Using The iPhone To Get And Stay Organized
Posted on 05 August 2009, at 4:00 pm, by Dan Cohen
I’m back into the thick of things after an extended vacation. One of the things on my mind was that, by the time I headed out for some rest, I was finding myself more than a bit flooded by everything that had to get done on a daily basis. As a result, I have committed myself to being more organized. This will, I hope, not only let me accomplish everything I need to do in a more timely manner but do so in a more relaxed manner, as well.
Key to my renewed push for organization is… my iPhone. And key to using my iPhone to be more organized are a few specific apps and services. Here is the first in a series of posts on the subject. First up — reQall.
I’ve written about reQall previously and have always found it to be a useful service. Until now, however, I hadn’t taken full advantage of what it has to offer… and it offers a lot!
reQall competes, to a large degree, with services such as Jott and Spinvox. All three perform “voice to text” transcription with a high degree of accuracy. Each, however, has its own spin on how this can be useful in the real world. reQall describes itself as “the ultimate memory aid” and builds its core functionality around the concept. If you take the time to learn the reQall system it can actually be just that. It does, however, take some time to learn. By comparison, if you’re looking for simple voice to text transcription reQall’s main competitors may be a better choice. They too offer a host of features but are, overall, a bit more straightforward. There is another benefit to choosing reQall over Jott — Jott currently costs $3.95-$12.95 per month while reQall Pro costs just $2.99 a month or $24.99 per year. It also offers a free version that is, in itself, quite powerful. That is remarkably inexpensive for what you actually get with reQall.
At the core of the service is reQall’s voice to text recognition. My understanding is that it uses a combination of automated computer transcription and actual people to ensure that the transcriptions are as accurate as possible. It works well.
In addition, the service’s technology is able to pick out key words from whatever you say and use them to organize a good bit of information you put into the system. For example, if you say a specific date or time anywhere in your note that note will be put on the date and time included. (This can be a bit tricky if you actually want to include the date but don’t want the item on that day — the system is great but there’s no accounting for human cognitive intervention.)
If you include the word “buy”, that item or note will be put into your shopping list. If the words “ask”, “tell” or “reminder” are used as the first word of your note that note will be shared as a reminder with others. If you use the word “note” as the first word it will be put into your notes. Finally, if you use the word “meet” or meeting” that note will be added to your to-do’s. It may seem a bit cumbersome or overwhelming at first but once you use it for a while it starts to become second nature.
The system integrates beautifully with a variety of phones. Under the reQall settings tab on the website you can include up to five phone numbers. If you call the reQall number from any of those phones it will recognize that it is you. From there you can add whatever notes you want.
In addition, the service offers special apps for the iPhone and Blackberry. (As a heavy iPhone user this is where the service shines for me.)
The iPhone application is, first and foremost, beautiful. I know that sounds shallow but there’s something about using an application that looks and feels good that makes you more likely to want to use it. This is one of those applications.
Image from the reQall site...
The application is divided into five major sections — “jogger”, “time”, “things”, “people”, and “places”.
Time —
The time window has four different drop down items available — today, soon, later and overdue. The service will automatically sort items based upon the information that you input.
Things –
The things window offers three drop-down items — to do, shopping list, and notes. As previously noted, by using specific keywords when creating a new item you can automatically have them placed into one of these three categories.
People –
The people function allows you to actually send any one of the new notes you create to someone else. If you’ve ever sent to that person before they will appear in the drop down menu. You can also scroll through your address book and choose a contact and the item will be sent to that person.
Places –
The place function is available to pro users. It requires a little bit of setup. Once you identify two or three locations you can attach any given item to that location. From then on, when you arrive at that location the iPhone’s GPS will tell reQall where you are and the service will, in turn, provide you with a list of items that can be accomplished there.
For example, if I created a list of things I need to get done in the office those items will be linked with its GPS coordinates. The next time I arrived at the office all of those items automatically be presented to me. H
Jogger-
The service offers something they call the “Jogger”. The “Here and Now” feature is an automatic update of items that are related to your current situation based on location, current and upcoming meetings and tasks. The “Memory Boost” feature is for pro users only and offers a list of items that the service predicts you might have forgotten and want to take care of.
Finally there is a special feature that allows you to shake your iPhone and have the service one item that you might want to take care of. (This isn’t a function that I actually make use of.)
There is another dimension of reQall that makes it especially useful. That dimension… “clickability”.
I recently realized that any phone number or email address I put into the system is a “live” link. That means I can click it and automatically initiate a new call or email. This may sound silly but it is one of the aspects of using the iPhone (or any smartphone) that makes it a “converged” device. The thing is… not all services do this. As much as I like Jott (although at $13 a month it is now rather pricey) notes created or added to Jott do not have this functionality. (The same goes for the Toodledo app versus other apps that work with THAT service. The Toodledo app is “clickable” while the others are not. But that’s the next post.) This is a major “fail” in my opinion. With reQall I simply open the note or reminder, click the phone number or email address and I am good to go.
There is a bit of a downside to all this functionality. reQall isn’t simple. There is a lot to take in when you first begin using the service. Fortunately it becomes second nature rather quickly. Moreover, if you want, you can use it as a simple system to record items and have them transcribed but the power of using the system in its entirety is well worth the initial learning curve.
Remainders… In addition to everything else, the Pro version will actively send reminders by e-mail, IM or text. reQall integrates both with Google Calendar and Outlook and it allows you to grab the things of text in URLs from websites using the free Firefox plug-in. You can also organize items into groups which, potentially, allows the service to replace any other task management system. (It’s not fully replacing my use of a dedicated task management system but that’s the next post.) Finally you can add items by e-mail and respond to e-mail reminders. All of this costs under three dollars a month.
I have to admit that for the past year I’ve been rather fickle. I’ve jumped between Jott, reQall and Spinvox. For the last week, however, having once again been using reQall, I finally feel like I have a grip on how the system works. Better still, as good as the transcription accuracy was when I first used the service a year ago, it seems to be even better now. In fact I’m continually amazed at how accurate the transcription is.
The free version of the software and service is incredibly powerful. The Pro level is even better. Either is worth a look. Heck, even David Pogue likes it!
For more information visit the reQall for iPhone page HERE.
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