Auto-Transcribed Voice Posts & Free MOO Cards

May 24, 2007 08:10

Earlier this week someone created the 13 millionth LiveJournal account since the service started in 1999. anildash likes to point out that LJ has surpassed the population of Illinois, the fifth largest state in the U.S. To continue on with more good news, we have a few announcements to make:

Automatic Voice Post Transcription
As you know, voice posts can be transcribed so that they can be read as well as heard. In your settings, you can allow transcriptions by all of your friends, a friends group, or you only.

Starting this week, public voice posts which are shorter than three minutes will automatically be transcribed thanks to technology provided by a company called SpinVox. Voice posting is available to everyone with a Paid, Permanent, or Plus account. You can switch to Plus or upgrade to Paid at any time.

Here's how to try out the new automatic transcription:
  • Make sure your voice post settings are up-to-date and then dial in to a designated voice post number in your area. We recently added toll-free number in the U.S.: (888) 840-6189 or (888) LJ-VPOST (558-7678). (View all of the voice post numbers).

  • Record a voice post to your journal. It must be public and less than three minutes in length for automatic transcription to work. To make sure your post is public, after you're done recording be sure to press # then 3. Note that the feature is currently only transcribing posts in English.
  • Your voice post will be automatically transcribed by SpinVox. Be patient, it can take up to 10 minutes for the transcription to show up. Your friends can still transcribe the post as well -- the most recent transcription will appear at the top of your post. You can enable or disable automatic transcription in your settings at any time.
  • As you can see from frank's latest voice post, it auto-transcribes everything it understands, which doesn't include odd words like "Baa" or unintelligible yelling.
Try it out, and link to your post in the comments.

Free MOO Cards!
Have you ever wanted some personal cards with your LJ username on them? Thanks to MOO, a new kind of printing business based in London, there's now an easy way for LJ users to make MiniCards with your own text and ScrapBook photos. (frank thinks they should be called BAA cards. He just doesn't get it.)

Think of the MiniCards as cards you hand out to keep in touch with friends or new people you meet. Photo MiniCards let you display your ScrapBook images, or choose Text MiniCards to display your own text, URL, current mood or catch phrase.




To kick things off, MOO is giving away 10,000 free 10-packs of MiniCards to LiveJournal members! We announced the giveaway earlier this week in the paidmembers community (membership has its privileges!) but anyone with an LJ account can get a free sample pack.

Here's how to get your sample pack of MOO cards:
  • Add moocards as your friend. You must be a friend of moocards to get your free sample pack (but you're welcome to un-friend their journal after you've completed your order).
  • Follow the link from the LJ Gift Shop to the LiveJournal page in the MOO shop: http://www.moo.com/livejournal
  • Choose either Photo MiniCards (using your ScrapBook photos) or Text MiniCards, and click on the "Get a free 10 pack" link.
  • You'll be able to create each individual card. Select photos or text on the front side, then personalize the back with a userpic and whatever contact information you'd like: your journal URL, community URL, email address, phone number, LJ user number, anything you want!
  • After your finish your order, MOO will ship your MiniCards right to your address, anywhere in the world.
The free sample 10-pack will get you started, but you can also buy a 100 pack of cards and a portion of the proceeds will go to support LiveJournal (you don't have to be a friend of moocards if you're buying a 100-pack). The 100 pack of MiniCards costs $19.99 / €14.99 / £9.99 and comes in a sturdy, reusable and recyclable plastic box.

This announcement is going to drive a very high volume of traffic to the MOO site all at once, so please be patient. The offer for the free 10 packs is open to all LJ account levels, so feel free to tell your friends!


LJ Love & Sadness
Soon we'll be bidding a tearful farewell to veroz who is leaving us. We will miss his lethal design skills, the good care he took of frank, and his expertise on ninja zombies, zombie pirates, and pirate ninjas. Best of luck, Andy!

We're also sending out a HUGE CONGRATULATIONS to a couple of LJ staffers: arie just recently got married (rahaeli officiated!) and markf's wedding is coming up this weekend. (markf met his soon-to-be-wife through the LiveJournal volunteer system. We're just sayin'.) Behold Denise, Arie and Mark in their finery.
Previous post Next post
Up