As you might have seen in the Press Release, this past week I conducted an experiment with Spinvox, along with Truphone and Jaiku, around liveblogging. For the Nokia World 2007 conference in Amsterdam, I setup a Nokia N81 8GB with Truphone, a SIP/MOIP client that uses WiFi or 3G to place mobile VOIP (MOIP) calls from a handset. Using Truphone, I called my Spinvox number and spoke short descriptions or statements to the service, which then converted the speech into text, and posted it to Jaiku for me. Jaiku is a microblogging/lifestream aggregator service that was recently purchased by Google.
So what’s the verdict?
It worked awesome. The real hero to me was Truphone. Although the Nokia N81 is not officially supported, I had zero trouble getting it installed and ready to rock with Truphone. Once I got to Nokia World, I had to setup the wifi access point that they had setup in the conference center, and Truphone did the rest. When I powered on my N81 without a SIM card installed, Truphone would automatically find the WiFi access point and connect to it, allowing me to make MOIP calls to anywhere in the world (and it’s free until December 31st. If you’re travelling abroad before then, you WON’T want to go without Truphone). A really killer side benefit is that I was able to make free calls to anywhere, aside from Spinvox, without having to bother with a prepaid SIM card (though I did, and that ‘experience’ will be recorded soon). Thus, inbetween Spinvoxing, I was able to call my fiance back in Texas right from the Expo floor, and for free. I was also able to call James Whatley with Spinvox, to do some initial testing to make sure everything was a go.
Spinvox made it really easy, as well. Rather than walk about focusing on typing updates onto a T9 keypad, I was able to keep my eyes alert while still updating my readers on what was going on. To me, this made everything 10 times easier, and hopefully it was a pleasant experience for them, as well. Though there were a few transcription mess-ups, and considering I was updating from the expo floor on a crowded WiFi network, Spinvox worked awesome. The service itself is constantly improving and I know they are frequently tweaking the dictionary for a better experience. Also, using voice is considerably cheaper than data or wifi in most instances, in addition to using significantly less battery power on a mobile device. Since I was in Amsterdam, a location that Spinvox doesn’t currently have local numbers, I still had to use WiFi and Truphone, but I can imagine if I was able to simply use a voice SIM card, I would have experienced even better call quality and battery life, resulting in an even more improved experience. I will most certainly be using Spinvox to update my Jaiku at every other event I go to, without a doubt.
Jaiku was included somewhat last minute. The original intent was to create a post here on Symbian-Guru, and have Spinvox updates automatically added to it, so that readers could follow a single thread for the whole of the event. However, using Jaiku ended up working well, since it allowed readers to comment on particular updates. This serves to increase reader participation, which is a big reward for any blogger.
So it was all peachy-keen, right? Well, no. I’m looking forward in the future for Spinvox to offer local numbers in more countries. Truphone, also, will cost after December 31st, and I’m not sure what those costs will be. Also, the transcription process for Spinvox will hopefully increase in the future. It has yet to get my intro, “Ricky Cadden, Symbian Guru” correct. Jaiku worked great, as well, but I wasn’t able to publish my posts in a channel, which would have been preferred. Channels on Jaiku work to offer members an easy way to track a single topic, rather than multiple authors. The Nokia N81′s battery actually made it through the day, though, which is quite impressive over a WiFi connection making phone calls repeatedly. I did notice a significant amount of heat on the handset, which Nokia could insulate a bit more against, in the future.
All in all, I’d say it was a supremely successful experiment, though. As I said, I’ll definitely be using it again at any conferences I go to. I’ll also certainly be using Truphone more in the future, as it was so easy to setup, and the automatic connection was conveneint when I powered the phone on and off for the various speeches.
As a reader, were you able to follow it, and did you enjoy the updates? What suggestions/feedback would you give me for next time?
