Apps Like TwitterFone Signal the Future?
May 16th, 2008 (6:00am) Imran Ali 12 Comments
Business Week speculated on Why Twitter Matters, suggesting that its ‘large and vigorous developer community’ has already positioned the service as an innovative messaging platform.
Like other classic platform strategies, Twitter is not only providing a compelling user experience, but coupling this to a comprehensive developer toolkit.
Innovation on the Twitter platform continues with the recent launch of Cubic Telecom’s TwitterFone, a cute voice interface for Twitter, that enables users to record a short voice message using their cellphone, have the message transcribed to text and then twittered to the public timeline, including a link to the original voice message.
For Web Workers Twitterfone may seem to be nothing that can dramatically enhance productivity or mobility - unless your a mobile micro-podcaster! - but when coupled with the growing universe of Twitter applications, it’s not difficult to see its utility and value.
For example, using Twitter’s timer bot, it’s possible to quickly ‘phone’ in a time-sensitive reminder to one’s self - like refilling a parking meter. Enterprising developers are already experimenting with home automation applications using Twitter. It’s possible to envisage remote workers phoning in commands to various household appliances and systems.
A great many web workers do indeed utilise Twitter simply as a service for status updates to signal their location, the status of progress on a work task and to keep coworkers updated. It’s quite exciting to consider where such interactions may take place between human and machine and whether multi-modal voice and screen based applications will emerge from the Twitter platform.
12 Comments Post your own comment
XNet says: May 16th, 2008 6:34am
Your TwitterFone link is wrong. It’s twitterfone.com not twitterphone.com
wd says: May 16th, 2008 7:55am
I haven’t used TwitterFone yet, but I think people might like to check out Jott for comparison. Jott is a free voice to data service that can link to Twitter, Google Calendar, Remember the Milk, I Want Sandy, etc.
http://jott.com
Judi Sohn says: May 16th, 2008 7:59am
Thanks, XNet. Link corrected.
pat phelan says: May 16th, 2008 8:25am
Thanks for the very nice mention Imran.
@wd Twitterfone is a global product, we have 20 countries and growing
Ed Roberts says: May 16th, 2008 8:40am
I agree with wd. USE JOTT instead. They’ve been doing voice transcription longer, so they should be better at it. They also offer much more than Twitter functionality. I use Jott quite a bit, especially for Remember the Milk.
Tarique Naseem says: May 16th, 2008 8:51am
Jott is only an option if you live in the US or Canada.
Bill Reichart says: May 16th, 2008 9:12am
You all beat me to the punch…I use Jott too. They have done very well with the voice recognition and they have so many apps in their stable that one can link with.
pat phelan says: May 16th, 2008 10:33am
forgot to mention, we have USA and Canada also, will add Mexico next week in case you travel.
we love Jott also though but we do only simple stuff, we leave email and all that to Jott.
Twitterfone is for Twitter only.
Home Office Warrior » Home office tips and hints…Links says: May 16th, 2008 12:01pm
[...] and another example of what is to come, apps like twitterFone signal the future. Fun application you can use with [...]
eske says: May 16th, 2008 2:53pm
JOTT is NO USE if you don’t live in the US / canada … i emailed them a month ago asking about plans to cover other areas … no reply … twitterfone are in rakes of countries worldwide .. AND interact with their customers.
pat phelan says: May 16th, 2008 2:57pm
Twitterfone now has LIVE operations in
Ireland
UK
USA
Canada
New Zealand
Israel
Japan
Spain
Italy
Switzerland
Belgium
Finland
Netherlands
Norway
Sweden
Australia
Canada
Germany
We will continue to add 3-4 countries per week and are aiming for 50 countries, twitter is a truly global product and twitterfone intends to follow that lead.
Heinz G. says: May 27th, 2008 10:28am
There is something similar it is called twitsay.com! Check it out.