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As busy people, we're always looking for ways to work smarter. I'm happy to share with you three new technological developments that will help you work more effectively.
1. Dictation software
Several companies have released dictation software that allows you to speak
naturally into the computer. and your words will appear on the screen as text.
Once set up, you simply speak into the microphone (which is supplied) attached
to your computer. Your words appear on the screen. You can make verbal corrections,
telling the computer to go back and fix something it "mis-heard."
This is amazing stuff! Most of us speak two to four times faster than we type. The accuracy of these programs is approximately 95%. You can easily add words to the dictionary.
The highest reviews have been for Dragon Systems' Naturally Speaking for the PC (www.dragonsys.com). PowerSecretary, their Mac version, is a generation behind. Also receiving good reviews is IBM's ViaVoice (www.software.ibm.com/is/voicetype).
2. Audio clips customized to your interests
Audio Highway (www.audiohwy.com) has created a personalized, audio-on-demand
technology allowing you to download audio versions of news and information from
the Internet. The content you select downloads into the Listen Up Player, a
pager-sized hand held device. You can either listen to your selections on the
Player, or on your car cassette player.
You'll listen to the information that interests you, instead of whatever the news media wants you to hear. You'll save time searching for news of interest in newspapers, magazines, or the Internet. Content providers include The Associated Press, Berlitz, SyberVision, Harper Audio, Newsweek, and Time-Warner Audio Books. In fact, our own Robert Fish's "Fish Tales" audio tapes are available through this service.
Audio Highway won an Innovations '97 Award from the Consumer Electronics Show.
The reason I think this is a breakthrough is that it allows us to listen to information that interests us, without wading through a lot of debris to get to what we want. Thus we can make use of our driving or work-out time to listen to "our" news.
Even with the customizable content of PointCast (www.pointcast.com), which brings news from the Internet to your computer, you have to sit at your computer to read it. And you have to take time from something else to read the news you've selected. While I like PointCast, I'm excited about Audio Highway's product because it allows busy people like us to multi-task while taking in important information.
3. Back up your files via the Internet
We all know the value of our data. Imagine having to recreate everything on your computer from scratch. Not fun. I hope you've gotten into the habit of backing up regularly. Coming from California, the land of earthquakes, floods, and fires, I've always believed in not only backing up regularly, but in taking a set of back ups off site.
Well, now you don't have to go anywhere to have your data stored off site. SafeGuard Interactive (www.sgii.com) and Connected Corp. (www.connected.com) both allow you to back up all or part of your data via a standard Internet connection. These services charge from $10-15/month.
After the initial backup, the software backs up only the files that have changed. This saves uploading time. The data is encrypted to foil hackers.
© 1997 Morgan Seminar Group
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Rebecca L. Morgan, CSP, is a people-productivity expert, speaker and seminarist. She is the author of four books, TurboTime: Maximizing Your Results Through Technology, Calming Upset Customers, Life's Lessons: Insights and Information for a Richer Life, and Professional Selling. For information on her speaking services, books, and tapes contact her at 1440 Newport Ave., San Jose, CA 95125, 408/998-7977, 800/247-9662, fax: 408/998-1742, rebecca@RebeccaMorgan.com, www.RebeccaMorgan.com. Please contact Rebecca for permission to reprint or repost this item.
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