That’s right! You! There! Reading this!

So I was chatting away to one of my peers the other day and I happened to mention I worked for SpinVox and their immediate (and rather dismissal) response was:

“Oh, that Voicemail thingy?“

And I said: “Well… Yeah.. but NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO! As well..“

Y’see - Whilst I do agree that one of the killer applications of the SpinVox product is Voicemail… (we’ll come back to this one another time - it really has saved my life on more than one occasion) …there are still SO MANY other ways you can have SpinVox in your life.

Allow me to outline three that I personally use quite regularly…

1) Ok. Let’s start with group text messaging. Know what that is? The ‘one to many’ thing yeah? No? Well look, let me tell you about Blast.

Blast through SpinVox has two cool benefits: First up, (which I think is just damn cool on its own), you can speak a text message. That’s right. SPEAK. A. TEXT. Cool as.
The second benefit is not only can you speak your SMS but you can also set up a predefined list of up to TWENTY recipients. That’s right, Twenty.
That is cool. I honestly had no idea it was that many… (I thought it was like five or something) …I think I’m going to have to review my account definitely.
I only have the numbers of a couple of loved ones in my group at the moment. Maybe I’ll delete them and create a new group of blast buddies: “Pub friends” - yeah, that’ll work.

2) Next - You’re out and about and you remember - (like me) - “Damn, I must remember to pack that thing for tomorrow“ - so what do I do? I call my Memo through SpinVox number, leave myself a little reminder message, and then - when I get home - it’s there in my email inbox: “Dude, don’t forget to pack that thing for tomorrow“.

Cool? Maybe.
Handy? Hell yeah!

Especially if you like to keep notes throughout the day and don’t have time to write anything down.

3) Finally, one of my favourite applications of the SpinVox product: Blog through SpinVox.
Admittedly, something I’m yet to demonstrate on this blog - (we’re currently midway through redesigning the place - I’ll activate voice posting after that goes live) - but I have used it before on my own blog and I’m glad to report it works very well.

You can literally blog from anywhere. Well… anywhere where you can make a phone call anyway… Mount Everest for instance!

Thing is, and this is what makes it a ‘must-have’ instead of a ‘nice to have’:

With Blog through SpinVox the ‘I was’ becomes ‘I am’.

And that, to me, is just SO powerful.

Try it. I dare you.

No. Not another hidden link off to secret sighting of our missing Speech Mobber
(or ‘Mobby‘ as folk have taken to calling him).

But in fact a coded message that was left on a desk not too far from my own in the early hours of this morning…

I’m not sure but I think there could be some kind of hidden meaning there somewhere…

HA!

Don’t get me wrong - I’m all for �Speaking Freely� and all that but there’s no need to be mean…

*sniff*

It’s been a busy week here at SpinVox HQ and it’s ONLY MONDAY! Eep…

So, in lieu of my next amazing, award-winning blog post, (shh - our secret), here’s a quick round up of what’s going down in the blogging world of SpinVox today:

CES has kicked off! Woooooooo! At laaaaaaaaaaast!
I remember the days when this used to be a huge event in my gaming calendar…
What with the likes of Nintendo & SEGA et al using this platform to announce their latest machines etc…Oh how times have changed!

Anywhoo… SpinVox has it’s very own roving reporter there RIGHT NOW in the rather lovely form of Laura-Jane Rich.

Laura-Jane, (or ‘L-J’ as she prefers to be known), will be reporting live from the conference floor direct to her blog! You can read her first post right here, (spoken through SpinVox of course).

Have fun L-J! You have no idea how green with envy I am! It shoulda been me!

On the back of that we had this lovely piece appear in the Financial Times this morning not only referencing the advent of the spoken blog at CES (see above) but also Symbian-Guru’s coverage of Nokia World, Anna Hemming’s award-winning antics on her blog AND… (breathe!)
…Paul Mitson’s intention to speak his blog live from the (now sadly cancelled) Lisbon to Dakar Rally!

Not bad work for a Monday eh?

I had this massive post lined up for today all about our SpinVox sponsored entrant to the 2008 Dakar Rally, Paul Mitson.

However… I dropped by his blog before hand to see what the latest update was and it seems that this year’s rally has in fact been cancelled.

Read the full story here:

“After different exchanges with the French government - in particular the Ministry for Foreign Affairs - , and based on their firm recommendations, the organisers of the Dakar have taken the decision to cancel the 2008 edition of the rally, scheduled from the 5th to the 20th of January between Lisbon and Senegal’s capital.

Based on the current international political tension and the murder of four French tourists last 24th of December linked to a branch of Al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb, but also and mainly the direct threats launched directly against the race by terrorist organisations, no other decision but the cancellation of the sporting event could be taken by A.S.O.

A.S.O.’s first responsibility is to guarantee the safety of all: that of the populations in the countries visited, of the amateur and professional competitors, of the technical assistance personnel, of the journalists, partners and rally collaborators. A.S.O. therefore reaffirms that the choice of security is not, has never been and will never be a subject of compromise at the heart of the Dakar rally.

A.S.O. condemns the terrorist menace that annihilates a year of hard work, engagement and passion for all the participants and the different actors of the world’s biggest off-road rally. Aware of the huge frustration, especially in Portugal, Morocco, Mauritania and Senegal, and beyond the general disappointment and the huge economical consequences in terms of direct and indirect repercussions for the countries visited, A.S.O. will continue to defend the major values of great sporting events and will carry on its engagement for a durable development through the Actions Dakar, started 5 years ago in sub-Saharan Africa with SOS Sahel International.

The Dakar is a symbol and nothing can destroy symbols. The cancellation of the 2008 edition does not endanger the future of the Dakar. To offer, for 2009 a new adventure to all the off-road rally passionate is a challenge that A.S.O. will take on in the months to come, faithful to its engagement and its passion for sports.“

There’s not much more I can add…
This is a terrible turn of events for all parties involved and all of us here at SpinVox wish Paul and his team the very best of luck for 2009.

Greetings and a Happy New Year to you from everyone here at SpinVox!

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Moving on from that, what’s your calendar looking like for 2008?
Got anything exciting on the horizon?

Personally, I’m looking forward to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) starting in a few days - being a complete techno-geek myself I can’t wait to see what amazing advancements will be unveiled/announced.
I mean… we’re eight years into the 21st Century for crying out loud! We’ve got to get flying cars at some point… SURELY!

But, if CES turns out to be a let down, there’s always Mobile World Congress (the conference formally known as 3GSM) to look forward to in February.
If you’re not familiar with MWC/3GSM, don’t worry… neither am I!

But I am lead to believe it is THE place to be if you happen to be anywhere near the cutting edge of the mobile industry and, what with SpinVox winning the Mobile Innovation Award (two years ago I think it was now), I think it’d just be plain rude if we didn’t pop our heads in to say hi…

In the meantime - good luck, dearest readers, in the new year ahead and I’ll leave you with one of my favourite quotes:

“Today, give a stranger one of your smiles. It might be the only sunshine he sees all day.“

Have a good day!