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As some of our readers know, I was clumsy enough to hack off a chunk of my finger while making dinner a couple nights ago. This incident has severely curtailed my blogging activity, but it’s led to a fortunate inspiration, as well!

For those of you who are differently-abled – temporarily or otherwise – or for those of you who are simply too lazy to type, here are a handful of resources for hands-free Internet use, from blog posting to Twitter updates to straight-up voice-to-text transcription services. I hope you find these apps as useful as I have.

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Jott

Jott is a transcription service that takes your speech and converts it to text. With tiered subscription plans that run a modest gamut of around $4 per month to $13 per month, and a pay-as-you-go option that seems perfectly geared toward casual users, Jott is competitively priced for both a satisfied userbase and profitability.

The site allows users to send in 15- or 30-second snippets of audio to be converted into text. Jott also offers services for consumers (voicemail transcription) and the enterprise (a Salesforce integration), as well.

The company started in Seattle in 2006. Since then, they’ve integrated Twitter functions and a suite of mobile apps for various devices.

QuickTate

A similar service we found is QuickTate. This service allows users to leave audio messages for themselves via phone; the messages are then transcribed to text and delivered to the user via SMS or email depending on one’s account settings. Text messages are also available on the web.

QuickTate also allows provides a voicemail transcription service and has a handy iPhone-optimized widget. It too offers tiered subscription plans, with a convenient free option for occasional users and monthly plans ranging from $3.50 to $30 a month for up to 200 transcribed messages.

We actually tested this one firsthand and found the vocie-to-text process both quick and extremely accurate – Google Voice transcription this was not. Each word was correctly spelled, and sentences were adequately punctuated.

TweetCall

TweetCall was another simple, free and accurate service we tested for posting updates to Twitter. There are many similar apps on the market, including TwitterFone (still in private beta after more than a year and a half since inception), but we appreciated the quick and easy nature of TweetCall.

Signing up for the service took no more than a minute, after which we were able to dial (877) TweetCall, enter an optional PIN and leave a message to be transcribed to a 140-character tweet.

The service worked just fine, and the text of the message was transcribed beautifully.

We were not too surprised to learn that TweetCall is, in fact, powered by QuickTate. We were curious enough to dig around to find out why each product had such quick and accurate transcriptions; we found both are affiliated with iDictate, a long-standing figure in the voice-to-text space that employs actual human beings to get voice messages into text formats.

It might not be the most technologically innovative or scalable solution, but these two apps certainly did everything we needed them to, and with a higher degree of accuracy than similar applications that rely on machine transcription of messages.

Audio Blogging on Tumblr

Lots of blogging software applications have tools for audio posts, but few are as simple as Tumblr’s. Tumblr has the distinct advantage of giving users a completely free offering, as well.

Early last year, Tumblr gave users the ability to post audio entries to their blogs. While this function doesn’t provide any text transcription, it does do the trick for most casual bloggers who might need to call one in on occasion.

We tested it out, and weren’t too disappointed. The sound was a little muffled, though, and it’s definitely not a feature that would be of any use to professional or enterprise bloggers.

Visual Voicemail

For an extensive and thorough look at voice-to-text voicemail transcription services, check out this post from Baratunde Thurston. I did not test voicemail transcription services because I, dear reader, make a point of not checking my voicemail, ever.

Although Google Voice and similar services’ audio message (mis)translations can be humorously wrong, they’re often helpful for getting the gist of a communiqué without having to reroute through the labyrinthine depths of one’s voicemail inbox.

Let me know your favorite voice-to-text apps in the comments – I’ll need them while I’m resting up and trying to regenerate my finger down in the basement of ReadWriteLabs.

