Jott and Reqall

Jott recently came out of beta and have intiated their business model. They are have a payment model for extended messages and the "extra" capabilities. Short reminder messages to yourself (15 seconds) are still free. For me, the is the main usage but I was also using it to send messages to others on my list via phone. Now I'd have to pay.

Reqall on the other hand is still a free service. It is not as rich in capabilities but it does do all those things I am using. Reminders are simple to do and the transcription has been perfect. The system also sends a wave file of the audio.

Email, SMS and IM are the connections available for reminders. Nothing yet from any of the microblogging platforms such as Twitter or Jaiku. Personally I don't see a real need for those connections. I find the SMS and email alerts to be sufficient.

The iPhone apps for both services are great. They allow you to take audio notes while offline and then with the system connects, it will sync the info. Reqall also knows some key words such as "buy", "note", "remember" that will categorize those particulare items. It makes it very easy to create a shopping list for yourself OR for someone on your list. My wife can send me a shopping list prior to my leaving the office.