[Mark Rejhon]

These are not originally designed for Blackberry but works great with the Blackberry in my experience.

www.IMBOT.com/mobile - Text to voice (send emails to a phone number!)
www.phonewire.com/voicemail - Voicemail box with automatic voice-to-text email transcriptions
www.dictomail.com - Voicemail box with auto voice-to-text email transcriptions
www.efax.com - An Internet fax that works well with Blackberry (see other thread)
etc.

Feel free to ask questions, and if you know of any other services that enhance the Blackberry. For now I have posted this thread in "3rd Party Software", but I have also contacted Guess about which forum this post is most approprate for (or rename this to "3rd Party Software & Services")

[Gothalyptic]

I'm just curious if you've actually used any of these services. If so, any chance of a hands on mini review? I'm looking at them now to check out, but hands on review is always nice.

Keep up the good work Mark, you are an asset

[Gothalyptic]

I actually just signed up on efax for the trial. Looks like it might be nice.

[kirson]

Here is some more detail from the respective websites (my attempt to prevent you from having to keep clicking that poor mouse):

www.IMBOT.com/mobile

What is Text 2 Voice?

It's easy to use! 3 simple steps:
-From your 2way, type recipient's 10-digit phone number, a space and your text message.
- Send to
- Your text message will be converted to a voice message and sent to the recipient's phone number.
If the phone is not answered, the message will go to the recipient's voice mail, if available.
You can record a personal greeting with your own voice to attach in front of every voice message.
You have the option to select either a female or male voice to deliver your Text 2 Voice message.
You will receive a confirmation message on your 2way to notify you the message delivery status.

Price : $.30 per Message (minimum monthly usage $30)
Billing: One time Account Setup fee of only $100 Your credit card will be charged initially.

www.phonewire.com/voicemail

End the voicemail retrieval blues. We do the hard work and listen to the voice messages for you, as they are received, then transcribe the voice message into text and send it to the screen of your cell phone and your e-mail address. Starting at just $18.95 per month, our Toll-Free Voicemail Service with Operator Transcription is the best replacement to your outdated time-consuming voicemail service.

Every voicemail system will alert you when you receive a new message, but you must call in and retrieve that new voice message through long and complicated touch-tone menus -- but not us! Don't want your callers speaking to a live person through operator messaging, but want the convenience of receiving text messages instead of checking voicemail? Imagine the extra time saved by reading voicemail, instead of listening to it!

Beyond Voicemail
Why simply be "notified" you have new voicemail, when we can send you the actual words of that voicemail? No longer "call in" and waste valuable time fighting with voicemail menus, we will transcribe each new voice message for you into simple text, instantly sent to the screen of your cell phone and e-mail address. Every new voice message left for your personal mailbox will be immediately transcribed 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Because every voicemail message recorded for your mailbox is sent immediately to an operator for transcription, you will never need to "check voicemail" again.

Unbiased Compatibility
Messages are instantly transcribed into text by an operator within minutes after the caller disconnects. We are compatible with all service providers that support paging and text messaging. Our configuration options meet the needs of individual use or serious business applications with an exciting, long-overdue solution.

Toll-Free Included
Designed for affordability, our service can include an unlimited number of calls without fear of additional fees or expensive per-message charges. When you activate your service, we assign you with a personal toll-free number that rings directly to your mailbox, no PINs or extensions, with no additional charges for the long distance.

Hard of Hearing
If your coworkers and your clients rely on voicemail as an essential means of communication, it can be an obstacle that may undermine your ability to perform your job if you are deaf or hard of hearing. We have designed our voicemail service with operator transcription to be an affordable personal solution, and eliminate the frustration of using the relay services to check voicemail. Since all voicemail systems require constant interactive operation and poor recordings add additional delay to determine the importance of each message, our voicemail transcription deaf messaging is a logical solution and it is fully compatible with call forwarding from your home or office.

www.dictomail.com

DictoMail™ Voicemail to Text Messaging

The web site is too elaborate to cut and paste -- but costs vary from $20 to $60 per month, depending on level of service -- Ian

www.efax.com

eFax Plus gives you what you don't get from a fax machine. Instant fax access. When someone sends you a fax, it gets routed to your inbox. No waiting at the fax machine or hassles with old-fashioned fax modems. Sending faxes is just as easy.
Choose a local or toll-free fax number in over 1,300 cities across the world to receive your faxes. (View full pricing details.)
Receive and send faxes directly from your email account.
Forget about additional equipment, phone lines or maintenance.
Take advantage of low fax send rates anywhere in the world.

