SJA Mobile & FBI Launch SMS Tipline

SJA Mobile today jointly announced with the FBI’s Washington D.C Field Office and Metropolitan Police an initiative which will enable D.C-area citizens to anonymously report crime tips via a novel new medium -– SMS. SMS, or “text messaging,” has up until now never been used before as a medium for crime tips.

Citizens in the D.C area can report a crime or homeland security tip by sending a text message with the tip to the number 50411. The 5-digit number to text to is called a “Short Code.” Currently the service is available on all major wireless carriers, along with several Tier 2 carriers.

SJA Mobile is in talks expand the service to several other major cities.

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It’s good to see that law enforcement agencies are finally embracing technology. I have several things to say about this:

• Danger on the road?
• What’s faster?
• What took them so long?

Danger on the road?

Research shows that text messaging while driving is more dangerous than talking on the cell phone while driving, since one needs to use one’s fingers and attention to send a text message. Though not everyone sending in a tip is going to be doing it on the road, I believe that encouraging SMS could lead to (at least) a few incidents on the streets.

What’s faster?

Do you text message faster, or do you talk faster? In another comparison, do you type (on a computer keyboard) faster than you can speak? I believe that one’s voice can contribute a greater amount of information in a shorter amount of time.

However, if the FBI or Homeland Security isn’t equipped to handle a large volume of calls at the same time — for instance, not enough operators — then SMS allows them to receive a large volume and go through that pile in sequence as it piles up.

Unfortunately, that also increases the likelihood that important tips are queued. I hope they use some smart filtering/searching technology (Google, perhaps?) that will allow them to see urgent tips more quickly.

What took them so long?

Why did it take so many years for law enforcement to finally embrace this sort of technology? It’s fortunate that SJA Mobile finally made it happen.

This post is brought to you by our friends at SJA Mobile.

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Skype’s Unlimited US & Canada Plan

This is one of the best plans I have ever known about. I have previously recommended Vbuzzer, a Canadian company offering competitive pricing (and generally good quality). But nothing compares to Skype — for two simple reasons. Firstly, it is a decentralized peer-to-peer network, and secondly, they are more reputable (not to mention owned by eBay).

The offer you see above can’t be matched by Vbuzzer’s $2.26/month outgoing plan. The reliability is much better on Skype, and the destination can be anywhere in Canada or the US, which makes it particularly useful for Canadians with a large contact list in long-distance locations.

You don’t even need to be calling from the US or Canada; you could travel overseas and call your relatives in North America on the same plan. (Now, why wouldn’t they be using Skype?) Skype To Go is also included, which lets you use PSTN access numbers to make long distance calls on your Skype account, just like phone cards.

Now, there’s just one condition: “unlimited” is really “virtually unlimited”, because it would be somewhat unjust to be using Skype’s PC-to-phone calling 24/7/365. Thus, they’ve imposed a soft “fair usage” limitation of 10,000 minutes per month.

Don’t be disappointed. Look what 10,000 minutes really means:

Unless you’re replacing your landline with Skype and talking for hours on end, the “Unlimited US & Canada” plan is perfect for your long distance needs.

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Jott

Make a phone call, record a message, and have it automatically transcribed for you and sent to your contacts (via e-mail), to your Twitter page or blog.

Sound futuristic? Far-fetched?

Not so. Jott does exactly that, for free.

Set up your account today with Jott, and start sending e-mails, posting to your blog, and making reminders for yourself with your voice. I started using this a few hours ago, after having learned about it from a recent episode of net@night, a TWiT podcast. Jott isn’t really for people that sit behind a keyboard and monitor all day, but rather for on-the-go use, such as with a mobile phone.

One problem is that importing contacts isn’t as seamless as possible, due to the fact that I’m using Geekie.org Apps (powered by Google) rather than the standard Gmail. I had to go through the process of exporting my contacts to a CSV (Comma Separated Values) file and uploading that to Jott.

Jott isn’t perfect. Sometimes, it can misspell words; for instance, “poll” was spelt as “pole”, a homonym. Subtle things like the D at the end of “noticed” might not be detected.

Try it out anyways; visit Jott.

If you’re a North American user (US or Canada), there’s a toll-free number that you can use once you’ve set up your account - 1-866-JOTT-123 (1-866-5688-123). Local numbers for a number of cities exist as well.

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VeCommerce Speech Technologies

VeCommerce has come out with some incredible speech recognition software. In the modern day and age, we are seeing a change in user-computer interactions that moves away from the traditional keyboard & mouse model, and further towards touch and voice.

VeCommerce’s voice recognition software is targeted to businesses that offer telephone customer service, such as banking, order-out restaurants (like Pizza Hut). Their IVR (interactive voice response) solutions are great for every day applications, whether it’s accessing a bank account over the telephone, ordering pizza, or getting insurance quotes.

Complex IVR’s like those offered by VeCommerce can adapt easily and effectively to many different types of voices; a good speech recognition system should be able to adjust to and understand any customer. Additionally, the caller should be able to understand it; instead of offering long menu listings like “press 1 to order a Hawaiian, press 2 to customize your own toppings, press 3 to listen to our special offers…” these excellent solutions (particularly VeConnect) are great for building a brand, inspiring customer loyalty, and simply allowing them to feel comfortable interacting with a computer over the phone.

If your business is looking for these sorts of speech technologies, VeCommerce is the place to go. This Australian firm has been providing speech recognition software since 1997, and is a trustworthy company you can rely on for your business.

Brought to you from our friends at VeCommerce.

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