil service for people who misuse it (see the guy in the video embedded after the break), giving anyone the excuse that they "tried to call you" without having to approach actual conversation. That said, it can be wonderfully convenient if you want to send someone the equivalent of a voice text message without interrupting what they're doing.

SlyDial is a creation of Mobile Sphere, the same folks who did Joopz, the PC-to-mobile phone text-messaging service and Webware 100 2008 finalist.

SlyDial now lets you plug in your contacts and be connected with them just by clicking the SlyDial logo on the left.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

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(Credit: YouMail)

YouMail, a free visual voice mail solution to organize cell phone messages like e-mail for online playback and response, announced on Thursday that customers can start viewing those same voice mail messages from their mobile phones.

By pointing the mobile browser to YouMail's home page, fans of the service can access their account with the usual login and pin to view contact's images, play back messages in any order, and forward or reply to voice messages in a form factor tailored from YouMail's servers to many high-end smartphones.

YouMail certainly isn't the first visual voice mail service to succeed in delivering transcribed messages to smartphones, which it does through a separate e-mail or SMS feature. Unlike some competitors for mobile voice message management, however, like PhoneTag (previously SimulScribe) and CallWave, YouMail's new service will retain the audio and organizational features of its rich online product.

The service will be ready for a wide variety of smartphones, YouMail said in a statement, including models from Research In Motion, Nokia, HTC, Morotola, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, and Palm. YouMail claims that YouMail's smartphone formula "even" works on iPhones, which already run on the full mobile Web with manufacturer Apple's Safari browser.

One rung down from having a friend call you to get out of a bad date is SlyDial, a new service that lets you send people voice mail messages without actually having to call them. Yes such a feature exists if someone legitimately leaves you a voice mail (giving you the option to leave a voice mail reply), but SlyDial lets you skip that first step by simply sending them the message as you would an SMS message. It's tricky, it's evil--I love it.

Maybe the best part is that it works on all the carriers. In my testing, I got it to work with AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon, although it seemed to choke on my T-Mobile digits despite calling them from a number not my own (it's hip to you trying to call yourself). The only other hiccup was with CallWave, which Rafe uses. He was tipped off to my call because CallWave lets you know when someone's calling your voice mail in-box.

To stay afloat, there are short advertisements before your calls are connected. I found it to be a little annoying, but not nearly as in your face as the ones on 1-800-FREE-411.There's also no sign-up required, you simply have to call 267-SLY-DIAL (759-3425) and have the number of the person you're calling on hand. In the future, the service plans to offer a software application that can take advantage of your phone's contact list to save you from having to remember people's numbers.

SlyDial is currently in "private beta" until June, and is for U.S. and Canadian phone customers only, although I no few problems getting it to work.

Related: Gmail's Custom Time April fools.

Note: This product was updated on December 7, 2007 to include descriptions of the full software feature set.

I'll come right out and say it. The biggest problem with my first experience with YouMail may have been my own human error, or bad timing. The biggest problem with my second experience is a controversial capability I tackle later on in the review--so keep reading!

In my original review of the voice mail system that lets you manage voice messages online, I said YouMail had a lot of potential, but wasn't delivering on its promise of catching my voice mail messages. It could be that I skipped a beat, and missed punching the crucial star (*) key when entering YouMail's phone number into the Motorola Razr V3 handset I tested with. Or, offers YouMail's PR representative Derek Brookmeyer, I may have actually done this as the signal cut out, in which case YouMail would not have completed my voice mail forwarding, and Verizon would not have warned me the action was unsuccessful.

So now, the complete review:

YouMail's concept fits snugly into the intersection of two meta trends--personalized greetings (such as Vringo) and online mobile management (such as Dashwire). However, since you program YouMail to take over native voice mail duties, it involves a lengthier time investment up front. ... Read more