Discuss

Rebecca Zacks wrote:

It was another crazy-busy week for New England’s life sciences firms, many of which closed small-to-medium sized venture financings. I’ll talk about those as part of Friday’s deals roundup, but in the meantime here are some of the other highlights:

—Alnylam Pharmaceuticals CEO John Maraganore told Luke about his vision for the coming “RNA decade,” in which Maraganore believes RNA-based therapies like those his Cambridge, MA-based firm is developing will begin to reach their potential. Maraganore also discussed Alnylam’s (NASDAQ: ALNY) goals for this year, which included moving its lead drug candidate, a treatment for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), into a Phase IIb trial; obtaining the first clinical trial results on its liver cancer drug; and launching clinical trials for a treatment for the rare condition TTR amyloidosis.

—Cambridge-based BIND Biosciences, a developer of nanoparticle-based drugs founded by MIT’s Robert Langer and Harvard Medical School’s Omid Farokhzad, named Scott Minick—previously a managing director of ARCH Venture Partners—as its president and CEO. BIND also reportedly raised $11 million in a Series C round of financing.

—Wilmington, MA-based Charles River Laboratories International (NYSE:CRL) announced it will close its Shrewsbury, MA-based preclinical testing facility by the middle of this year; the company will let go nearly 300 workers in the process.

—Biotech giant Genzyme (NASDAQ: GENZ) entered into a “mutual cooperation agreement” with Relational Investors, the San Diego-based investment fund, following fund co-founder Ralph Whitworth’s public calls for change at the Cambridge-based company. Whitworth’s firm, which owns about 4 percent of Genzyme’s stock, pledged to support Genzyme’s slate of board candidates and other proposals in 2010; in return, Genzyme has agreed to give Whitworth a seat on the board in November if he requests one.

—A promising University of Michigan spinoff called Lycera announced it’s moving its headquarters from Ann Arbor, MI, to Cambridge. The startup, which is pursuing a new approach to treating autoimmune diseases, also named Bill Sibold, the former senior vice president of U.S. commercial business at Biogen Idec, as its new CEO.

—Cancer drug developer Synta Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: SNTA) of Lexington, MA, raised $25 million in a sale of 5.5 million shares of stock at $4.50 apiece. Synta had just $51.7 million in cash and investments at the end of September, according to its most recent financial report, so the cash is a significant drop in the bucket for the company.

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With web hosting services like Rackspace going down time, and time again, Down For Everyone Or Just Me has become a hot spot to check to see if a lagging site is down for everyone, or just you. The site was created as a side project by longtime Twitter engineer Alex Payne, and has managed to grow quite a large following.

Over the weekend, Payne sold the site to Bweeb, Inc, which is known for running Site5 Web Hosting. Although Payne isn’t too sure what Bweeb’s plans are for the site, I suspect they’ll keep its functionality largely the same (and people will keep coming to it).

In a blog post, Payne mentions that the site hasn’t received that much attention lately, and wanted a new owner that would continue development of the site and add some new features.

I had numerous feature requests after the site launched, but turning it into a robust, multi-homed uptime checker was never my goal. All I’ve ever done with the site is:

1. Ported it from a simple Ruby implementation to App Engine.
2. Put some ads on it; first Google AdWords, then later individual campaigns that I negotiated by email. I made about USD $300/month from the site, on average.
3. Wired up a Twitter account that would tweet out sites that were frequently seen by the service as “down” within a short time period. (This functionality has been inactive since November, 2008.)

The price of the sale was not disclosed, but Payne also mentioned that “it was proportional to the amount of time and effort I’ve put into it (that is, not much).” Payne has also made the source code of the site public again.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

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It turned out Gray Maynard was trying out last night during his Ultimate Fight Night 20 win over Nate Diaz. Maynard won a close decision but the fight was sloppy at times and "The Bully’s" took a beating. He needed to wow the powers that be to earn a title shot against UFC lightweight champ B.J. Penn. 

During his New York media blitz to announce Flash Entertainment/Abu Dhabi’s 10 percent purchase of the UFC, UFC president Dana White explained why he tabbed Frank Edgar as Penn’s next challenger.

