Libon Voicefeed is like Google Voice for those who can’t use Google Voice

By Oliver Haslam on Jun 7, 2012

Google Voice is an exceptional tool, but the problem is that it just isn’t available worldwide. If, like some of the iDB team, you happen to have the audacity to live outside the United States, then you are completely out of luck.

While Google promises that Google Voice is indeed on its way beyond American borders, there are alternatives out there that do the same thing, and if you’re an iPhone owner, one of those alternatives is Libon Voicefeed from developer Orange Vallee.

A free download from the App Store and compatible with a wide range of mobile phone carriers across the world, Libon Voicefeed plugs the hole left by Google’s reluctance, or inability, to bring Voice to the world. And it does a very good job of it, too… Read More

 

Apple sued over voicemail patents

By Jake Smith on Feb 22, 2012

Adding to its large array of ongoing lawsuits, Apple has been sued by patent holding company Brandywine Communications Technologies over two voicemail patents. The lawsuit was filed in a local Florida court on Tuesday, reports GigaOm.

The patents in questions are No. 6,236,717 and No. 5,719,922, which were filed in 2001 and 1998 respectively by Brandywine. One patent is officially described as… Read More

 

Whip Your Phone App Into Shape With StartDial

By Jeff Benjamin on Jan 3, 2012

Do you ever get annoyed when you open your Phone app and it doesn’t go to the section you were expecting?

With StartDial, that problem is a thing of the past. StartDial allows you to always start at a specific section of your Phone app every time you open it by means of a predefined setting.

It’s even smart enough to start at your recents whenever you have missed calls. If you make a lot of phone calls, and your iPhone is jailbroken, check out our hands-on experience with StartDial inside… Read More

 

How to Get Free Visual Voicemail on T-Mobile Using ‘YouMail’

By Jeff Benjamin on Jul 1, 2011

Once upon a time I unlocked my iPhone 3GS and used it on T-Mobile in order avoid AT&T’s more expensive service.

It was a decent experience, but two noteworthy flaws marred it. Number one; I obviously had no 3G-network access since the iPhone doesn’t contain the circuitry needed to piggyback T-Mobile’s 3G network. Number two; I had no access to Visual Voicemail.

Of course there’s no way to fix problem number one, that’s an inherent issue regarding hardware. Problem number two, though, is fixable.

In this video tutorial, I’ll show you how to use the jailbroken version of YouMail to get real visual voicemail on your iPhone for free… Read More

 

Speech-to-Text Conversion Coming to iOS 5?

By Alex Heath on May 15, 2011

Following our report that iOS 5 will have voicemail transcription, a new patent has surfaced that details even more voice integration possibilities. Namely, it appears that Apple is looking into a native text-to-speech and speech-to-text converter for the iPhone.

This patent reveals some very interesting applications that could result from such a technology in iOS. Beyond the basic voice and text transcription, this patented converter could allow for a more unified experience between speech and text communication… Read More

 

iOS 5 Will Transcribe Your Voicemail to Text

By Alex Heath on May 11, 2011

Following the news that Apple is partnering with Naunce for voice integration in iOS 5, we’ve heard from an inside source at Apple that iOS 5 will allow you to read your voicemails. Google Voice has offered voicemail transcription for quite some time, and, according to our anonymous source, Apple is hard at work to implement this type of service into iOS 5.

More cloud-based features are rumored to debut in Apple’s next major release of iOS when the software is previewed at WWDC this June. A more Google-esque approach to cloud services makes sense if Apple wants to stay competitive in the cloud space. Voicemail transcription would be one more feature to beef up Apple’s cloud offerings… Read More

 

‘ON Voicefeed’ Makes Customizable Voicemail Greetings for iPhone Easy

By Cody Lee on Mar 10, 2011

When Sebastien suggested that I try out this new voicemail app from Orange Vallee, I was definitely skeptical. I’ve tried 3rd party visual voicemail apps before on Blackberrys and Android alike, and have always been disappointed. I’ve yet to try any on the iPhone though, and this promised a few new tricks so I figured why not.

The download is free and available here. Where the other visual voicemail programs floundered, this one shined. The most dreaded part about setting these 3rd party voicemail services up is the activation process. ON Voicefeed, like most other services, requires you to setup an account. This is done by entering in a tiny bit of info and authorizing it with a code that is sent directly to your iPhone via text…

Read More

 

NoVoiceMail Nixes Your iPhone’s Voicemail Button

By Jeff Benjamin on Feb 25, 2011

Who in their right mind would want to get rid of their voicemail button? Apparently, at least a few people, that’s who.

