Recently, me and a couple of the guys here at SV HQ started thinking about Visual Voicemail on the iPhone.
Y’all know what Visual Voicemail is right?

That funky little feature that everyone raved about when it was first announced etc?
Yeah, that.

So we were talking about that and started to really unpick the whole idea behind it.
First of all, for the record:

I am not an iPhone user (shh!)

Which means that a lot of what I started kicking around was simply theory…
(at first anyway – but we’ll come to that later).

I do know mobile though and Visual Voicemail, as a proposition, is awesome –

I know this, several million iPhone users know this BUT our users are still opting out of using Visual Voicemail fantastic service and choosing SpinVox instead.

So this begs the question why?
I thought on this some more…

If visual voicemail *shows* you your mail – to me, it’s like having your post delivered to your doorstep. Literally.
Let me show you what I mean -

Closed envelopes fall into your inbox and you choose which ones you wish to open (and listen to) first.
Like so…

– Visual Voicemail –

And keeping with this old school mail analogy, SpinVox on the other hand shows you the contents of your post.
The envelopes arrive as letters and you can READ them.
Making your Voicemail visible: Ergo – Visible Voicemail.

- Visible Voicemail -

I suppose you could call it some kind of new naming convention we’re bandying around internally, but there’s only so much navel-gazing we can do before it gets opened out –
…If proved however, we could probably get a lot of mileage out of it
Your thoughts are very welcome.

We DELIVER Voicemail.

Whereas traditional voicemail is left in a box for you to go and retrieve/listen to.
Visual Voicemail allows you to see the post/mail in the box, and then you choose which to retrieve/listen to.
Visible Voicemail – SpinVox – DELIVERS the Voicemail direct to you, ready to read and with no retrieval necessary.

I mentioned earlier that this was merely theory and that it needed proving, what with me not being an iPhone user… well, it’d kinda help.

So – what do you think? Do you have an iPhone? Do you use SpinVox? I would love to see/read/hear your thoughts… I’m already lucky enough to get some opinions etc..

A couple of weeks back I was able to share these thoughts with some iPhone-owning, SpinVox using friends..

Here’s what they had to say:

“…I would say visual voicemail is and was really only aimed at North Americans who love to talk but only recently learnt how to text.

In Europe we now live in a text world so if there was any service Apple should have launched with the iphone it should have been a cloud app like SV.

Visual voicemail is really not visual in any real sense of the word at all since the content of the mail remains locked inside an envelope on the iphone’s screen.

It’s as useless as not seeing the list of voicemails at all…”

– Mike Butcher, TechCrunch UK

———————————–

“…I think you hit the nail on the head.
The two main benefits over visual voicemail for me are:

a) As you said, the fact that I can immediately see the contents of a message rather than having to take the time to call a number or even click a button (as the iphone shows texts on the home screen before you’ve even clicked to see them).

b) Secondly, with visual voicemail, there’s no way to save the contents of the message in text format (therefore searchable) for ever. There are details of people (both friends & clients) that I have recovered thanks to that and so it’s undeniably invaluable to me…”

– Zee @ We Do Creative:

———————————–

“I have my Spinvox voicemail come through to my MobileMe email address. This way I can receive voicemail notifications instantly (push email) but still have them accessible on my laptop (unlike SMS).

So, in a visual voicemail style, I browse my Spinvox voicemail using the iPhone’s email client. The only difference is, I don’t have to listen to them in order to receive the message.”

– Simon Maddox

———————————–

“It means the power / imperative / control of managing voicemail is in my hands – not in the hands of my MNO (am I in coverage to make the call?) or the person calling (I have forced you to dial in and listen to my message).

Having used SV for a year, I now cringe when leaving VM for others – I feel like I’m imposing on their time, making them check my message. I now don’t leave VM on mobiles – If it goes to VM, I send an SMS instead…”

– Mike @ INQ Mobile

———————————–

“…the convenience that comes from just getting a text from that person with the contents of the message is still way too much to overlook. I love being able to just look at a text message that tells me what the person said and respond with a text. People are more likely these days to return a text message promptly than a voicemail message.”

– Mark Burstiner

———————————–

So – what do you think?

Leave a comment,
Write a post yourself,
Email me: james dot whatley at spinvox dot com
Or even call and SpinVox me a message +447825798998

Looking forward to your feedback – fingers crossed there’ll be enough to do a follow up post next week.

Cheers,

James.

At last! It’s FRIDAY!

Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

And yes, you’re back here again to see some more action from our friends at Fur TV. Here we have the fifth and final video from Lapeno and the boys… This time answering that age old question:

Do Condoms Reduce Sensitivity?

The Staying-Alive Foundation has been Telling it like it is for ten years now..

And it’s about time you got involved with Telling it Like it is too.
Pick up the phone (numbers below) and tell the Fur TV boys one of your stories.

