Geeky Web Sites

Two websites that are new to me that I thought I would share: jott.com (voice-recognition transcribed memos to yourself or others), and dopplr.com (post your travel schedule, and see if it matches up with your friends).

Jott: One item I miss from my ancient (pre-Canada) cell phone is the ability to take voice memos. Then I saw this New York Times article ("Souping Up a Cellphone for Maximum Multitasking"):

A free service, Jott (www.jott.com) uses your phone as a voice-dictation machine. Once you set up an account, you simply call (866) JOTT-123 on your hand-held device to connect. After the call goes through, you will be prompted for whom you wish to “jott.” You reply with the word myself and wait for the recording tone. Now you can speak “Buy birthday present for Johnny before Aug. 5,” or whatever task reminder you need. Upon hanging up, Jott will transcribe the task and shoot it off in a e-mail message to the address you provided for yourself during setup.

Huh... sounded interesting. I signed up for an account, and tried it out. When prompted for a sample memo, the only thing I could come up with was They Might Be Giants lyrics:


Huh... not a perfect transcription, but basically works. Pretty cool.

I still have no idea what their profit model is--I haven't seen any advertising yet.

Dopplr: Catherine suggested that I try out the website Dopplr:

Dopplr is an online service for intelligent business travellers.

Dopplr lets you share your future travel plans privately with friends and colleagues. The service then highlights coincidence, for example, telling you that three people you know will be in Paris when you will be there too. You can use Dopplr on your personal computer and mobile phone. It links with online calendars and social networks.

Although I haven't been travelling as much for work lately as usual, I'm sure I'll continue to end up on a plane a fair amount. As an example, meeting a coworker in CLT on the way back from a work trip for a round of margaritas was kinda cool.

I only have two people sharing trips with me now, but if you want to find me on Dopplr, I'm (imaginatively) Bats22.