There are very few products that I depend on more than SpinVox. This service translates voicemail to text and then sends a text message to your phone and/or an email to your computer.
SpinVox is currently introducing this service to the US. As an introductory offer, the first 250 people can get the service for free by sending an email to spinx@spinvox.com with “Guy Kawasaki” in the subject line. US only.
If you get a lot of voicemail, it will change your life.
I like book “The aret of Start” and I likeed Guy Kawasaki but this blog looks like that is sold to somebody who is real asshole.
I am deleting subscription for this blog and I have to say this blog is one of the biggest disappointments I had lately.
I refuse to believe that this is Guy Kawasaki.
mmm.. anyway, I met these spinvox guys in the UK last year and their demo was great. What was really surprising was that they built their own voice recognition software. I repeat, built their own.
I use simulscribe.com. It’s great! Same kind of service. Why would I choose spinvox over simulscribe?
Maybe you’ve been hacked, anyway I’m unsubscribing too
best regards
Guy,
I find it interesting that you are so excited about Spinvox coming to the US when SimulScribe is the first and largest company in the US doing voicemail to text.
Regardless we will offer ALL of your readers a free account on SimulScribe. All they need to do is email theUSleader@simulscribe.com.
Jamie
CEO
SimulScribe
Guy,
I share the ideas of those that wish to drop-out. Somehow, the blog started to get “uninterresting” in the last few weeks. Are you ill or having “hang-downs”?
Get back to the expected “Guy Kawasaki” climate soon.
Kind regards,
Vedat Cakmak, Istanbul
You people need to take a look at this site:
http://stophatin.com/
Guy provides a fantastic service with his blog. Be thankful for the generous knowledge and advice that you are getting for free.
Come on people, Guy is still the man.
Guy – thank you for your blog and continued work to pass along tools and advice.
Best wishes
Thanks for the heads up and opportunity.
Being a former hockey player and a Minnesotan, I enjoyed your photos from your recent visit to the Land of 10,000 Lakes.
I hadn’t planned on commenting, but I must come to Guy’s defense. Unless you too, write a daily blog among other efforts, then cut Guy some slack.
On my own blog I try to come up with something different and interesting each day. I’ve only been at it a few months though; I can’t imagine what next year will be like.
Rather than slam Guy or talk about unsubscribing (which only hurts you), why don’t you provide your top ten list of things you’d like to see Guy write about. I’m sure he’d welcome the ideas and you’d get to read more things you’re interested in from Guy’s perspective.
Neil McDonnell
… about un-subscribers? There are many millions who read, will read and will promote.
Hands off Guy.
Guy rules, ok? Now the rest of you, the un-subscribers, go stuff your shiitakes!
I was rude with my first comment I agree but I do not get Guy’s shift in last few weeks/month Guy Kawasaki became real sellout.
OK he dropped adSense, say it does not converts… I respect his blog his decisions. Then Guy started to write like “pay per post” nothing genuine and everything with some propaganda behind every post.
First sign of real illness of this blog was “SimplyHired” post and this “Recent Jobs” widget that looks like adSense but it has far less potential.
Simple calculation, you have 150 readers (unique people) and some random people let’s say during the year you get in contact with 2000 uniq people, like most of blogs (not Robert Schoble) have. That means only ~300 people will be interested in new jobs at all. Lets assume 10% conversion that is 30… well I do not see even close potential to adSense.
SimplyHired post is pure propaganda. Guy is not that stupid he knows the math. even TechCrunch (if they would not have own jobs board) would not make fortune with that widget.
Anyway, all those promotions remind me on sleazy guys like Robert Scoble or other real mercenary.
“SpinVox Comes to the US” will not teach me ”
How to Change the World – A practical blog for impractical people.” Once you lost your guiding star you fell facedown into the mud.
Sorry for poor English grammar, but I had to send message to one of my ex-heroes.