That’s because a new jailbreak tweak recently showed up on the Cydia store entitled NoVoiceMail, and I’m betting some of you have already downloaded it.

What a perfect tweak for those of you who never check their voicemail, for those of you who never return Auntie May’s repeated phone calls…

Read More

 

How to Forward Your iPhone Voicemails to Google Voice

By Sebastien Page on Nov 11, 2010

Yesterday my iPhone notified me I had 14 voicemails within the last 6 days. Why didn’t it notify me of the new voicemails as they came? I have no idea. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t really pissed at my iPhone. Not only had I missed important voicemails that I should have received days ago, but it wasn’t the first time this had happened to me.

Like every normal person of the 21st century, I went to Twitter and started bitching about it. Within a few minutes I received replies from people telling me I should let Google Voice take over my iPhone. I already use Google Voice but I don’t want it to completely replace my normal line. Then someone told me I could actually replace my iPhone voicemails with Google Voice voicemails by forwarding my iPhone voicemails to Google Voice.

After doing a bit of research, this made complete sense to me and I decided to give it a go… Read More

 

Yap Transcribes Your iPhone Voicemails

By Sebastien Page on Oct 4, 2010

Yap is a new application available in the App Store that will turn your iPhone voicemails into a readable text. If you think listening to voicemails is a waste of time (I do), then Yap will be the perfect companion for you.

Google Voice already offers the option of receiving transcribed voicemails but not everybody has a Google Voice account. Yap is available in the App Store for free. Give it a try.

[TechCrunch]

 

How to Fix iPhone’s Visual Voicemail Delays

By Sebastien Page on Sep 24, 2009

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote an article that highlighted the iPhone Visual Voicemail delays some users reported. Basically the problem was that your iPhone stopped alerting you of new voicemails. The only way to find out you had new voicemails was to reboot your iPhone, or by dialing “1″ + Call to get your voicemails the old fashioned way.

My fellow Twitter friend @HifiSamurai shared a link to a ZDNet article this morning that explained why some of us don’t have Visual Voicemails anymore and how to fix it.

The problem started when we installed the iPhone tethering hack. The .ipcc file (carrier settings hack) also changed an option that disables Visual Voicemail. The solution is actually very simple.

On your iPhone, go to Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings. This will reset your carrier settings but it will leave the tethering hack untouched.

Isn’t this a life saver? If you have little know iPhone tips or hacks, feel free to share :)

 

What’s With These iPhone Voicemail Delays?

By Sebastien Page on Sep 14, 2009

It all started last week when I got a phone call from my dentist’s secretary. The first thing she asked was if I had listened to the voicemail she had left me the day before. I hadn’t seen any voicemail and I really thought she actually never left a voicemail in the first place. I didn’t think about it anymore until the next day, when I received her voicemail as well as a few others that were from the last 5 days.

Apparently my iPhone is not delivering voicemails on time anymore, which is not a big deal to me as I am not much of a phone person, but it can be extremely important to businesses, and it can even be vital for people. I looked around on Twitter and it seems that a few people are experiencing the problem too.

It’s not really clear where the problem is from as it appears on jailbroken and non jailbroken iPhones as well. Apparently it started after 3.0. I haven’t installed 3.1 yet so I don’t know if this has been fixed or not. I’m not even sure it’s a firmware problem. I’d rather think that the problem is from AT&T but I’m not positive about that.

— UPDATE —

There is a fix for this. Please read my article called how to fix iPhone’s visual voicemail delays.

As usual in these cases, one of the first things to do is to reset all settings and maybe even restore. I’m not going to go as far as restoring my iPhone but you may want to consider this option if you find the voicemail delays annoying.

Have you guys experienced such problem? If so, do you know where it might come from?

 

Voicemail Forwarder App Forwards Your iPhone Voicemails to Email

By Sebastien Page on Mar 13, 2009

A new application is available on Cydia today called Voicemail Forwarder. This cool new app allows you to forward your voicemail to an email address, right from the voicemail application.

Instead of only being able to listen to your voicemails on your iPhone, you can now share those important messages by forwarding them to an email address with a single tap.

Voicemail Forwarder gives you a new button that fires up an email with the current voicemail attached to it. You can then send the email to any email address.

Voicemail Forwarder is the second application to be available in the Cydia Store. You can download it from the store for $2.49.