Freedom for Prisoners of Voice Mail

[Doondoo]

When you dig down past the megahertz and pixels and scroll wheels, all technology boils down to variations of “time is money” — and nobody knows it better than cellphone carriers. Every time you use your cellphone, you’re spending money.

No wonder that when you call to check your messages, the carriers make you listen to a woman who has evidently overdosed on Ambien. “You have. Seven. New. Messages. You have. Two. Saved messages. To listen to your messages, press 1. When you are finished, you may hang up, or press 5 for more options. I will now read the Manhattan White Pages.”

For those 20 seconds, you’re a sitting duck, forced to spend both time and money. The carrier is using technology to squeeze a few more cents out of you every day.

But now you can fight technology with technology. Two new services, SpinVox and SimulScribe, use voice-recognition software to transcribe voice mail messages into e-mail.

Why is this a brilliant, life-changing development? Let us count the ways:


http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/15/technology/15pogue.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[Missy M]

1. I get around that by not listening to voice mail on my cell phone..

I just look at my most recent calls, if I recognize the phone number I decide if I want to call back or not. Some people insist upon leaving long, drawn out messages instead of just saying, "give me a call".