Layin’ Low

I’ll be laying a bit low the next few days as I had wrist surgery earlier today.

While the surgery went well the aftermath promises to be "interesting". I have been told to expect that, for at least the next week or so, I’ll be very happy that someone invented powerful pain medication. Moreover for the next 8-12 weeks I won’t have use of my right hand. That means no more rapid two thumb typing on the iPhone which is an issue since I do a good bit of my emailing, note-taking and posting from it.

Since the iPhone is such an important productivity tool for me (in addition to being a fantastic entertainment device) I have been thinking through which apps might best help compensate for my one-handedness.

Here are a few that stand out…

1. Jott– Now that I can record 30 second messages at a time and I have 
a great speakerphone in the car, I use Jott regularly. Most of the time, however, I send my Jotts to myself. Since Jott is a great way for me to automatically transcribe words into text, I’ve set up my account to Jott a number of my most frequent email contacts. Even though the transcription is pretty darn good, it isn’t perfect—so when I send out an email I’ll warn thme. That way, when they get a message that  says something completely stupid I can blame Jott (even if Jott was 
completely accurate in its transcription).

In addition, since Jott works perfectly with Toodledo and Evernote, I’ll be using it to add items to those important productivity apps.

2. Google– I’ve been absolutely thrilled by Google’s implementation of voice search and the more I use it the more  I am impressed by it. In the same way that I have to speak in a specific way in order for the voice recognition program I use on my Mac (and I’m using it right now) to have any degree of accuracy, I’ve had to learn how to speak to Google so that it returns the results I want. When I do speak that way, however, the accuracy is nothing short of remarkable. Something tells me it’s going to come in very handy for the next couple of months.

3. Note2Self– As much as I like Jott and appreciate its ability to transcribe my voice notes, all too often 30 seconds just isn’t enough time. When I’m writing something to myself I can leave a number of Jotts in a row (and then later come back and merge them) but that doesn’t work when I’m trying to leave a message for someone else. That’s where note2self comes in.  With note2self, I can leave as long a note as my iPhone has space available and then note2self compresses it and sends it to anyone of your choosing. In addition, although the implementation is different, like the Google application it has an automatic start feature that means even less tapping. It’s an invaluable tool on a good day and will become even more handy now.

 4. Wide Email–  I started using wide email shortly after was released because it, along with a number of other applications, finally enabled landscape typing on the iPhone. A recent update, however, introduced macros (we’ve linked to the post from last week). In anticipation of the next few weeks I put in a number of my most used phrases and will be adding more along the way. The great thing about it is that while I still have to be typing on my iPhone and saves a lot of tapping on the device. As is the case with many other applications the more you use it the more useful it’ll become.

5. Maildash–  This is a great application for sending quick, preformatted email messages. It can be especially handy because it means that I can return a good portion of my emails without having to actually write anything.

That’s the list of come up with so far. Between that and voice  recognition on my Mac I’m hoping to be pretty well set. If you have any suggestions for other applications that might come in "handy", I’m all ears.