Earlier December saw the launch of Cogi (pronounced co-jee), an audio recording and transcription service in the mould of QTech’s reQall and SkyDeck, bringing a potentially a valuable note taking tool for web workers.
The US-based service enables users to capture the audio content of any phone call or conference calls in their entirety for later transcription to text by the service. Users can also markup parts of the call for particular emphasis during the transcription process. Apparently marking up such segments of a call is as simple as hitting a touchtone keypad to issue stop and start commands, though I’m sure a visual aid to this would be a welcome future addition.
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Guest post by Pete Johnson
As an IT teleworker for a large company over the past 10 years, I’ve spent my share of time on conference calls. The other day, in fact, I set a personal record with 11.5 hours of them in a single work day (and I had the sore headphone ear and hoarse voice that came along with that feat). Despite this meeting load, I still had to respond to IM’s, reply to a multitude of emails, prepare slides early in the day for a presentation later on, and a host of other tasks. That begs the question:
How do you effectively multitask in meetings in a way that lets you get work done?
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Fuel cells are a fairly seductive technology for web workers: they can store a high energy content in a small space, opening the potential of powering portable devices for a long time without recharging. Our sister site Earth2Tech has been keeping an eye on fuel cell developments for a while, but now their use in consumer electronics is starting to look more imminent.
The latest place where the devices have surfaced is the Japanese Ceatac exhibition, where Toshiba is showing off a fuel cell-powered cell phone. While the device on display is only a prototype, they expect to release working models by March of next year. This tallies with a report in Fuel Cell Today passing on the news that Toshiba has been investing in a commercial production plant for the devices.
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There are plenty of manufacturers and carriers out there who will be happy to tell you what you want from a phone. To hear them tell it, if you’re not carrying a device with a camera, a touchscreen, an internet browser, GPS, Bluetooth, and a fancy colorful operating system, you might as well be carting around a tin can and a long piece of string.
With the recent upgrades to the iPhone, and the imminent release of the first Google “Android” phone, the hype machine surrounding these devices has been cranked up to higher levels than ever. But while I’m sure there are focus groups and test devices involved in the process, no one ever asked me what I wanted in my cell phone. And I’ll bet they never asked you, either.
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It’s been widely reported that the first phone using Google’s “Android” operating system will be announced for sale by T-Mobile this month - perhaps as soon as Tuesday. With a full-fledged operating system aimed squarely at web users, it’s worth thinking about the impact that this announcement will have on web workers.
The obvious competitor to match Android phones up with is the Apple iPhone, which has become the new darling of many high-tech workers. While the iPhone has its warts and its detractors, it also has many committed users, and recent software updates seem to have cured many of the early teething pains. If you’re already locked into an iPhone contract, the launch of Android phones probably means nothing to you. But what if you haven’t jumped yet? How do you choose between the two? Here’s a short list of points to consider.
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