cooltools
How video mail and voice dictation
can improve your communication
By R. Wayne Pugh, MAI
MOST APPRAISERS ARE GOOD AT COMMUNICATING THEIR FINDINGS
in narrative and consultation reports and legal testimony, but conveying an appropriate tone of voice when it comes to e-mailed communication requires a completely
different skill set. Luckily, Eyejot has the answer. And when you are out in the field,
wouldn’t it be nice to be able to verbally communicate some quick findings and have
them instantly transcribed? With Dragon Dictation and your cell phone, now you can.
Read on for reviews of these two free (at least for the time being!) products.
EYEJOT
While e-mail has most certainly
transformed communication,
everyone has also experienced
its downside. It could be a grammatical error, an accidentally
locked “caps lock” key or a poorly
constructed message. Moreover,
with traditional e-mail, many
appraisers find it quite difficult to
express tone, emotion, sarcasm
and humor. But now there’s help.
Eyejot, which merges e-mail
and video chat into one simple
platform, is the first online
video-messaging platform ideal
for both personal and business
communications.
Sending video messages with
Eyejot is as easy as sending
e-mail. There is no software to
download or install. Just log in
to your free account, record or
Armed with just a webcam
and a browser, Eyejot users
can send an unlimited number of video messages of up
to 60 seconds each. Best of
all, the video e-mail and chat
service is free!
upload your video, and press
the “send” key. The recipient
gets a friendly e-mail message
telling them they have a new
video message that can be easily
viewed with a single click.
Eyejot is a free service,
although you do need to register
to use it. To do so, visit www.
eyejot.com, fill out the form,
and then you’ll be on your way.
Your free account allows you
to send an unlimited number of
messages of up to 60 seconds
each. Two Pro accounts provide
longer message
time among
other features
(see sidebar).
You will have
to have Adobe
Flash’s plug-in
installed on your
computer.
If you find yourself on the
receiving end of a lot of Eyejot
messages, you’ll appreciate the
option to subscribe to your inbox
via i Tunes or RSS. Just paste
the provided code into your
preferred program, and you’ll be
able to view your videos directly.
For paid subscribers, Eyejot
also offers a link for mobile-phone users who want to watch
their videos on the go. According to a recent post on the
company’s blog, an Eyejot iPhone
application is also due to be
released soon.
As you’re probably aware,
sending video recordings via
e-mail is nothing new. Video-con-ferencing service SightSpeed,
for instance, offers the same
capability. SightSpeed’s messages, however, are limited to 30
seconds, and you have to install
its software on your computer.
The benefit of Eyejot is that it
requires nothing more than a
browser and a webcam. Armed
with those two items, you can
send yourself instead of just
your words.
DRAGON DICTATION
Every once in a while, an application comes along that is really
impressive and that stands out
from the rest. Nuance’s recently
released version of Dragon
Naturally Speaking for the iPhone,
called Dragon Dictation, certainly
Got a cool tip? Email
Wayne at cooltools@email.
appraisalinstitute.org.
falls into that category. Simply
dictate a message into your
iPhone and, almost instantly,
your voice is transcribed with
outstanding accuracy.
With just one tap, appraisers can send themselves a copy
of the transcription via text
message, e-mail or the app’s
clipboard (see photo at right).
You will be able to dictate
a message into your iPhone
much faster than you
can tap a message on
the iPhone keyboard,
even if you are a good
iPhone typist, so Dragon
Dictation is a huge time-
saver. For a limited time,
this amazing application
is free and can be downloaded
from the i Tunes Store.
The Dragon Dictation
iPhone app, free for
download via i Tunes,
accurately records
and transcribes voice
dictations with ease.
