The great thing about boundaries is that they force people to think of clever ways to overcome them. Take for example SpinVox, a technology company that turns voice messages into text and is now targeting US travellers, who are currently prohibited from using cellular-based voice services during flight.
With SpinVox, passengers can continue to receive their voice messages via email in a data-only environment and respond via email while in the air or additionally by voice and SMS text once on the ground.
The service is shockingly simple to use. Yep. I tried it. It took me just seconds to set up. Shortly after leaving a voicemail on my cell, the following e-mail arrived in my inbox (okay, I could have been a bit cleverer about my message to me).
You received a new voicemail from +17176261456:
"Hello Mary, this is a test. Let's see if it works."
- spoken through SpinVox
Unless and until the Federal Communications Commission - and Congress - come to their senses about the in-flight use of mobile phones, SpinVox is a handy dandy way to at least receive one's voicemails.
on September 24, 2008 1:27 PM | Reply
"Hello Mary, this is a test. Let's see if it works."
- spoken through SpinVox
Perhaps not as pretentious as "What Hath God Wrought?" but definitely better than "Watson! Come here, I need you" or, (dare we say?) "Mary had a little lamb..."
on September 24, 2008 1:57 PM | Reply
Oh you kidder!
on September 25, 2008 11:30 AM | Reply
We use a similar system in my office called EVM, Enabled Voice Mail. It sends all my voicemail messages as a text message to your email, cell phone, PDA or all devices at once. It has been in service since July and it works great, but I turned it off after 2 weeks. That makes me way too connected to work for my taste.