"We gotta put people in there who have a better shot at beating B.J. Penn. And Gray Maynard didn’t sell me on that last night," said White.

Maynard used his size and wrestling to dominate Edgar back at UFN 13, but clearly the little guy has moved back ahead of the unbeaten Maynard in the pecking order.

"Frankie Edgar has looked great in his last few fights and he’s been dominating good opponents."  

Edgar will meet Penn at UFC 112 Apr. 10 in Abu Dhabi. Maynard and his coaches Randy Couture and Gil Martinez didn’t exactly scream and yell for a title shot last night during the UFN 20 postfight press conference. They even suggested Maynard might need more seasoning (VIDEO).

White and UFC owner Lorenzo Fertitta also expanded on the news of the transaction with Abu Dhabi. 

MusicSkins has just launched a whole line of Beatles skins designed for your cell phone, laptop, mp3 player or gaming device. They offer custom fit skins for basically any popular device. Choose from Abbey Road, Sgt. Pepper, Yellow Submarine, Let it Be, A Hard Days Night, Rubber Soul or other various Beatles skins. It’s a sticker with an interesting adhesive that leaves no residue and can be removed and reapplied many times while maintaining a strong grip. Not only does it look pretty sweet, but it’s nice knowing I can sell my iPhone on eBay next year nearly scratch free. The skin itself is very impressive, check out our review of MusicSkins here. So if you’re not bold enough to void your warranty with colorware, laser etch your device, or add a bulky case, MusicSkins safely gives your device that customized look without putting much of a dent in your wallet.

Last month when I showed you a concept for a cat bed from Steve Lukes, several readers left feedback for Steve concerning the food bowl being right next to the sleeping area. Well, Steve went back to the drawing board (well, back to the computer) and revised his ideas based on the feedback. The ultra modern cat bed now has a scratching pad by the sleeping area instead of a food bowl. While he was at it, he also came up with another idea for a two-story, raised bed. I’m sure he’d like to hear what you think, and if you happen to be looking for a product designer, I hear he’s available!

In an interview airing Wednesday on Extra, controversial celebutante Tila Tequila reveals that she is prepared to fight for custody of her late fiancee’s adopted daughter. Socialite Casey Johnson was found dead in her West Hollywood mansion last week. The heiress to the multi-billion dollar Johnson & Johnson empire left behind a 3-year-old daughter, Ava Monroe.

Little Ava — whose godmother is hotel heiress Nicky Hilton — currently lives with Casey’s mother Sale and her husband, sportscaster Ahmad Rashad. However, Tila cites cryptic “dreams” which tell her that the current custody arrangement is not the one Casey would have wanted. The former star of MTV’s A Shot At Love has vowed to file papers to fulfill Casey’s “final wish” and adopt the child.

“She’s not resting in peace right now. She has come to me in my dreams,” Tila explains. “Her last wish was to have Ava, have me have Ava.”

Oh, Vestal, what were you thinking? Listen, I’m totally down with a cheap chrono movement in a classy watch. But no letters or numbers? You can barely read the thing, let alone use any of the functions.

Watchismo seems to like it, calling it “bold” but I’m of the school where tools should have some indication of their function. What if everything had no markings? Where would we be then? Think of the children.

Available now for pre-order for $279. It also comes in black.

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The Eco-Friendly Greenhouse Kit from Burpee was one of the first new products that caught my eye in the 2010 catalog. Personally I like reusing seed trays but I don’t like that most are made with non-renewable plastic in the first place and while I like fiber seed pots they cost more. That said this is a nice little kit if you’re looking for an easy and green seed starting solution and don’t have a dozen recycled egg cartons laying around.

The Eco-Friendly Greenhouse Kit is an all-natural and biodegradable seed starting kit. The kit comes with bottom watering tray, seed tray, Burpee’s Super Growing Pellets, three wooden plant markers and organic fertilizer. The growing pellets are made from sustainable coconut coir and the trays are made from plants.

