Tech Geek

If you've been following my posts since the beginning, you probably remember me talking about the Jott services. Jott offers a set of voice-to-text services that give you the ability to call a number and have a text message sent to any one of a number of services. Jott Voicemail will also convert incoming voicemails into text messages and send them to you. I used both services and even paid for a one-year subscription to Jott Assistant, but when it came time to renew, I decided I'd try and see what else was out there that might still be free.

When I started searching, I came across Dublin, Ireland based Dial2Do, a similar service to Jott. They don't have an 800 number, but my cell phone has free long distance anyways, so that isn't a consideration for me. I dial the number that they gave me, a 213 (Los Angeles) and say what I want to do. There are an extensive list of services that Dial2Do support, some of which are new to me and some of which I will be looking at in upcoming posts.

Here is the list of services that Dial2Do support today:

• Blogger: Post to any of your blogs on Blogger at http://www.blogger.com
• Business Card: Send contacts to your phone as business cards
• Calendar: Listen to your Google or 30 Boxes calendar and add appointments
• Corkboard: Corkboard helps you remember what you want. Whatever it is. Wherever you are. http://corkboard.it/
• Email: Send emails, Listen to your inbox and even reply! Supports gmail, aol, yahoo and more.
• Evernote: Evernote allows you to easily capture information in any environment using whatever device or platform you find most convenient, and makes this information accessible and searchable at any time, from anywhere at http://www.evernote.com
• FriendFeed: Post to your FriendFeed page at http://friendfeed.com
• Giga Om: Listen to the Giga Om RSS feed at http://gigaom.com
• HelloTxt: Post your status once and have it appear automatically on all of your networks with HelloTxt. http://hellotxt.com
• Huffington Post: Listen to the Huffington Post feed at http://www.huffingtonpost.com
• Identica: Listen and post to Identica at http://identi.ca
• Jaiku: Post to your Jaiku page and listen to the latest updates at http://www.jaiku.com
• Jajah: Voice-enable your Jajah account - set up cheap calls and sent texts with Jajah! http://www.jajah.com
• jkOnTheRun: Listen to the jkOnTheRun RSS feed at http://www.jkontherun.com
• Lifehacker: Listen to the LifeHacker feed at http://lifehacker.com
• LiveJournal: Post to your LiveJournal account at http://www.livejournal.com/
• Mashable: Listen to the Mashable feed at http://mashable.com
• Mosio: Get an answer to any question with Mosio at http://mosio.com
• New York Times: Listen to the New York Times feed at http://www.nytimes.com
• Perez Hilton: Listen to the Perez Hilton feed at http://www.perezhilton.com
• PingFm: Post to your default Ping FM services at http://ping.fm
• PingMe: PingMe takes a unique approach to keeping track of things you need to do - it's mobile and interactive. Just create a Ping, set a date and you'll receive a reminder by E-mail or TXT to your phone. http://gopingme.com
• Read Write Web: Listen to the Read Write Web RSS feed at http://www.readwriteweb.com
• Remember The Milk: Listen and post to Remember The Milk at http://www.rememberthemilk.com
• Reminder: Let Dial2Do help you remember stuff! Record a reminder and we convert it to text and send it to you in an email.
• Seth Godin: Listen to the Seth Godin feed at http://sethgodin.typepad.com/
• Tech Crunch: Listen to the Tech Crunch feed at http://www.techcrunch.com
• Text: Send a text message to one of your contacts or groups with Dial2Do. We can even send you a copy!
• Textamundo: Textamundo is the only service that answers your questions from anywhere in the world. Just ask a question, and you’ll get the answer back as a text message. http://www.textamundo.com
• 30Boxes: Post and listen to your 30Boxes Calendar and Task list. http://30boxes.com
• Toodledo: Listen and post to your Toodledo task list at http://toodledo.com
• Translate: Translates what you say into another language and sends it back to you as a text message.
• Tumblr: Post a message to your tumblr page at http://www.tumblr.com
• Twitter: Post messages to your Twitter page, and listen to your timeline. You can even record replies for your friends while listening! http://www.twitter.com
• TypePad: Post to your TypePad account at http://www.typepad.com/
• Vitalist: Listen and post to your Vitalist task list at http://vitalist.com
• Weather: Listen to the weather in your location
• Web Worker Daily: Listen to the Web Worker Daily feed at http://webworkerdaily.com
• Wordpress: Post to your blog on Wordpress at http://wordpress.com
• Xpenser: Post expenses to your Xpenser account at http://xpenser.com 
• Yahoo Finance: Listen to the Yahoo Finance feed at http://finance.yahoo.com
• Yahoo News: Listen to the Yahoo News feed at http://news.yahoo.com
• Yahoo Sports: Listen to the Yahoo Sports feed at http://sports.yahoo.com

I have not explored the capability, but it may be the case that you could use Dial2Do to send text messages to a group of people for free. Tatango used to provide this service, but they are now charging for it as the market for text-message advertising has collapsed. I'm currently using Dial2Do to send expenses to Xpenser and calendar items to Google Calendar and it's working well for both!

Do any of you have a similar free service that you've been using?