Click to View

2speak, Inc. launched a new way to use computers and phones (fixed line and wireless) to send voice messages during October of last year. By means of the 2speak’s system, a user could initiate an IP-based spoken message with an e-mail and finish it from a handset.

The company recently added a live voice over IP (VoIP) feature, already available for the desktop, to the handheld edition of its service.

Here's out 2speak/PDAspeak work:

You start by going to a Web portal (2speak.com from a PC or pda2speak.com from an Internet-connected handheld/smartphone) and register, whereupon you receive access to 2speak’s “one-click” address book to store recipient e-mail addresses and telephone numbers.

To send a voice message or make a call you first enter a callback number where you can be reached (fixed phone line, mobile phone, smartphone), and then hit the “quick call” button next to a contact's name in the address book.

A few seconds later the handset connected to the number you entered for yourself rings. You pick it up and then decide whether to record a message to be received as a voice e-mail or connect live to the recipient's telephone number.

International calls start at 6 cents per minute for the VoIP component.

With voice e-mails, your recipient receives an e-mail in his inbox with a link that leads to your voice message, which he can then play through his PC's audio system.

Advantages
2speak President Warner Johnson asserts, "Any Internet user in the world can take advantage of low cost internet telephony by going to our site and entering a telephone number. In two seconds, we’ll call you and connect you."

Although, as we mentioned, the service works with PCs, Warner claims handheld customers, in particular, have much to gain by 2speak. Given that “PDA users have extra mobility because they can place calls from their PDAs or have them directed to any landline or mobile phone," he says.

Location isn’t even an issue with 2speak/Pda2speak. If you change where you are you can always access your address book and make a call. Simply change the phone number for yourself as needed.

Upside Down
With the way the service turns PC to phone calling and messaging on its head, it comes as no surprise that the company’s president questions the whole application of traditional telephony paradigms to IP based voice services.

Warner states, “Why do we dial telephone numbers? If we spend all day online or are connected from our mobile phones, why not just click on a number or e-mail address and be connected. No looking up numbers or misdialing--Just a simple click."

Did we mention you could also send a single voice message to up to 50 recipients in one fell swoop for the same amount it costs to deliver one to a single person? Voice messages go for 10 cents per recording and 4 cents per minute while recording.

2speak plans to soon enable users to trigger calls by sending an SMS message to its Web site with a desired telephone number or e-mail address. The service would recognize the caller ID and call and connect the user.