So I had this super duper, uber-fantastic CTIA blog post that I was just about to hit ‘Publish’ on…

…when all of a sudden this video lands on my desk.

Brilliant.

SpinVox @ CTIA - c/o our friends at Heist Projects - Cheers!

Tony Carter, it’s over to you…

Still recovering from the madness that was CTIA in Las Vegas, (more pics and stuff to come later today), can you imagine how happy I was to wake up this morning to an email from friend of SpinVox and all round nice chap, Neil Bird, from iGadgetlife.com:

“Dude! Gadget Show! SpinVox! AWESOMENESS!“

Well - something like that anyway…

Anywhoo, Neil (the absolute star!) not only recorded the whole thing on his Sky+ (it’s the UK version of TiVo) but also uploaded it to the web for the whole world to behold!

Cheers Neil… And of course, HUGE thanks to The Gadget Show!

I don’t know - last week Radio, this week Television… Next week: The Internet!…no, wait!

Sings:

“VIVA LAS VEGAS! VIVA LAS VEGAS!”

And I’m pretty certain that won’t be for the last time either… Hehehe.

Just a quick note to mention that SpinVox is off to the 2008 CTIA Wireless Conference this week.
The show itself runs from April 1-3 and will be hosted at the Las Vegas Convention Center which is in… er… Las Vegas!

You can find us at Booth 6603 - So if you want to come say ‘Hi’ then that’s where we’ll be.

I’m flying out tomorrow to (amongst other things) assist with the building of the stand (again).
You may remember that we caused quite a stir at the recent Mobile World Congress in Barcelona with all our many Mobsters… 2000 to be exact!

Well, we’ve shipped the whole stand to Las Vegas; SpinVox is coming to town and we’re bringing our army of Mobsters with us!

I don’t have any exclusive pictures/videos yet, (like before), but I HAVE managed to lay my hands on the final TOP SECRET design/blueprint…

Shh… Not sure I’m supposed to have this ^ but to hell with it!
It’s not like anyone’s gonna copy us is it?!

And finally…

You may or may not be aware that yours truly was interviewed for the extremely well-respected Today Programme on BBC Radio 4 regarding blogging for SpinVox…

If you missed it then you can read all about it via the two links below…

First Rory Cellan-Jones, Chief Technology Correspondent for the BBC, writes up his thoughts on “The Business of Blogging“

And second - Neil Bird, founder of technology blog ‘iGadget Life‘, gets an honourable mention for being the first blogger to report the story (and for also doing the hard work and hosting the exact clip from the show - you can listen to it here)

…Nice one Neil!

A SpinVox Speech Mobster… as modelled by Elle ‘The Body’ Macpherson

Image c/o www.socialitelife.com

Back from Mobile World Congress and back from Barcelona and back to the day to day business of turning voice, into text.

And WHY has it taken so long to update this here blog of ours?
Well… I can tell you. You MAY have noticed from the pictures that we had JUST A FEW little men - aka “Speech Mobsters” - on the SpinVox stand.

Two thousand of them in fact!

And behind those two thousand we had a further five hundred. Packed away all secretly like and ONLY given away to those folk who we REALLY liked
Thing is - we kinda underestimated how popular this little piece of ’schwag’ would be and the poor little blighters disappeared in no time!
So as it turns out - word has got around that owning a genuine ‘Speech Mobster’ is cooler than a snowman’s cool bits - and my email inbox has literally been flooded with requests…

First they started out with the normal kind of thing - “Where can I get one?“
Then the demands of “Whatley, you owe me Sonny Jim! You HAVE to get me one!“
Finally to the scary “I’ll swap you my Gran and a week’s worth of biscuits…“

I’m sorry to disappoint folks. There are NONE left! Even the one that I had in my keeping got stolen from desk whilst I was in Barcelona last week, (nice huh?).
So listen, if you’re reading this and you got one of these:

You are one of the lucky ones.
Guard it well

If you *didn’t* get one of these but still consider yourself a friend of SpinVox - i.e.: You REALLY want a Mobster! - then I might have a way to get you one.
Basically I’m currently trying to pull every string possible to get another one into my hands.

Watch this space - when I do, I’ll make sure that the readers have this blog get a chance to win their very own Speech Mobster…

Until next time,

J

PS - Have you seen Mobby?

HALLO! …and HOLA!

(again)

From all of us at Mobile World Congress, Barcelona!

It’s been “GO GO GO!” since we started yesterday (hence the lack of updates - TOO BUSY!) but the SpinVox stand.. and everyone working in and around it, has been going fantastically well..

“The best stand at the congress…“ I heard one person say.

And our Speech Mobsters are like gold dust - you only get one if you’re VERY special…

I’ve been taking some photos around the stand and I thought I’d put them on here to share with you!

All comments welcome

If you’re at MWC - Why not come say Hi?

If you’re NOT at MWC - you can still get your message through by calling me, James Whatley on +447825798998…

Leave a voicemail and I’ll send the converted text message to the board in the pictures..

Now how’s THAT for a slice of fried gold?!

CALL NOW!

Hola!

We made it to Barcelona! WOOP WOOP!

…and I can tell you something: The SpinVox Stand looks AMAZING!

The team over here have worked tirelessly since late last week, getting our stand ready in time for the crazy kick off this morning.

And ready it is!

We finished up quite late last night but before we all toddled off and tucked ourselves in for the night, (and before the cleaners threw us out), I grabbed this video for you with an EXCLUSIVE first look at the SpinVox stand…

ENJOY!

Only one week to go until the world’s largest communications event, Mobile World Congress (previously known as 3GSM) kicks off in Barcelona and the excitement here is almost at fever pitch.

As you can see we’ve already despatched our Speech Mob figures (or ‘Mobsters’ as we’ve taken to calling them lately) to er… ‘assist’ shall we say, with the construction of the Official Mobile World Congress SpinVox stand, which is currently being unpacked and put together (lego style) RIGHT NOW!

I’ve been sworn to secrecy about the actual content and build of the stand itself but what I can say is this: It will be unlike anything you have ever seen before!

Also - if you’ve got something to say at Mobile World Congress, whether you’re attending or not, SpinVox will make sure the delegates get the message.

It’s all a bit vague and mysterious I know - but more will follow soon.

Promise

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?

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

Did you party like it was 1999?

Did you have a nice Christmas?
Get anything nice?

Give us a call and let me know…

UK - 0845 218 6699
US - 1 (888) 592-7162

Your messages will appear on our homepage

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!