Image via Wikipedia

Have you ever played the pads? The electronic drums, I mean. If you're not a drummer, you should have at least seen someone play it during concerts. The next time you're watching a concert, observe the drummer's foot closely; you'll notice that he taps it rhythmically against a small device called the foot-pedal.

This electronic device serves the same purpose as that of the foot operated pedal of an acoustic bass drum. The difference is, the former sends an electric signal (for each foot-tap) to the pads via physical wires, and the latter physically thumps the bass.

The invention idea that we're about to discuss is not really about the electronic drums, but it's about the foot-pedal used in the pads. I've seen a lot of pad-users who frequently travel for concerts, complain about the cluttering of equipment wires in their travel bags. Though electronic drums are a boon to travelling musicians, the wires are more of a menace, and managing them seems to be a challenge. Of late, more and more devices have been taking the plunge into the wireless segment. However, there is still a large section of the electronic industry that has not been switching to this route. Take the electronic foot pedal, for instance. How cool would it be if we were able to sync the Yamaha foot-pedal with it's electronic pad, via blue-tooth? While your son is playing the snare drum and high-hat from the hall, you can pump the bass sitting in your bedroom! A blue-tooth normally supports a 50-meter range; imagine having a 50-meter long wire for your electronic foot-pedal! So, that's the idea. Incorporating wireless technology on such small electronic devices makes a big difference, when it comes to product innovation.

Related articles

• The Best Electronic Drums: Reviews & Buying Guide (brighthub.com)
• Top Five Electronic Drum Sets Reviewed (brighthub.com)
• The Best Electronic Drums from Yamaha (brighthub.com)
• Kicktronic offers full rhythm section on tap (gizmag.com)
• New responsive click-track software lets drummers set their own pace (scienceblog.com)
• Roland TD-20SX V-Pro Series Drum Kit on Musical Playtime & Comic-Con '10 Collectibles (g4tv.com)

Scenario

How annoying is it when you realize that your TV's remote control has run out of battery? Even after realizing the fact, do you still keep clicking the buttons, in an effort to extract even the minutest of the residual power? Do you ransack your entire house to find a spare AA cell, but never get it? Do you fiddle with your alarm clocks and wall clocks to steal a AA cell, so you can use it in your remote until your favorite TV show is over? Finally, are you too lazy to walk up to the nearest store and buy a new pair of AA cells? Trust me, you're not alone. 

Solution

In this post, we had discussed some innovative ideas for improving the TV remote; one of the ideas was to replace the AA/AAA cells in a TV remote with a rechargeable Lithium-ion battery, and have it's charger built into the TV itself. Similarly, here's an innovative idea that can completely eliminate the use of conventional battery cells - why not use solar powered cells in TV remotes? 
Though there are a number of applications for solar powered batteries, I haven't read much about harnessing the solar power in a TV remote. In fact, if you're looking for invention ideas in the remote control segment of the industry, this could qualify to be a new patent idea if applied in other electronic appliances such as Air-Conditioners, Fans, Garage shutters, DVD players, music systems, etc. This new innovative idea can have several benefits, some of which I've listed below. 

Benefits
1.) Unlike the Li-Ion battery mentioned in the previous post, solar cells don't have to be recharged, as they have a great longevity. Just throw your remote control in any brightly lit area in and around your house, and the photons will take care of the rest!

2.) You'll never have to run from pillar to post, in search of a used AA cell *grin*. 

3.) You can sustain your laziness by not walking to the nearest store to buy brand new batteries *grin, again*.

4.) I don't think solar panels/cells that are used to power small gadgets are too heavy. I'm thinking of the solar calculator. How heavy is that? I think it's lighter than a AA or AAA cell. So, using solar cells in a TV remote, instead of using conventional batteries is going to cut down the overall weight of the TV remote.

5.) If all TV manufactures were to switch to this new technology, there won't be any battery waste at all. The world will become slightly greener than what it is today. We all crave for a greener world, don't we?

However, is the energy stored in solar cells good enough to produce Infrared, at the click of a button? Well, the proof is right here: Philips Debuts LED TV With Solar-Powered Remote. 