Your voice will be converted into text and posted up on the Telling it like it is blog.

UK : 0151 266 7700
US: 1513 729 6417
Canada: 1416 628 8501
Spain: 3493 184 2078
Germany: 4921 123 7061072
France: 3317 666 0863
Ireland: 3531 657 1891

This is the last time we’re going to publish these numbers so we’d really REALLY like you to pick up the phone and take part.. Make your voice count.

(I’m going over to the blog now to read up on what’s been said so far)

hehe..

Happy Thursday Folks, if you’re back here today to see another Fur TV video then you will not be disappointed!

If this is your first time here, where have you beeeeeeeeeeeen?! What have you been doing!?

Get yourself off and read last week’s post and start from there… THEN work your way back through the blog and see the other videos… and THEN take look at today’s effort..

…which is below by the way

Watched it? Liked it?

Well it’s about time you got involved with Telling it Like it is
Pick up the phone (numbers below) and tell the Fur TV boys one of your stories.

Your voice will be converted into text and posted up on the Telling it like it is blog.

UK : 0151 266 7700
US: 1513 729 6417
Canada: 1416 628 8501
Spain: 3493 184 2078
Germany: 4921 123 7061072
France: 3317 666 0863
Ireland: 3531 657 1891

Go on, give it a go..

Day Two of Fur TV fun here on Big Talk – want detail? See last week’s post, but the important thing to know is that these guys are here to Tell it Like it is…

Ideally, we really want YOU to tell us like it is, but first – before you do that – watch this educational video from Lapeno and the gang and find out a little bit more about Unsafe Sex.
Clue: It ain’t good.

Go on, give it a go..
(numbers are after the vid!)

UK : 0151 266 7700
US: 1513 729 6417
Canada: 1416 628 8501
Spain: 3493 184 2078
Germany: 4921 123 7061072
France: 3317 666 0863
Ireland: 3531 657 1891

Call now and tell your embarrassing moment…
Your voice will be converted into text and posted up on the Telling it like it is blog.

(anonymously of course)

We’re rocking the Fur TV folk this week (see last week’s post) and starting today, we’re going to be posting up a different video from the lads all in the name of Telling it Like it is…

Watch this next video and then why don’t you call up and tell Lapeno like it is…
Your voice will be converted into text and posted up on the Telling it like it is blog.

Go on, give it a go..
(numbers are after the vid!)

UK : 0151 266 7700
US: 1513 729 6417
Canada: 1416 628 8501
Spain: 3493 184 2078
Germany: 4921 123 7061072
France: 3317 666 0863
Ireland: 3531 657 1891

Call now and tell your embarrassing moment…
(don’t worry – all posts remain anonymous – I promise!)

Afternoon all!

You may have been wondering what we’ve been up to on Big Talk these past few days. What with our random pictures of puppets and rather provocative YouTube videos…

Well today I can let you know that, after our successes over the Summer with MTV’s Staying Alive Foundation on “StandByWhatYouSay” we here at SpinVox have teamed up the guys again for a new project…

…and this time we’ve invited Lapeno, Ed and Merv from MTV’s Fur TV to help us promote sexual health amongst you young folk by “Telling It Like It Is“.

Here are the facts from the press release:

- ‘Telling It Like It Is` – www.tellingitlikeitis.tv – is a groundbreaking initiative that encourages young people to speak openly about sex, sexual health and HIV/AIDS

- Young people interact with the campaign via a website – www.tellingitlikeitis.tv – and via a dedicated telephone number to discuss issues relating to sex, sexual health and STIs.

- The campaign uses the SpinVox service to automatically convert voice messages into text that is then posted directly onto the site’s blog.

- The campaign, which marks the 10th anniversary of Staying Alive, will be launched through a series of television infomercials (please see the video link) that will debut during the MTV Europe Music Awards on November 6th

- The infomercials, fronted by Lapeno, Mervin and Ed, will cover issues relating to safe sex and the fact that `rubber rocks` – the use of condoms in ensuring sexual health.

- Topics will include the risks of sex without a condom, the embarrassment factor in buying them and whether they reduce sensitivity during sex

- Viewers who contribute to the Telling It Like It Is website will receive a Rubber Ring, a novel pledge ring that shows the wearer won’t have sex without a condom.

- The full list of campaign telephone numbers:

UK : 0151 266 7700

US: 1513 729 6417

Canada: 1416 628 8501

Spain: 3493 184 2078

Germany: 4921 123 7061072

France: 3317 666 0863

Ireland: 3531 657 1891

Brilliant.

Tonight, during the show, four videos, not too dissimilar from the one we posted recently, will be shown AT THE AWARDS (so tune in if you can) and you’ll see the Fur TV guys doing their thang…

And hey – while you’re at it – why not get over to the website and TELL IT LIKE IT IS!

WOO WOO!

But not all.

More tomorrow.

Telling it like it is…

‘Nuff said.