I like this new kit but if you’ve got some spare time or handy kid helpers I’d suggest the PotMaker instead which allows you to make nice little seed pots with recycled newspaper. The PotMaker is longer lasting and even more eco-friendly than the kit.

Post from: Blisstree

New Eco-Friendly Greenhouse Kit

While at the Consumer Electronics Show, and all the way to this very day, I’ve been asked the same question: Aaron, what was the most interesting thing you saw at CES?

If there’s anything that I picked up from CES 2010, it’s the fact that Android is king.  Thanks in part to the versatility of Android, the OS is being utilized in almost every mainstream electronic appliance on the marketplace.  From upcoming tablet PC’s to netbooks to eBook readers to refrigerators, Android is being implemented as the operating system of choice.  I knew Android was up and coming, but the sheer number of products showcasing Google’s OS was staggering.  Move over Apple, you have a competitor coming up fast, and they have the benefit of diversity.

The rest of the news – on the wireless front, at least – was mostly expected.  Palm announced the Pre Plus and the Pixi Plus, both destined to Verizon Wireless on January 25th.  With a new navigational input pad similar to the Pixi’s, 16 GB of storage space, an improved keyboard and slider mechanism, a Touchstone back installed out of the box, and Wireless Hotspot, the Pre Plus is quite the upgrade.  The Palm Pixi Plus offers Wi-Fi, and that’s about it.  Both are said to sport “upgraded” processors, though I couldn’t get anyone to disclose an official number.

The Motorola Backflip, which appears to be AT&T’s first Android smartphone (I know it’s not announced as of yet, but c’mon AT&T, don’t put the stock Backflip picture in your keynote address unless you want people to make assumptions), sports a unique, albeit mildly irritating design.  I’m sure that many will disagree, but their thoughts will likely change when the phone is mistakenly placed in a puddle of condensation on the table.

Sprint’s Overdrive product was a welcome addition to the marketplace, but nothing earth shattering.  We knew that the carrier was working feverishly on their WiMAX coverage footprint, and the MiFi-esque Overdrive product serves as an attempt to further their marketshare (a good idea, considering no other wireless carrier is offering 4G at this time).  When 4G isn’t available, the unit reverts back to 3G.  Other improvements include a display with connectivity information, signal strength, number of users, and battery life.

On the accessory front, RIM announced the BlackBerry Presenter, which is clearly targeted towards a particular demographic (see video for a demonstration).  Like it sounds, the BlackBerry Presenter allows BES users to play Powerpoint presentations in the board room.  Features include the ability to freeze, activate a blank screen, view speaker notes, and more.

My favorite part about the trip…was meeting my colleagues!
Though few readers knew (until we started discussing it before and during the trip), most of the PhoneDog editors hadn’t met in person, with the exception of Adriana and I during CTIA Fall 2009 in San Diego.  While the technology was the focus of the convention, being able to spend time with the PhoneDog Crew was the greatest perk of the trip.  I can’t say enough positive words about these guys, so I’ll leave it at that.

So, my take – stay tuned, because Android is going to be an industry changer.  Palm is back in the game, landing on the nation’s largest wireless carrier (with rumors of an announcement on AT&T soon).  Motorola has joined the Android bandwagon, and seems to be successful.  What will the future hold?  Considering the increasingly present convergence between the computer and wireless worlds, your guess is as good as mine.

Well, we’ve got to hand it to Google—the company’s “don’t be evil” schtick has long worn thin and governments around the globe are already probing its potential monopoly power, but who else would come out swinging against the entire Chinese government and announce an end to its own collaboration in censorship, all while recognizing that it could lose access to the entire Chinese market? And do it in a blog post?

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UK-based illustrator Jonny Wan is celebrating the Year of the Tiger with this awesome illustration. You can, too, by purchasing a print from Society6.

via Grain Edit | thanks to Peter for spotting this one