Image via Wikipedia

I don't know if anyone has thought through this innovative idea, but I often have. In fact, there have been days when I've spent hours thinking about this idea, especially during the summer season. I'm talking about Air-Conditioners. Have you ever noticed the amount of water your split-AC accumulates during an eight-hour run? It's nothing less than what a medium-sized bucket can hold; approximately 15 liters. How does it work? 

The one word answer is condensation.  

Scenario  

Let's say there are 50 households in a street that contain Air-Conditioners. In a hot and humid city like Chennai, that number is far too less. Anyway, let's also assume that each of these households have their ACs running for at least 8 hours a day, on an average. Based on my previous paragraph, that translates to 50 medium-sized buckets of water, which is approximately 750 liters! That calculation was just for a single street. If I applied the same calculation for 10 streets, I'd end up with 7,500 liters of water! 

Can you imagine how much water an entire city can produce, just from ACs? What if we conserved all of it? 

Invention Ideas

What if we had a system that could collect all the water from all house holds in a street, and divert the same into a common reservoir? The invention idea that we're talking about here is similar to that of rainwater harvesting. However, rainwater harvesting taps only the rainwater. To the best of my knowledge, there is no technology in today's world that can conserve water drained from an AC machine. What if we built such a technology? The following are some of the uses or applications that I can think of:

1.) I have no idea about the toxicity of the water that gets dissipated from an AC machine. I'm sure it has some chemicals, but have no idea about chemical composition or concentration. In case it isn't as toxic as expected, the water can be diverted to the existing rainwater harvesting channels in a given household. 

2.) Again, if the water isn't toxic, or can be detoxified at a minimum cost, it can be used for irrigation and other agricultural purposes.

3.) How about accumulating the water in a dam, and setting up a water turbine plat right there?

4.) If you have a garden, have your self-activated sprinkler system draw water directly from your AC machine, via a personal reservoir!

Can you think of other applications?

As part of it's pilot program, Google recently started distributing close to 60,000 laptops to it's users. Google's unbranded laptop is called CR-48, which has a pre-installed version of the infant, Chrome OS. Axleration has a short and neat review of CR-48, if you're interested.

More than the announcement of this pilot program, What matters more to FYI, is the fact that the Beta CR-48 doesn't have a Caps-Lock key! Can you imagine a laptop without a Caps-Lock key? Well, I know you can even imagine a laptop with no keys. But, there's a different name for it - a tablet - completely touch-driven.

So, CR-48 does not have the Caps-Lock key (I don't know yet, what else is missing). Brilliant! Why? Read on. Instead of the Caps-Lock key, it has a dedicated Google search key. Nice, but why do-away with the Caps-Lock key? Won't we need it? Not at all.

If you give it a serious thought, you'll concur with Google's underlying idea; you can still achieve capitalization of letters, using the shift keys. Unlike typewriters, wordprocessors have tons of styling features, which can make your headings stand out. You will never need an all-caps sentence for a heading. Well, if you still do (say, you use Notepad), why not use the SHIFT key instead? Like how I just typed it in the last sentence *grin*? Why do you need Caps-Lock?

Moreover, in the web-world, TYPING SOMETHING LIKE THIS IS CONSIDERED VERY RUDE. So, please refrain from using an all-caps sentence. By the way, Sorry about that. If you wish to show excitement, you always have the exclamation mark! yay! Why use Caps, when an exclamation sounds equally exciting?

I completely second the idea of abandoning the Caps-Lock key - not just in CR-48, but also in other Windows, Linux, and Mac based laptops and desktops. Infact, there are a bunch of keys that I think laptops and keyboards can do away with. The following are my nominations.

Keys We Won't Need In a Keyboard

Shift
Do we really need two of these? Ambidextrous people shouldn't have a problem, if we discarded one. Others, can get used to working with one shift key! Isn't it?

Ctrl
Same as above.

Alt
Same as above. Here, I have a preference though; I can live without the 'Alt' key on the right, but not without the one on the left - 99% of my keyboard operations involve Alt+Tab. The remaining 1%, comprises of breaks.