If you'd like to try eFax with a limited account in a random area code, register for an eFax Free account.

[Gothalyptic]

As I've stated, I signed up for eFax. I did the free trial that allows me to receive and not send, also gives me a non-local number, which is fine as most fax machines won't eat more then a minute of LD charges. The fax got emailed to me, which I have received on my blackberry about 10 minutes later (this I will blame on BWC for polling that email and unability to push it). Overall the fax got to me without problem, except one: I can't view it on the my bb. it sends as an attachment which for some reason I can't open. Will check out the desktop software they provide when I get home and see how it worked out.

[JE$U$]

I've been an eFax member for a long time, and although the service is great (I started with the free one, I now have the pay version so I can send faxes), I do have a couple of complaints. First, the delay was not 100% the BWC, there is usually a good 5 to 10 minute delay in the time from when a fax is sent to the time it is delivered via email (can me MUCH more if it's a huge fax).
Secondly, the faxes are delivered in a proprietary .efx format that can only be viewed using the eFax/J2 desktop software, which is a xxxxx if you a) want to view it on your BB and b) if you want to forward it on to somebody else.

If you can deal with those drawbacks, the fact that you can get a free fax number, it's a pretty cool service. Depending on which CSR you get when you call, you can also get a free voicemail box at the same number as your fax number - yet another cool feature, all for free!

[Mark Rejhon]

I use both IMBOT and Dictomail.

I am a deaf guy (http://www.marky.com/hearing) so I like these voice-to-text and text-to-voice services. I also use wireless relay services including MCI Wireless IP-Relay.

Good idea about posting a review. I'll do that when I have enough time to type all the text up!

[MrCynical]

Mark,

Have you seen a good loop for the blackberry? I was just in an appointment with a user with hearing aids in both ears, and would like to get back to him with something that might help him.

[Mark Rejhon]

I haven't at this moment, but you can adapt a standard one originally designed for walkmans headphone jack, by using an appropriate adaptor available from RadioShack (splitting the 2.5mm jack into a standard Mic-In / standard Headphone-Out jacks that you can use with standard headphones and microphones using 1/8" plugs)

My deafness level (profound) is too large to benefit from such an assistive device, but hope you have some luck with this too. So make sure that the loop is something that benefits them, and be prepared to have a backup method such as a laptop where you can type things down for those sentences that are too hard to lipread.

[cyberhh]

Try k7.net for the fax to email gateway service.

100% free and the faxes are in TIFF format.

If anyone has a way to read TIFF files on the BB please let me know.

[Kate]

Hi. I need to know what I can do to read Efaxs on my Blackberry.

There are some suggestions at Efax including.

DocHawk Platinum 2.0 is a patent-pending application tailored especially for the BlackBerry that enables full-image viewing of Adobe Acrobat (PDF), eFax (PDF), J2 JConnect fax (JFX), Microsoft PowerPoint (PPS & PPT), Microsoft Word (DOC), Microsoft Excel (XLS & XLW), RTF, TIFF, BMP, JPEG, PNG and GIF files.

RepliGo Server is a secure solution for BlackBerry Enterprise Server environments that wish to view email attachments in their full fidelity. RepliGo Server supports Adobe® PDF, Microsoft® Word, Excel, PowerPoint®, WordPerfect, .RTF, .CSV, OpenOffice files, zip archives, fax and image files. This solution resides behind the company firewall and is administered by the company IT department or BES administrator.
Compatible with BlackBerry 7100 Series, BlackBerry 7200 Series, BlackBerry 7500 Series, and BlackBerry 7700 Series, BlackBerry 8100 Series, and BlackBerry 8700 Series with BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES).


Can anyone tell me if this works? Thank You

[lexnsyd]

I've been using efax for years... I'm new to the blackberry.... How can you view a fax? Is it their service... (efx).. or pdf... or TIf????

That would be great!

Thank you.

[Nagaraj S]

Hi,

We have couple of blackberry handsets 8700g but to our surprise all the mails are getting downloaded without body / content.

We tried enquiring the service provider but no use, this problem looks very peculiar. we are using lotus domino and alll the users configured for POP3 only.

