We can reQall it for you wholesale

Voice memos transcribed by new service

Posted in Mobile, 10th December 2007 10:53 GMT

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A new service, launching in the UK today and the USA come January, aims to remember all those things you're destined to forget in the run-up to Christmas by taking voice memos over your mobile and transcribing them into emails and a to–do list.

The reQall service is pretty simple to understand: After registering at the website you just call the 0800 (toll-free) number and speak your memo. The service identifies you by your caller ID and the reQall attempts to transcribe your memo into plain text.

Memos are automatically emailed, along with a WAV file of the spoken version in case the recognition engine isn't up to the job, and the list of memos is also accessible from the site, with its inevitably-iPhone-optimised version.

reQall is certainly easy to use, and recognised everything we threw at it. However, on many mobile tariffs 0800 numbers aren't as free as they ought to be, which belies the free nature of the offering.

Quite how the service can be free is something the company is quite cagey about - direct questions are answered with the usual Web 2.0 standbys of targeted advertising and "premium" services. But as long as it remains free there seems little reason not to sign up, and keep the number on quick-dial - just remember that making a note that you should buy someone a Christmas present is not the same as buying them one. ®

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