Pause/Break
Pause? It should rather be called Passe'. I don't remember the last time I used this key.

Insert on/off
This is the most annoying key. If at all I press this key, it'll be accidental. I'll have to press it again, to start typing normally.

Spacebar
We cannot live without this. Understood. But why should it be sooo lengthy? Can't it be cut short? What if we size the space bar into two small pieces, and place them on either ends of the keyboard? We could accommodate a couple of more new keys in it's original space.

Can you think of any other key that is redundant or unnecessary?

What Other Keys Do We Like To Have?

Getting rid of the keys mentioned above would certainly give room for many new keys; some that I can think of, are as follows.

Help
I'm not saying we should get rid of F1 (we do use the function keys on a Mainframe system, even today!), but it doesn't hurt to have a dedicated key, called Help.

Currency
This would vary, based on the geography. For instance, keyboards in India will have Rs. and Ps. keys, instead of $.

@
Who doesn't send emails these days? Infact, I use the @ key more than the spacebar (well, that was an exaggeration). How about having a dedicated @ key, for typing e-mail IDs with ease?

Recycle bin
Won't you rummage your trash can if you accidentally dropped a lottery ticket into it? If so, where would you like to see your trash can? At an easily accessible place, or buried under a pile of clothes? I demand a dedicated key that'll take me right into the Recycle Bin!

Chat related jargons
Would you complain if you had keys such as BRB, LOL, TTYL, GR8, etc.?

One single key for Ctrl+Alt+Del
Why let your fingers dance on your keyboard, when you can have one single key that can lock your system?

Now, stop reading, and get creative. Tell me more!

Much has been said about Google Nexus S. I'm certainly not going to review the features of the phone here. If you're interested, check this link in TechCrunch, which has an elaborate review.

However, I must say that the absence of the following features is heart-breaking:

• HDMI Port, to directly connect the phone to an HDTV

• Upgradeable SD card slot

• Though a 5MP camera seems sufficient, it is not sufficient enough, given the fact that it is a Google phone. The presence of an additional VGA camera doesn't console me either.

Note: Nokia N8 offers ALL of the above features, plus an on-the-go USB. Alas! If only Nokia N8 had an Android...

Barring the above points, and especially taking features such as NFC into account, Google Nexus S is truly a futuristic phone!

Verdict: Google Nexus S, is god-sent.

Imaginatively Yours,
G U R U

Fact
If you ever forget to recharge your cell phone's battery, you could use one or all of the following, as a back-up:

1. You already have a charger at home. Buy a spare charger, and leave it at your workplace - don't bring that back home.  
2. If you're using one of the Motorola or Sony Ericsson models, you can make use of the USB cable to recharge your cell phone. These days, most of the cell phone models are shipped with proprietary USB cables. Have this cable in your laptop case, all the time.
3. Buy a car charger, and leave it in your car.
4. Buy a spare battery. Make sure you recharge all batteries promptly.

If you're a heavy user of the cell phone, you must already be adopting one of the above methods. If you're not, don't feel too bad. You have nothing to lose. At worst, your cell phone will be switched off, and your brain cells will remain undamaged for a while.

Scenario
Now, what would you do if you ever forget to recharge your laptop, or carry it's charger to your workplace? I can think of just two options:

1. Buy a spare laptop charger
2. Buy a spare laptop battery

Both these ideas are going to pinch your pockets. Both laptop charger and laptop battery are more expensive than that of their cell phone counterparts.

Proposed Innovation
As I was thinking through this problem the other day, I had an idea. What if your laptop could draw power from another laptop? What if we had a cable that could draw power from one laptop and transmit the same into another?

For instance, if Dell is running out of power, it can connect to HP and draw power:
HP (Donor/Power-Out) -> Cable -> Dell (Receiver/Power-In)


Note: The above images are used purely for representational purposes. 

Each laptop should contain a Power-In, and a Power-Out port. The laptop that transmits power, would be called a Donor, and the one that needs power, will be called a Receiver. The imaginary cable that we're talking about, will have two unique pins on it's either ends to fit into the corresponding Power-In, or Power-Out ports, depending on the situation.Now that we've created some science-fictional characters, I'm going to name the imaginary Power-In and Power-Out ports as Universal Power Source (UPS) ports, and the imaginary cable, as UPS cord.

