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New Technology Tools to Increase Productivity
by Rebecca L. Morgan, CSP, CMC
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
_______________________
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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