You've probably seen the ads in inflight magazines, though they're starting to show up in high-end consumer electronics catalogs and even places like Damark. The New Voice Organizer! Voice recognition! Manage your business day by just talking! If you can talk, you can stay organized!
Boy, does that sound hokey or what? I saw these ads for months but never did anything about them...I mean, I like electronic toys, but $200 for a little plastic thing with a teeny LCD display? It's probably just another one of those dumb gadgets that I'll play with for a week and never pick up again.
Wrong. The Voice Organizer is way cool, and does even more than the advertising promises in some respects, though less than in others. I can honestly say I've become twice as productive in my work, and my wife also appreciates that I no longer forget to do as many house chores. The only downside I've found is that I've become utterly dependent on my Voice Organizer, as well as somewhat fanatical about keeping it as handy as possible.
The Voice Organizer (VO; recently renamed the IQ Voice Organizer) is made by Voice Powered Technology International, Inc. (VPT), who also designed a voice recognition VCR remote control that's starting to show up in Damark catalogs. The most basic function of the VO is as a digital tape recorder, which can save your spoken ideas, memos, or hummed melodies instantly for playback at any time. That function alone would make it worth its price in many applications, but the VO also allows you to attach a time to any stored memo, making it a "reminder" in VO terminology. When that time arrives, the VO starts beeping (like a pocket pager) and scrolling "Message" across its LCD display. If you do nothing, it will beep at you again every 5 minutes for 15 minutes, then every 15 minutes for 2 hours, then every hour for 12 hours. In short, you can't avoid it...and when you do play the message, it's in your own voice, so you're less likely to ignore it.
The beauty of the VO's voice-operated time system is that you don't have to futz around with lots of buttons to set the time...just press the "time" button and say to it, for example, "7:30 PM Friday" and that's when you'll be reminded. The VO also has a voice-operated phone directory (about which more later) and calculator. These both work, but in my experience are not as useful as the first two functions. There's also a password feature, to lock out unauthorized users.
The larger and heavier any piece of personal equipment, the more likely you are to leave it behind when you need it. At 2 ¼" x 4" x 11/16" and just about 3 ounces, the VO is small enough to carry absolutely everywhere, though I tend to draw the line at the shower. The VO's small size, ergonomics, and extreme ease of use are what make it so valuable. The brilliant user interface -- most functions can be activated with a single button press while you hold the VO in either hand -- ensures that you will actually use the thing. Once you learn a few simple rules, most of the VO functions are logical and work the way you expect them to. It's so much faster and easier than a pocket computer, PDA, or even a DayRunner or DayTimer, while being both smaller and lighter than any of them. And of course, just try to use a Windows-based PIM (from your bedside with the light off, that is) to save that one-in-a-million idea.
You can store up to 99 memos, 99 regular reminders, 100 names with up to 4 phone numbers linked to each, and 56 recurring reminders (these play every day, week, month, or year). It would be nice if there was a way to further tag recurring reminders so that they could go off either on weekdays or weekends, as well as daily. The preceding numbers are hard limits; you can't store extra reminders or memos if the phone directory is empty, for instance. And though I haven't come close to hitting the "99" limits, I've filled up 70% of the total voice memory available (240 seconds) with just a dozen or so memos plus around 2 dozen reminders. Clearly, I save longer vocalizations than the designers intended. The extra 512 KB memory upgrade available from VPT for $49.95 would help with this problem, but it won't increase the actual number of messages you can store in any category.
One problem is that the volume limits at both the low and high ends are insufficient. I didn't discover this for a week or so, until I emerged from my home office to mingle with people in the real world. Then I found that playing personal messages in front of people can sometimes be both audible and embarrassing, even with the volume turned as low as it can go and the VO pressed against my ear. I also found that in moderately noisy environments, even restaurants that weren't particularly rowdy, you can miss the beeper altogether no matter how high you set the volume, though your ears eventually become more attuned to the sound. In most offices, this shouldn't be a problem. Also on my wish list * is a little holster or something that would keep the VO handy, audible, and secure without having to put it in a pocket. Pockets are bad because it is difficult to extract the VO from one when you're sitting down in the car, because your keys will scratch the display, and because it's harder to hear in there.
Memos are the first thing you will do with the VO, and they are the simplest. Just press the handy "record" button on the corner and start speaking; the most recently recorded will be played back first, and you can scroll through the others easily using the "Prev" and "Next" keys. At any future time, you can turn a memo into a reminder by pressing the "time" button and speaking.
When your VO starts beeping with a reminder, you don't have to hit the "play" button if you know what it is and you're busy with something else. A single touch of the "stop" button will automatically defer it for 15 minutes (you can change this), after which it will remind you again. Once a reminder plays, you have 30 seconds to decide what to do with it. You can schedule it for a later time, or do nothing, in which case it will erase itself. A reminder can also be turned back into a memo after it plays, or into a recurring reminder. You can make a reminder trigger in, say, 22 minutes, by saying "timer" when you're setting the time. There are also recurring timers available. These are intended for repeated events, such as taking pills. There's a bit of inconsistency involved in setting the time by voice: while you must say "fifteen", "thirty", or "forty-five" when setting the number of minutes past the hour for a reminder time, you cannot use those numbers for a timer, but must "spell" out the number of minutes verbally as "one" (pause) "five". This kind of thing becomes second nature after a few weeks if you use the VO regularly.