Doesn't that sound interesting?

Imaginatively Yours,
G U R U

Key-Less Entry: Current Trend

There are several gadgets that exploit the power of radio signals. One such gadget is the mini plastic fob, which houses a key-less entry system, used in automobiles. A key-less entry system is a brilliant innovation, which has always caught my imagination. Over the last few years, there has been a considerable amount of advancement in the field of key-less entry systems. For instance, car manufacturers such as Nissan, BMW and Ford have been rolling out car models, equipped with a smart keys. Check out this wiki link to see how a smart key works.

Though key-less entry is a neat innovation, there is definitely scope for more value additions; all of which, can be implemented by making a simple change to the hardware. The change would be to remove the plastic fob from the picture, and replace it with a mobile phone. Take a closer look at the pictures below, and you'll understand what I mean.

Proposed Innovation

Figure A depicts today's technology. Figure B, is tomorrow's technology (imaginary)- the concept will still be the same. i.e, there will be a radio signal transmitter, and a receiver, which will enable the driver to lock or unlock the vehicle remotely. However, the plastic fob that transmits the radio signals to the vehicle, should be replaced by a mobile phone. Can a mobile phone function as a key-less entry device? Why not? When it can take pictures, record and playback songs and video in HD quality, tune in to FM, communicate with fellow-devices via Infrared and Bluetooth, can't it broadcast radio signals to a car's receiver? If mobile phones were capable of doing that, auto makers can get rid of the additional piece of hardware (plastic fob) they ship along with every smart key, and cut down on the associated costs. Automobile manufacturers would be able to leverage on a hardware that a customer already has - a mobile phone. However, the auto-makers would have to come up with a software or a mobile app, which can be installed on a customer's mobile phone. This app should directly interact with the mobile phone's hardware, so it can communicate with the vehicle's receiver. Given the pace with which the mobile phone operating systems such as Android, iOS, Symbian and RIM have been growing, it shouldn't be a big deal. I know, it's easier said than done. But, the goal of this blog is just that - say something that doesn't exist, so someone gives it a thought and actually does it!

Further Enhancements & Value Additions

Replacing the plastic fob with a mobile phone, would pave the way for a host of innovations. However, all of them would have to be backed by an appropriate software, authorized by the vehicle manufacturer. The following are some useful innovations that I can think of.

Use Your Mobile Phone As a Remote Monitoring Device

A GPS enabled mobile phone records the places and the stoppage times of a vehicle, every time it is locked or unlocked. The recorded information is then emailed to the desired id, or stored in an authenticated web-cloud, which can be easily accessed later. The notification times and interval can be preset on the mobile phone itself. If your teenage daughter takes your car out for a Saturday night party, this information can be used to track your vehicle down. Google Latitude already incorporates a tracking feature, but it is more real-time. It cannot show the history of stoppages. Moreover, if your daughter switches off the mobile phone, there is no way you can track your car down.

Remote-Start Your Car, Using Your Mobile Phone
Including a remote-starter in the software would be a nice-to have feature. Unlike the conventional remote-starters that can operate only over a range, this one would enable you to even start your car from another country! Wouldn’t that be cool? How would it work? Maybe via an in-built GPS receiver in your car, which could be controlled from an authenticated- GPS-enabled mobile phone, or perhaps even via the web? If the ignition system of your car can be activated by a GPS signal, can we ask for anything better? Speaking of remote-starters, the advantage of using a remote-starter is that you don’t have to be dressed AT  
ALL, to start your car *grin*!

Voice-Activated Control, Via Mobile Phone
Let’s add more zeal to the above innovation. How about incorporating a voice-controlled feature to complement the remote-starter? You press a button on your phone, and say, “Accord babe, get started now. I’ll join you in another 5 minutes”, or say something like, “BMW, start now, and turn off, after 15 mins”. All the snow would melt, and you’d still be watching the soccer match, without having moved an inch!

