SimulScribe - Voicemail to Text Conversion

I mentioned trying out Callwave's visual voicemail service during CES 2008. I also mentioned being disappointed with the quality of the speech to text conversion. Callwave's service was free and in that case, I got exactly what I paid for. On January 15, I started testing SimulScribe. SimulScribe is free for 30 days and then will likely cost me $9.95 per month at the rate I get messages on my cell phone. The voicemail to text conversion done by SimulScribe isn't perfect, but it's pretty awesome.

Dictionary words are converted from speech to text with no problem. Most European names come through nicely as well. Names originating from Asia haven't fared so well and neither do all the wacky Web company names, but I didn't necessarily expect them to. The important thing is I'm not guessing at what the message is trying to tell me the way I was with the Callwave service. Instead of wasting time listening to messages, I now get them in my inbox, where I can easily act on whatever it is someone needs me to do - that's a huge time savings for me and a surefire guarantee that SimulScribe gets my business as soon as the trial period is over.

Try reading your voicemail - it will save you time and keep you from ever having to listen twice to decipher a phone number again.