One more problem is that one of our user is using cingular he is not at all receiving emails but he is able to receive other mail account mails.

Thanks

Nagaraj

[Csa819]

I swear by GrandCentral, with a runner up to Callwave, GrandCentral is a free service that gives you one phone number, which can ring through to like five or six phone lines. They also can email you or text your notification to you. There is a mobile web interface, which allows you selectively listen to messages a la iphone visual voicemail. They also allow custom greetings for different callers. They also claim to archive your VM"s forever. You can switch calls between phones, record calls, and screen callers while they are leaving a message. Kinda freaks people out when you answer in the middle of a message like the old answering machines. I have cut way down on cell minutes, because I can use my Vonage line at home, or even transfer/answer calls on gizmo's VoIP service. GC transfers to Gizmo as a SIP call, so there is no fee from Gizmo.
Callwave is another service that will email you a .wav of your voicemail, using your own line. I get an email from them in my inbox, then open the wav whenever I get to it. It has the caller info and length of message, so you can kinda tell if it's important.
GrandCentral.com and calllwave.com Check them out!

[mediabb]

Originally Posted by Csa819

I swear by GrandCentral, with a runner up to Callwave, GrandCentral is a free service that gives you one phone number, which can ring through to like five or six phone lines. They also can email you or text your notification to you. There is a mobile web interface, which allows you selectively listen to messages a la iphone visual voicemail. They also allow custom greetings for different callers. They also claim to archive your VM"s forever. You can switch calls between phones, record calls, and screen callers while they are leaving a message. Kinda freaks people out when you answer in the middle of a message like the old answering machines. I have cut way down on cell minutes, because I can use my Vonage line at home, or even transfer/answer calls on gizmo's VoIP service. GC transfers to Gizmo as a SIP call, so there is no fee from Gizmo.
Callwave is another service that will email you a .wav of your voicemail, using your own line. I get an email from them in my inbox, then open the wav whenever I get to it. It has the caller info and length of message, so you can kinda tell if it's important.
GrandCentral.com and calllwave.com Check them out!

calllwave.com > callwave.com (correction)

[mediabb]

Originally Posted by Csa819

I swear by GrandCentral, with a runner up to Callwave, GrandCentral is a free service that gives you one phone number, which can ring through to like five or six phone lines. They also can email you or text your notification to you. There is a mobile web interface, which allows you selectively listen to messages a la iphone visual voicemail. They also allow custom greetings for different callers. They also claim to archive your VM"s forever. You can switch calls between phones, record calls, and screen callers while they are leaving a message. Kinda freaks people out when you answer in the middle of a message like the old answering machines. I have cut way down on cell minutes, because I can use my Vonage line at home, or even transfer/answer calls on gizmo's VoIP service. GC transfers to Gizmo as a SIP call, so there is no fee from Gizmo.
Callwave is another service that will email you a .wav of your voicemail, using your own line. I get an email from them in my inbox, then open the wav whenever I get to it. It has the caller info and length of message, so you can kinda tell if it's important.
GrandCentral.com and calllwave.com Check them out!

Reply With Quote


calllwave.com > callwave.com (correction)

[anesone]

Originally Posted by Csa819

I swear by GrandCentral, with a runner up to Callwave, GrandCentral is a free service that gives you one phone number, which can ring through to like five or six phone lines. They also can email you or text your notification to you. There is a mobile web interface, which allows you selectively listen to messages a la iphone visual voicemail. They also allow custom greetings for different callers. They also claim to archive your VM"s forever. You can switch calls between phones, record calls, and screen callers while they are leaving a message. Kinda freaks people out when you answer in the middle of a message like the old answering machines. I have cut way down on cell minutes, because I can use my Vonage line at home, or even transfer/answer calls on gizmo's VoIP service. GC transfers to Gizmo as a SIP call, so there is no fee from Gizmo.
Callwave is another service that will email you a .wav of your voicemail, using your own line. I get an email from them in my inbox, then open the wav whenever I get to it. It has the caller info and length of message, so you can kinda tell if it's important.
GrandCentral.com and calllwave.com Check them out!

I also have Grand Central, and love it...but unfortunately Sprint doesn't work so well with Callwave, as the only option Sprint gives you is unconditional forwarding (ALL calls get forwarded, no option for just: Busy, No Answer, or Unreachable). I'd like to have a chance to answer the call, before it sends it to Callwave. Thanks a lot Sprint.