****************
Untitled,
Here are my last ten posts and how they change the world (or not):
– SpinVox Comes to the US (if you’re trying to change the world and don’t have a secretary, trust me when I tell you that SpinVox will save you about 30 minutes a day listening to voicemail)
– Ten Questions With Donald Trump (love him or not, he’s an interesting entrepreneur)
– Job-a-matic From SimplyHired (another way for bloggers to try to monetize, Garage investment, a two-fer)
– My Trip to Minnesota (pure fun)
– Is a Business Plan Necessary? (duh)
– Top Ten Marketing Podcasts (duh)
– LinkedIn Profile Extreme Makeover (duh, world changers need to know how to network)
– “How to Be Creative” by Hugh Macleod (big duh)
– The Art of Visualization (duh)
– The Stickiness Aptitude Test (SAT) and Ten Questions with Chip and Dan Heath (big duh)
You find me a blog whose last ten posts contain more useful, real world content. If you don’t like my blog, tell me what topics you want me to cover. If you still don’t like it, perhaps you should simply not read it.
Guy
IS some person coming back over and over again under different monikers and making these comments?
Does Guy have a jealous competitor?
I don’t get it. I just came to his blog and I find it very interesting. Reading back he seems to have a pretty consistent style of content.
Years ago, I discovered Guy Kawasaki though reading “The Macintosh Way” and “How to Drive Your Competition Crazy.” I still remember many of the concepts from those books, and some of the stories I could almost quote in scripture-like fashion.
However, count me in with “Untitled Subscription”… to a point. I’ve noticed too that the content has shifted in the last couple of months, and my fanaticism for reading it has gone down dramatically.
Please don’t misunderstand. I still subscribe, and still scan the headlines. I just don’t have the same level of… well… passion for reading this blog that I used to. Strangely, I’ve sensed that maybe you, Guy, have lost some of your passion for writing it. Do you have a sense that you’ve attacked most of the “big topics” that you want to hit?
Yes, writing regularly to a blog is hard work. I go through waves of creativity, but in all honesty, the biggest roadblock for me is time (I have a full-time job that is *not* blogging). Currently, I have 10 blog entries started, and just don’t have the time to do any of them justice.
Guy, do you have a big backlog of ideas and articles, things that you’re passionate about, but just don’t have the time to write? I know it sounds trite, but if the ideas are so powerful that you just can’t stand to not write them, then that will drive you.
I just don’t see your ability and passion showing in some of the latest entries. That passion and drive is what brought me here to begin with, and that’s what will cause me to stay. – Tim
Your site is thought provoking, interesting and inspiring. I just spent an hour. That’s pretty rare for me. Another hockey lover and photography buff.
i like this book
I managed to snag one of those 250 free SpinVox accounts.
However, just found out today from SpinVox that Sprint-Nextel doesn’t support the ‘conditional call diverts’ necessary for their system to work.
Bummer…for both me and them.
On Saturday, 1/27, I received an email: “Congratulations on getting one of Guy Kawasaki’s SpinVox accounts and welcome to the SpinVox experience! You are about to embark on a life- changing journey.
To get you started with your FREE VIP account, please complete the table below:-”
And today,1/29, I got this:”Thanks for your interest in SpinVox. We’ve had a tremendous response to our offer and have now allocated our first 250 free accounts. It’s not bad news though, as we’d still like you to experience SpinVox in the near future!”
What’s up with that? I’m going to sign up with simulscribe.
Same as Malou – received positive confirmation one day and then a regret today.
Of course, I would not have provided email and phone number Sat (after receiving positive confirmation) if I had known I was going to get a regret.
I am concerned now that this was a ruse to collect names, numbers and emails.
Guy–I am going to pile on the top here re: the SpinVox offer.
Like the others, I gave away a lot of info…for free…with the “hey you got an account” email only to find out that I didn’t actually get one. Not cool. I feel a bit cheated.
Much like you wouldn’t forward a LinkedIn request to a valued member of your network that wasn’t well thought-out or worth it, you wouldn’t put something on your blog that diminishes the Guy Kawasaki brand. I am afraid that is what has happened with the SpinVox debacle.
