jott

Jott is Out of Beta

One of my favorite web services is finally out of Beta. Jott recently announced that they will go into full gear. For some of us moochers, this is a bit of a bummer; who wouldn’t like such an awesome free service. Now, I’m going to evaluate the free version and try out the subscriptions to find what works for me.

Jott didn’t just flip a switch and start charging for their services; they also released a couple of handy applications that should improve your experience with the service. Jott Express is the first handy-dandy app. You can manage your Jotts from your desktop without having to fire up your browser. Best of all, Jott Express works with the free version of the service. Jott Express works on both PC and Mac.

The other application released is Jott for Outlook. If you’re on a Mac, you’re out of luck on this one; it only works on the PC version of Outlook. So, if you are amongst Outlook users, this is a nifty app that lets you add tasks, appointments, reminders, and even lets you draft emails. Unlike Jott Express, Jott for Outlook is only available with the paid subscriptions.

Jott also has an app for Blackberry users, but I don’t use one and couldn’t tell you if this is a great thing or not. Furthermore, you would need to subscribe to Jott Pro to take advantage of this one; whereas Jott for Outlook only requires the Regular Jott subscription. There is a Pay-As-You-Go Jott subscription, which allows you to record longer messages and allows you use of all the apps. I find the price a bit steep, however. On the other hand, if you have an iPhone, the Jott app works with the free service.

Overall, I;m happy for Jott’s successful move to a full-scale service. I’ll be trying different service levels in the meantime until I find one comfortable for me.

Jott Now Has Feeds

Great New Service

One of my all-time favorite web services, Jott, has added yet another kick-butt feature. They have added the ability to listen to RSS feeds. They have a few pre-selected feeds set up, but the service is completely customizable. You can choose your own feeds to hear over your phone.

How It Works

First, you call Jott like you normally would. You dial 1-866-568-8123 for toll-free access, or 1-347-523-8843 if you have MyFaves by T-Mobile or MyCircle by Alltel. When the prompt asks you who you want to Jott, you can say “jott feeds” or press 6 on your keypad. The prompt will then ask you which feed, and will go over the list of feeds for you. You can also press the number of your feed on the keypad, also customizable, if you know which feed you want. After that you can simply listen to the posts. It’s that easy.

Some of the feeds that are already set up on Jott Feeds include Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Weather, LifeHacker, Mashable, and TechCrunch. They also have several feeds ready to just click and go in addition to the ability to add your own custom feeds.

What Practical Use Is This?

The first thing that comes to mind is if you are a commuter. You have the ability to listen to podcasts during your commute; but blogs are still something you have to read yourself. With Jott Feeds, you can listen to your favorite blogs being read to you while you travel. But, that’s the tip of the iceberg. You could subscribe to Twitter updates, Facebook statuses, or any service with an RSS feed. This would include Google alerts, which have RSS feeds. Unfortunately, there is no way to get password-protected feeds. Jott Feeds would be great for employees to subscribe to Intranet feeds from the field.

You can read more on Jott’s blog.

Listen to this site on my phone with Jott Feeds

Shop Amazon With Jott

I’ve been meaning to try this feature, but never got around to it until today. You can shop Amazon using Jott. You won’t get results immediately; you still have to wait for your voice message to be transcribed and processed. The benefit to this type of shopping, just like leaving yourself reminders, is that you can get the idea off your mind and then pick up where you left off later when you have the time. Many times when we have an idea, it’s not the best time to actually carry it out. So it is with shopping Amazon through Jott. Your shopping idea gets started while you are busy and is waiting for you when you are free. I tried it, and it could prove to be handy.

I Want Sandy, Seriously

My recent fetish with Jott has got me experimenting with some of the links to the service. One of the links is I Want Sandy. If you have used Stikkit from Values of n, then you have an idea of how I Want Sandy works. The system is able to interpret your messages and turn them into useful notes. Stikkit functions as a virtual post-it note. I Want Sandy functions like a virtual assistant. The mechanisms are the same, but the focus is different. For my purposes, Stikkit is not so useful. This prejudice makes me not want to like Sandy, but she is turning out to be the right thing.

Unfortunately, Jott is not the best interface for Sandy. I can’t think fast enough to phrase my entries in the appropriate way for Jott to transcribe to Sandy. Frequently, Jott misinterprets what I said, and butchers the message. So, Sandy often sends me back messages telling me that she doesn’t know what I want. I’ve pretty much given up on Jotting to Sandy unless I give my command serious thought in advance, which defeats the usefulness of Jott. At that point, I could just write things down. I still love Jott, just not with Sandy.