Get Streaming Video of Your Car on Your Mobile Phone, 24/7

With Google Street View, one can literally see the images of streets. Why not write an Android or iOS app, which can harness this technology to actually capture the movement of your car in real-time, and transmit ? Let’s say your car gets stolen, and is currently being driven in I-84E, close to Exit 17. What if you were able to see your car and also the culprit who’s driving it? Think about it!


Your Mobile Phone Is Your All-In-One Remote Control

Would you embrace the idea of having a do-it-all remote? Apart from using it as a key-less entry device, a remote-starter, and a remote monitoring device, how convenient would it be to use your mobile phone to control your car’s audio system?   

Well, I can go on and on. But, I’d like to stop here. If you have more to add, please feel free to chime in!   



Imaginatively Yours,

G U R U

We can have an effective conversation, only if we have a two-way communication. This is not just applicable to humans, but also to machines. Imagine a phone, or even a one-way intercom for that matter, which only lets you speak, but not listen. Does it make any sense in having such a device?


There are a whole bunch of appliances and gadgets in this world that still employ a one-way communication; by communication, I don't necessarily mean the interaction between two humans sitting on either ends of a telephone line, or a video-conference. One-way communication is also applicable to gadgets that work with a remote control, such as Televisions, Air-Conditioners, etc. The interaction between a TV and it's remote control is a one-way communication, because the TV receives the signals from the remote control, and responds accordingly. However, there is no signal that goes back to the remote control, from the TV - the main idea behind this post, is to harness this untapped idea. 

Before 1950, a remote control did not even exist. It then took 60 years for the remote control technology to evolve to it's present day state. Personally, I feel a LOT of innovation could have gone into this wonderful device, over the past years. The following para outlines one of my many ideas on remote control innovation. I'm reserving the others, for a couple of new posts *grin*.


Scenario

You know that your little ones were playing with your TV remote in the evening, but you were too busy to hide it away from them. It's dinner time now, and you're almost settled on your couch with a bowl of spaghetti, to watch your favourite TV show, Everybody Loves Raymond. Unfortunately, the TV is playing a different channel, and you're unable to change it because the remote is missing. You search frantically. You're either too lazy to walk towards the TV to manually change the channel, or ignorant of the fact that TVs can also be operated with human fingers. After a fifteen minute search, you finally find the remote lying under your own couch.

Solution

To solve the problem narrated in the above scenario, it'd be nice if Television makers employed a two-way communication technique here. What if your TV could talk to your remote? How about having a dedicated remote control locator button on your TV, and a mini built-in speaker in the remote control itself? On pressing the dedicated button, the TV would send the same Infrared signal back to the remote, activating an alarm. Essentially, your remote would ring, letting you track down it's location easily. We could probably also have some customizable ring tones (and ring volume adjustments!) on the remote control *grin*. If you think Infrared doesn't have enough range to pierce through cushions and walls, we always have the Bluetooth technology to save us! Click this link to know the difference between infrared and Bluetooth.

Value Addition      

Another nice-to-have feature in a remote control would be a rechargeable Lithium-Ion battery, replacing the conventional AA/AAA cells. The Lithium-Ion battery is lighter, and can be easily recharged several times; in fact, Television makers who provide such a feature, can also embed a battery charging port, along with the other input and output ports in the TV.


Well, how do you like these ideas?                    


Imaginatively Yours,
G U R U

Speaking of laptops, we've seen thousands of innovations going into their making, every other day. Almost all of the innovations are pretty good, I should say. Some of the noteworthy innovations are; reduction in the overall weight, varying screen sizes, customizable colors, rotatable screen, tablet-cum-keyboard design, back-lit keypad, touch enabled multimedia keys, HD screen with LED back-light, HDMI out, and a countless list of other neat value additions. Thanks to Apple, Sony, Lenovo, Dell, HP and Toshiba, for consistently competing with each other without which, such innovations wouldn't have been delivered to mankind in a reasonable amount of time.