All they had to say was “sorry, you’re not in the top 250” or “thanks for your email, we’ll let you know.” Wouldn’t have been too hard.
SpinVox’s brand-IMHO-is really hurt.
I am a huge fan of yours-so the Guy Kawasaki brand will survive the hit ;-).
I bought “Made to Stick” b/c of your recommendation and it seems that companies who get PR from your blog have to understand there’s a quid pro quo. In this case, SpinVox, didn’t.
I was one of the first 250 (or so my email over the weekend indicated) and then I got an email today that indicated I wasn’t in. So I replied…and guess what? SpinVox set me up with a free account right away! Way to go SpinVox. They said they were having trouble with their auto-reply system. Maybe they were, maybe they weren’t. I’m impressed with how they handled it.
BTW, I’ve recieved a few voicemails converted to email already, and I’m LOVING this service! This will make my life a lot easier. Thanks for the post on this, Guy.
SpinVox: The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread
I signed up with SpinVox over the weekend, thanks to a post from Guy Kawasaki. What is SpinVox? Well, you should go to their website to check it out, but a quick summary is this: it converts your voice mail
Spinbox is extending the service past the first 250 people. You guys were misunderstanding the email. Good form SB.
Just to finish out the SpinVox story from one man’s perspective. I have got to hand it to them. They fixed the problem and have given out the free account.
And…it turns out the Simulscribe offer isn’t really a FREE account as the CEO suggested. It’s a 90 day free trial.
I am impressed with SpinVox, what a great service. Also in French and Spanish too. I heard that Simulscribe is completely done out of call centres in India! Is that true?
I was fortunate enough to get one of the Spinvox accounts-Thanks, Guy! I use Verizon Wireless. VM to email works great. However, the system will not send text messages to my phone (Motorola KRZR). Spinvox says it’s a Verizon issue (Verizon text test worked fine and I get other text messages, though)..Verizon says it’s a Spinvox issue. Anyone else on Verizon having trouble with Spinvox text delivery to thier phone?
First of all let me thank all of the readers of this Blog for making our offer so successful. At this point we have ended the offer that is posted in the Blog. We will however offer a extended trial still to any of Guy’s readers of 30 days. To get this account please email TheUSLeader@SimulScribe.com and we will give you the sign up info.
Thanks Again,
James Siminoff, CEO
SimulScribe
is anything in this world, universe, permanant? my friends and I have an ongoing debate on the subject. Love? Physics? One side believes everything is a cycle of change… I googled the topic and found this site. noticed the picture of kamehameha and was intrigued, I am from Hilo. may you help settle the discussion?
I’ve seen other phone answering services. I ask one one time what happens to the contact info? I found that they were a lead generation company as well. They never answered, so I figure I got it correct. They reuse the info.
So how about SimulScribe, does their business model protect the privacy of our call info?
As for the unreadable confirmation codes, I’ve stumbled across a site that uses an audio delivery system as an alternative. I typically have to enter confirmation codes more than once. Still audio can be consumed by robots.
Thank you for your endorsement on spinvox. As I tell others about it, your comments reinforce what I have said on my blog. By the way: When I commented on my blog about www.simulscribe.com, a reader told me about spinvox which lead me to your blog again. www.dougcaldwell.net
I’m a Product Manager at CallWave.
While I realize this thread is about speech-to-text, users that were turned away from the Spinvox trial might like to check out our FREE visual voicemail widget: http://www.callwave.com/landing/widgets.asp
CallWave visual voicemail service is FREE (not just a free trial) and works with all US carriers except Sprint and Nextel.
If you prefer email delivery of voicemail over a widget/gadget, then check this out: http://www.callwave.com/landing/vm2em.asp
Let me know what you think!
> mmm.. anyway, I met these spinvox guys
> in the UK last year and their demo was
> great. What was really surprising was
> that they built their own voice
> recognition software. I repeat,
> built their own.
There’s no speech recognition in SpinVox; it’s all humans. See (their ‘patent’):
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/20060223502.html
So, not the most scalable business model:-)
Caveat Emptor!