The upside is that Sandy works well with my other hero, Twitter. Typing a message to Sandy through Twitter works well for me. I can add contacts, notes, reminders, and all manner of info. Sandy then sends me a confirmation by Twitter and email. The best thing about Sandy is that she will send me reminders for things. I can also run searches on the information Sandy has through Twitter. I know this will sound geekishly pretentious, but Twitter is my command line interface for Sandy. Once you learn the syntax, you can manage your personal information through Twitter, i.e. text message. Who ever saw that coming? Maybe someday somebody will invent a linux shell that runs on sms. For now, I’m happy communicating with Sandy through my twitter account. The same ability to use Twitter by sms, gtalk, or web interface is what makes accessing a third-party app so awesome. I Want Sandy has done the best implementation thus far.

UPDATE

It was recently announced that I Want Sandy will be shut down on December 7. Sandy’s developer is moving on to a position at Twitter. I am sad to see Sandy go. On the other hand, some of Sandy’s features are said to be rolled into Twitter. There is no mention as to which of these features will survive.

Jott for Your Mobile Life

Jott LogoIt appears that Jott has been busy making their service more and more functional. For a free service, they sure give you a lot. They have added more links to other useful services I thought I would share with you. The implications of Jott’s willingness to work with other sites is that it enables you to break free from a computer for simple things. You can live a very mobile lifestyle with your main weapon being your cell phone. You can use your voice, text messages, and mobile websites to get much of your work done, or at least remember to do it. I mention Jott because I love using the service. In case you are wondering, Jott transcribes your voice message and emails it to you, your friends, a group, or some service like those listed below. You speak it; and they write it down.

Services That Work With Jott

  • Twitter is a messaging system that answers one question: what are you doing now? Twitter allows you to keep in touch with friends all at once easily via text messages or instant messenger.
  • Yahoo Groups is a well known forum-type of service. You can Jott your replies rather than type them in.
  • Jaiku is a Twitter-like service. I’m on it, but don’t use it as much.
  • Zillow allows you to look up real estate estimates. I don’t use this service as it is not in my line of business. If you are in real estate, you may want to check it out and combine it with Jott.
  • Blogger, as the name implies, is a blogging service. If you are already on Blogger, Jott is handy. The only drawback is that you can only record for 30 seconds. So Jott is good for very brief blog posts.
  • LiveJournal is a blogging service just like Blogger.
  • Tumblr is in between Twitter and a blog. It’s just a place to collect photos, short notes, and other media.
  • 30 Boxes is supposed to help you get your act together. It has a calendar, to do lists, and such. I just never quite got into it. However, if you are on 30 Boxes, you now have the ability to use it via voice command through Jott.
  • Recommendr is a site that is supposed to help you make informed buying decisions. I haven’t used it, but it sounds promising.
  • Toodledo is another service I haven’t used. It seems like a to do list service.
  • Remember the Milk another to do list service. Nothing wrong with it; I simply use another service.
  • WordPress is turning out to be the champion blogging platform. You can use it like Blogger, LiveJournal, or TypePad.
  • Google Calendar is a service I just linked to my Jott today. I think it promises to be a great addition as I am neck-deep in Google services.
  • Sandy is a virtual assistant service, which I gather is like 30 Boxes. I signed up for it today. It looks promising, especially with Jott.
  • Xpenser is another service I linked to my Jott today. I totally love the concept. Xpenser allows you to keep track of your expenses. Now with Jott, you can call in your notes and save yourself some data entry.
  • Gumiyo is for mobile online classifieds. I have not looked at it, so can’t say how useful it would be. You are welcome to share your experience with them.
  • Trapster seems like an interesting service. It allows you to report where speed traps are located. I rarely speed, so find this to be of limited use. However, some of you scofflaws may find it handy for sharing intelligence amongst each other.
  • Mosio allows you to ask any question and have it answered by real people. Not much use for me as I know everything.
  • Vitalist is one of my absolute favorite services. When I signed up with them, I was looking for a GTD system. Their implementation came the closest and is the easiest to use. Plus, it has a mobile site I can check after Jotting into my inbox.
  • TypePad is another blogging service.

So What’s the Big Deal?

The big deal is that any combination of these services can be accessed via your phone. This is not quite the Star Trek computer that can do anything via voice command. It is pretty darn close. Jott started off as a service for itself. I think perhaps their direction has changed from a simple reminder service to being a gateway for mobile people to access their online accounts while out and about.

Jott can handle most of the services that these other sites offer. Jott has reminders, you can create a to-do list folder, you can create a folder for notes, you can message people by email or text message, you can even message groups of people like Twitter. Many of the things these outside services offer are already a part of the basic Jott service. What has made Jott infinitely more useful is that they link to the services listed above. This makes Jott a useful interface to our favorite services. What is more, they probably have more subscribers for that reason than simply providing a standalone service.