Speaking of innovation in laptops, here's an idea that spiked through my mind last night, while I was watching the hollywood flick, The Expendables. My son woke up with a start, when Jason started firing at the South American goons, from the tip of a fighter plane. It then took an hour for me to put him back to sleep. Before I resumed watching, I decided to grab my Bose headphones. Hunting down my headphones in the darkness wasn't as big a challenge as plugging it's pin into my Asus laptop's headphone jack. I didn't turn the lights on, as I didn't want to wake my son up again. After several failed attempts in finding the headphone jack, I finally reached out to my Nokia E71x, and used it's flashlight to complete my mission! Thanks to Nokia's OVI Store, I was able to download the flashlight app, last week. However, I wonder why Nokia (and others) doesn't embed a flashlight in all of it's cell phones - doesn't it qualify to be a default feature? How expensive is it to plug in an LED at the top?

Apologies for digressing from the main topic. Here's the actual idea that occured to me last night: Why not have an LED-backlight on the input/output ports of a laptop, such as the headphone and microphone jacks, USB/HDMI ports? Most of the laptops do have colorful, mini LEDs right next to the network ports and CD/DVD drives. Though these LEDs are not intended for helping the users locate the ports when it's dark, they do guide the users to a certain extent. My idea is something very similar to this - incorporate color-coded LEDs right next to the input/output ports in a laptop. For instance, a dark red LED next to a microphone jack, would help users to plug in the mic pin into the appropriate port. Likewise, a dark green LED for the headphones port, and say, an orange LED for the USB port. All of these should glow steadily, so they're easily distinguishable from a blinking green or an orange light, which  normally indicates the status of a network port or a CD/DVD drive.

Infact, having a steady back-lit LED on the ports itself (taking the shape of the ports), would be a perfect innovation. What do you think? 

Imaginatively Yours, 

G U R U

Yesterday, I was ransacking my cell phone's inbox to find an information that my friend messaged a couple of weeks ago. To my horror, I had 1200 messages in my inbox, which I never realized until I started searching! By searching, I just meant a human-eyeball search. That was the only way I could search through a high profile PDA like Nokia E71x. How unfortunate! Yeah, I'm not kidding. I had to literally sift through each and every SMS in my inbox to locate the message. Nokia E71x wasn't powered with an SMS search. Infact, I've not seen this feature in any of the cell phones I've used in the past.


Though I did find a few SMS-search apps for Android and iPhone (noted below) as I was googling, I wonder why this feature isn't one of the basic features in any cell phone. What does it take for the cell phone manufacturers such as Sony Ericsson, Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, and a whole bunch of other mobile players to include this as a basic feature in their phones? I agree that it's got to be a feature of the OS, but how difficult is it to incorporate the same in a Symbian or a Windows Mobile? The Android-based app that I've listed below, is hardly 65KB, and costs $0.99!


Anyway, if any of the big players out there are reading this post, the following are some of the default features that I'd personally like to have, in any phone that is capable of messaging:

• Search the inbox and email messages using keywords such as name, phone    number, venue, etc. 

• Include an option to bookmark searched messages

• Enable tags to group similar messages

• Block messages alone, from a particular cell phone number

• Lock selected messages - make it password protected

• The phone should get locked automatically, when an SMS with a unique code is sent from a pre-configured cell phone. This will make the phone unusable, if it gets lost or stolen. 

• Any other ideas, dear readers? :)

Maybe also have SMS-Search powered by, say Google Mobiletop*? This will be the Google Desktop for cell phones. If google comes up with something like that, it'll add yet another feather to Google's cap, I'm sure. Perhaps, Google will also take the search to the next level - search SMS by voice! Google already has a mobile app that does a similar thing. Check out this link, and grab your free download, if you're not already aware: Google Mobile 


Coming back to the SMS-search apps for Android and iPhone, click on the following links, and enjoy your downloads!

• SMS Search Pro, for Android 
• Search 1.0, for iPhone

Note: FYI doesn't guarantee the credibility of the above-mentioned links.


* Google Mobiletop is an imaginary name




Imaginatively yours,
G U R U

Imagine a scenario where you're at your friend's place, and you forgot to carry your mobile. You need to urgently get in touch with a distant relative of yours, to seek an information. You don't know his or her number. What would you do? If I were you, first I'd either call my parents, or a common relative, provided I remember their phone numbers by heart. If neither of them are able to help me out, I'd certainly be floating in a hot soup.


