Braincast: Free VoIP Memo Service

By Samuel Guzman | August 8th, 2007 at 01:56 pm ET         

Can we ever have enough To-Do apps? Nooo. Braincast beta is the newest on the to-do list scene. The concept is simple: call a number, record a message on the fly, and retrieve it later. Upon signing up for Braincast, you are given your own personal phone number. This number gives you access to your own personal voice mail box which is connected to your Braincast account. When you call the number, you will not hear a ring; instead you hear a beep after which you record your task. When you record your task, you will get an email notifying you and the message will appear in your Braincast task list. You can record tasks from any phone. If you have a cell phone, it is easiest to set your Braincast phone number on speed dial.Braincast doesn’t have many particularly advanced features, but it the ability to record to-do’s from your phone is very handy. If you aren’t near a computer, you can still record to-do’s as they come to mind. To a scatter-brained person such as myself, this is a life saver. My thought patterns follow no, well, pattern. Sometimes I will think of something I need to get done, but I have nowhere to write it down and my computer is far away. Because of this, I neglect to record the task. This has been the biggest reason that I have not used other online task managers.

Mobile recording is not Braincast’s only feature. There is also the ability to set reminders. While this is not ground-breaking, Braincast puts a new spin on it. When setting a reminder, you enter a phone number and of course enter a future date. Braincast then calls you at that number on the date which you set and plays back the message that you recorded. Neat. You can also share recorded to-dos with others, which is nice for a brainstorming session, and add notes. One more feature of Braincast is RSS capability. Using your own private RSS link, you can recieve all your Braincast to-dos in your RSS reader, including the audio file that you recorded. I haven’t tested this out yet, but I can see the advantages.

Overall, Braincast is a innovative and useful tool for those who are often on the go. If you have been frustrated with other online to do lists, give Braincast a try. Keep in mind however, that Braincast is still in beta. It has some rough spots, but so far it hasn’t kept me from using it.

Other startups in the Voice To-Do space - reQall, Spinvox, and Jott.