Voicemail: A Result of the Fall

You may know this about me already, but I can’t stand voicemail.  Part of the problem is that it’s such a pain to access, on just about every type of phone I’ve ever seen.  The iPhone is making it a little easier, but I’m not experiencing that quite yet.  One day, though…  When I don’t like something, I often declare it to be a result of the Fall into Sin.  If Adam and Eve hadn’t sinned, there would be no Voicemail.  Ok, it’s not really theological, but I enjoy it. 

ChurchCrunch is starting a fun idea.  They are throwing out a tech topic every Wednesday and asking people to blog about it.  The first one:

If you could “get rid” of one piece of technology in your life, what would it be and why?

It’s probably not practical, but voicemail would be my choice.  Here’s why:

1. I prefer email or even a text message.  Something written is way better than something vocal for me.
2. There’s no easy way to add something from Voicemail into my task management system (Gmail + GTD Inbox) when I’m on the road.
3. As mentioned above, there are too many buttons to push to get to it.

Realizing it won’t go away anytime soon, here are some remedies I’d love to see implemented:

• Reliable speech to text transcription, sent to my email inbox with a link to the source audio in MP3 format.
• An app for phones that provides the transcription in a window on the phone (cell or office phone) with a single button to push to hear the audio, minus the timestamp, callback number, etc.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, here are some of the other things on my “result of the Fall” list, in no particular order:

• Lima Beans
• Pineapple
• Coconut
• Mosquitoes

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