Now that I narrated the scenario, let me also narrate a figment of my imagination to solve such a problem.


How nice would it be if I were able to access my personal address book stored in my own cell phone, from any other cell phone? If such a service existed, I wouldn't even mind paying a small fee to the cell phone service providers. 


The idea is simple. There needs to be a global contacts cloud, which any cell phone service provider across the globe would be able to easily access. Every single cell phone in the world would have a unique user id (could be the cell phone number itself) and password to logon to the cloud. By cloud, I don't mean a storage area accessed via internet. The storage area that I'm talking about could be exclusive to the actual cell phone networks. Coming back, since every single cell phone across the globe would be able to access it's designated storage areas on the network cloud, there would be no problem for an Airtel-user (from India) in accessing his address book from an AT&T-user's (In the US) cell phone. The only caveat is that all cell phone providers across the globe should have some sort of a mutual agreement to have a stake on the cloud. Well, it's easier said than done, but do you get the idea? 


Take a look at the following image, for more clarity. 

        
Imaginatively Yours,
G U R U

No kidding! You can now phone your blog and say much more than  just a Hello! WordPress has launched a fantastic feature wherein you can post an audio file to your blog, directly from any phone. 


Click here to read the official announcement by Matt, from WordPress.
This feature is so down-to-earth, that even an earthworm can use it! All you'd have to do is, Enable the Post by Voice feature, under My Blogs. Upon clicking the Enable button, a US phone number would be displayed, along with a passcode. Make a note of this phone number and memorize the passcode. DO NOT write down your passcode anywhere, since anyone can misuse your blog if they get hold of the phone number and the passcode - don't let your tech blog transform into a phone sex blog. Well, that was just a word of caution!
Coming back, this is where you'll find the Post by Voice feature in WordPress, under your Global Dashboard:






The following are some of the cool things you could do, using the Post by Voice feature:

Create Audio Podcasts

  Use any phone (US only) to dial your blog and post an audio podcast. The audio file will be posted to your blog instantly, after you hang-up. The audio quality of the podcast, however would depend on the surrounding environment. Make sure you speak from a quiet place - not from the fish market.

Relay Press Meetings

 Dump those long and heavy microphones. Use your cell phone instead. Dial your wordpress blog, and simply let the politician directly talk to your blog! After you disconnect the call, the audio clip will be directly posted to your blog. You'd    be the first person to have relayed the press meet across the globe! Now, how cool is that?

Host Interviews

 The next time you want to publish an interview in your blog, consider this - call the person with whom  you've fixed up an appointment for the interview. Let   him or her know that you're going to conference one  more person, who'd be a silent spectator, and who'd only be listening to the conversation. The silent  spectator would be none other than your WordPress blog - it'd be recording the interview in the background via the teleconference, and would instantly post the interview in your blog, as soon as the call is  disconnected.  To cut it short, you don't have to move your butt an inch.

Instantly Publicize

 Thanks to social media for making the process of word-of-mouth-marketing, completely electronic. You could make use of all the social Networking tools such as Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon, etc. (read, and a hundred others) to instantly publicize the conversation you've had with your blog. I don't want to get into the details of  how to use social media to promote your blog, as there are thousands of other sites that give you that advice for free. However, let me give you a random one. Click this. Speaking of publicity, let's not forget the faithful RSS (Not sure what RSS is? Watch the videohere), which would instantly syndicate your new audio post to all your loyal readers.

Build A Private Database

 Are you in the habit of making notes frequently? Forgot to carry your pen or scribbling pad, or both? Why not try this method - use your cell phone or land line instead of your pen. Yes, you guessed it right. simply dial your blog and start speaking out your notes. At the end of the one-side conversation, your verbal notes would have got posted into your WordPress blog. You could even build your own private database of verbal notes, by making your WordPress blog private (Click here to know how to do it, in case you're not sure). Use your USB pen drive to download the audio files from your private database, later. By doing so, you also have a back-up that you could carry along, which can be accessed even without an internet connection!



Now, what are you waiting for? Lift your handset and start talking to your WordPress blog!