The phone directory on the VO was the only major feature I was really disappointed with. The advertising implies that all you have to do to retrieve a phone number is to say the person's name, and it will show up on the display. This is technically true, except that first you also must manually select the letter of the alphabet you filed it under (from one of five sections; A-D, E-I, etc.). And because the sections are unequal in size, it's not easy to select the correct section without staring at the display while pressing the appropriate button. By the time you factor in the uncertainty of whether you stored someone's voice entry by their first name, last name, or both, you might as well just scroll through the listings by hand rather than fool with the voice recognition. I simply save numbers I need temporarily as memos, and put the rest in my printed address book. It would also be relatively simple for VPT to provide a user-settable option that would allow the VO to read phone numbers back to you in your own voice, since obviously the unit could store the digits while it was recognizing them. This could be handy in a number of situations. Also, it's a pity they couldn't have it also generate tones for dialing the phone, but there probably isn't a lot of room in there for a DTMF chip.
In general, the VO does a pretty good job of turning your words reliably into the numbers necessary for setting time schedules. Occasionally, due to a change in ambient sound or possibly a head cold, it will have trouble understanding you. As a work-around, you can choose to retrain the unit at any time; edit incorrectly-understood times "by hand" (cycling through times and dates like you would set any digital clock); or tell the VO "no" when it misunderstands you. If it hears two noes in a row, it will re-prompt you for the particular parameter, giving you a chance to start over. It's generally a good idea to watch the display while inputting numbers by voice to make sure you know what it's doing; on a few occasions I managed to schedule urgent work events for 4:15 AM, several months after they were actually due. If you aren't in a position to observe the display (it's unlighted), the best tactic is to simply save the vocalization as a memo and add a scheduled time to it later on.
Much of the VO depends on its batteries, and its designers have theoretically done a good job in this area. Main power is supplied by 5 NiCd button cells; if these are discharged, you have 2 weeks' worth of backup in 2 lithium cells. The NiCds are so hard to find that they could be considered proprietary, though spares are available from VPT for a reasonable price. The ad says that the VO will hold its charge for 7 days, though that is true only if it's not being used. Normal battery life before recharge is needed is more like 2 or 3 days.
The VO tells you when the batteries are low; if you ignore this warning and fail to charge the unit within 24 hours, "CHARGEME" appears on the display and you can't do anything else until you do that. Past this point, the display will blank to save as much lithium cell power as possible. The charger system is also a masterpiece of good design, at least mechanically. The base holds the VO up on your desk where you can see it (it's just as easy to use in or out of the charger), and has a green LED to confirm that the connection has been made. You can even plug the charger cord right into the bottom of the VO when changing batteries to help avoid memory loss. VPT also sells extra chargers, which are a good idea if you travel back and forth to work (helps you avoid carrying chargers around). I can't see any reason to buy the 12V auto charger, though, unless you spend 4 to 6 hours in a car every day and don't play loud music (which would drown out the VO's beeper).
The only problem is that there used to be a design flaw, apparently in the charging circuit. After getting five units sent to me due to the fact that they seemed to crap out after a few months and lose their minds and power (luckily all been replaced under warranty), VPT tweaked the design and the new models work just fine (I've now had my current unit for about a year with no problems). The newer model #5200s use alkaline batteries and therefore avoids any hint of this, but then you have to replace them.
The VO manual is 64 pages of extremely useful, well-written information. There's a tutorial at the beginning, practice exercises, hints, and then details on every aspect of operation in alphabetical order, with clear graphics yet. VPT even includes a little "cheat sheet" to slip in your wallet.
VPT runs a toll-free customer service line. I've only had to call them a few times, but on every occasion the person who answered was patient, knowledgeable, polite, and helpful. When my VO got into a strange electrical condition that caused one of its NiCd cells to swell up, these folks were kind enough to arrange a cross-shipment; I had a new one in 3 days rather than waiting weeks for the technicians to fix my unit. VPT's customer service department ranks as one of the best of its kind I have ever dealt with.
In some ways, it's taken me years to do the research for this article. I've always had problems completing many tasks, especially on busy days when it seemed every unexpected interruption would make me forget that certain things had to be done at specific times. As a result, I've invested in countless Day-Timers, computer-based scheduling programs, and of course, books about procrastination and time management (which someday I will get around to reading). The Voice Organizer has changed all that. By setting up the day's activities as reminders rather than memos, I'm forced to think -- if only briefly -- about what time they should be scheduled. This helps because I can then space tasks out, preventing them from all happening at once. Meanwhile, any time I get an idea or remember something I have to do, one push of the button saves it for me. While it may not be true that "you'll never forget anything again", I can say that the Voice Organizer is the best solution I've found that can help you meet that goal.
#5100 IQ Voice Organizer 512 KB
Voice Powered Technology International, Inc.
15260 Ventura Blvd.
Sherman Oaks, CA 91403
Phone 818-757-1100; to order in Europe, call (31)
46-391351; FAX +1-818-905-0564
(VISA, MasterCard, Discover, AmEx orders)
Price: $179.95 to 199.95, depending on current offer, plus $9 S/H, plus tax
for California residents.
Memory upgrades, extra chargers, and batteries are also available.
* a little leather holster is now included with some offers directly from the factory. I bought one separately, and stopped using it after a week as the thingie that holds it to your belt is fastened with Velcro and I almost lost the VO 3 times. My wife made a much better one for me with leather and the kind of metal belt clip you can get at Tandy or other leatherworking stores.
This article is Copyright © 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997 David Fiedler, Rescue, CA. All Rights Reserved. It is unlawful to use this article for any commercial purpose, including but not limited to CD-ROM distribution, paid online service, or print publication, without negotiating an appropriate license from David Fiedler, PO Box 220, Rescue CA 95672.
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