With Apple's release today of the
iPod Touch, a music player with the style and features of the iPhone, the urge to give Bill Jobs more of your paycheck is as real as ever. Well, hold your polished chrome horses a second-- I've got a free (yes, free!) way to make your phone more like the iPhone.
I use the Blackberry Pearl, which is cheaper and does most of the things the iPhone does, but on a much faster network. The one thing the iPhone has that beats out the Pearl is "visual voice mail", a system that allows you to see who called you at a glance. Well, now the iPhone's been beat. And you don't need to buy a new phone to get this service. And for the moment--it's free.
Meet
Callwave, the voice mail system that's wherever you need it to be. What Callwave does is replace your cell-phone companies voice mail with their own proprietary system. There are no ads and you can always switch back. What Callwave does is give you the same at a glance functionality as the iPhone and then takes it a step further. Somebody calls you and after leaving a message, a text message is sent to your phone telling you who called-- and here's the iPhone killing part: It also tells you what the person said.
Well, sort of. The voice recognition software is a little buggy so you wind up with message like:
"just got home from North Carolina then. On since last Wednesday almost an entire week and the deep South and now I'm back to landed no humidity so how are you honey wanna catch up with you only see what's going on which - what's what's Cathy grants day to day now so what are you doing sir or say nights thinking maybe we should have a drink maybe some dinner I don't know at least a drink."
Which gives you the basic gist of the message. Just imagine that Charles Bukowski is your receptionist. With the ability to check your messages online and through a handy Mac widget, Callwave offers enough useful toys to keep you out of the Apple Store for a few weeks-- or at least until Callwave starts charging a fee for their very handy and very clever service.
Labels: tech
