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Google Voice Hacking

Google Voice hacking

Google voice is a unique system offering many great phone features and that's why it must be hacked.  The other day I published a post talking about thought capturing, Thoughts Are Like Rays of Sunshine, and I hinted at a few ideas I was playing with.  I have used Google Voice service off and on over the past few years, but it was never a function of my daily life, until I started this experiment, here is "the situation":

Want:

1) Voice recorder

2) after pushing a button starts recording immediately

3) upon conclusion transcribes message

4) Syncs/Emails Audio Recording/Transcription to main workstation/phone etc

5+) And can the mic be Bluetooth, Waterproof, and on my wrist?

Solution:

1) Google Voice (Set to "Do Not Disturb" - No ring, straight to voicemail, Voicemail greeting < 1sec, message forwarding on)

2) Speed dial Google Voice (Phone cannot be linked to your Google Voice account apparently)

3) Record your message

4) Message in your inbox/voicebox/phone with transcription

Easy enough!  Well, this works well in theory, the transcription software used by Google is still weak, either that or I speak as clearly as a 2 year old with a mouth full of Teddy Grams.  But it does show that the process may work better later.  Ultimately an App on your smart phone that would let you operate the same way would be excellent... Wait, there is?  Yes EverNote and OneNote both offer voice recording notes or transcription, but not both.  So where does that leave us?

Managing Creative Abundance - Raw Footage

Thoughts become Reality

Haha, so GET THIS...

So my YouTube videos are not quite going as planned... BUT they are going.

Without really posting anything new in the last few weeks, I'm getting MORE traffic in the last few weeks... And what's better. This last guy actually EMAILED me looking for the training video (which has yet to be produced).

Why am I sharing this?

Because it feels good.

I remember a time where I was just learning about "Testing" things in business. Specifically from Mr. Tim Ferriss. I don't remember WHAT exactly he was teaching me, but I remembered that I could test an idea before having the whole thing 100% fleshed out.

Why create a training video around a concept that I didn't even know - whether it worked or not!?

But now that I know it DOES work. Honestly, the one I create will have a million times more value.

FFAP,
- Bret

Thoughts are like rays of sunshine.

Thoughts are like rays of sunshine.

I can't help but notice the sun beaming in through the window this morning and see a similarity to something that has been slowly frustrating me.  The light pouring through this window is pretty spectacular; it will blind you from your surroundings if you stare into it *don't do that*, if you place a glass of water into a beam you can focus the energy caustics, and shutting the blinds will block about 90% of the light.  The funny thing about this light though is that it is always moving, just like our thoughts.

So how do you capture the light?

Some people take pictures of the energy.  Some use light within artwork.  Others harvest the light with solar panels and transform that energy into something useful.

And we capture thoughts in a similar manner?

A sticky note snapshot of our thought.  Sketchbook book by the bedside.  Audio/video logging thoughts as they appear.

I have found myself on many occasions wishing I could take a picture of a thought.  If we were only so lucky.  So what options have I found that come close to this?  Well the one I'm talking about today is: Audio logging mixed with a stream of conscious monologue.  Start recording, much like Jean Luc Picard with his Captain's Log, giving some context to the time and space, then follow it up with some thought and reflection.  It's actually pretty cool how when listening to the audio file that it brings you back to the thoughts you had when recording.  Its almost like you encode more communication into the words than the words alone can offer.

Awesome right?  SO, the frustration part....

How to have a voice recorder, that can organize thoughts for sorting later, that can capture those moments instantly?

Handheld recorder (doctor style)?  Smartphone?  Smart......watch?

I'm in the middle ground now with the smartphone, using the NoteEverything App for Android, making voice recordings.  Emailing those thoughts for sorting is next.  Then transforming the audio to a usable thought/note by creating a transcript or image.

It's frustrating how many steps this takes, but it is about as close to capturing a thought as possible I have found.  I don't exclusively use this method so it's not the only way...


How about you?  How do you capture your tangent thoughts?

Help for Watdge

I think I want to trying outsourcing again AND Thinkrium

Not really much else to say here.

Specifically outsourcing a PORTION of my YouTubing...

YES.

- Bret