Making multi tasking easier

Mothers are well know for their multi-tasking super powers, that and the eyes in the back of our heads, and as much as we quite happily let the world believe this of us there are times when we just shouldn’t use these powers. There have been many large campaigns against texting or talking on our phones while driving, and we should be paying attention. Whether or not your children are with you in the car, you need to make sure you have your full attention where it needs to be.

Between work and my social media, my phone is almost always buzzing at me and I like having a safe and easy way to know whether the message I just receive needs my immediate attention without being distracted from the road. Drivesafe.ly is a simple application you install on to your Blackberry either from the App World or directly from their website. There are two different versions of the application: a free version and the Pro Version. The free version only reads up to 25 words and the pro up to 500 words and also has a good few customization options. The free version is a great way to see for yourself how beneficial the app is, however I quickly got irritated with the restrictions, and in a few short hours had the paid app.

Once you have the application installed just make sure you check the options you like, and un-check the boxes you don’t need. You have the option to select a female voice or a males voice to read your messages. It also includes the option to select Text messages or emails or both, including senders name, subject, and the body of the message. You can set the option to play via Speaker, earpiece, Bluetooth or headphones, just make sure you have the correct one selected.

The auto response replies to the reader that you have heard their message and that you will get back to them and tells them to download the application as well. The reason I mention this is because some people may get annoyed by this and may Blacklist your email. But there is a good side to this as you can edit the Auto Response to create a custom response. Drivesafe.ly doesn’t require you to use the auto response or any of the options listed but some come set by default so make sure you explore all the settings.
The text to speech capabilities are very impressive, and the voices have almost perfect clarity. The app has an option for acronyms which is great considering the amount of LOL’s I receive daily.

The way the application works is by sending your email data over to drivesafe.ly which turns around and streams the voice over to the BlackBerry. For this application to work you must have a data plan.

The application itself is simple to use. To turn on and off just go to the application and click on the ON/Off button. To exit the application you need to go to Settings and click Exit Application or else the application runs in the back ground. The application is disabled when the profile is set to silent if you have that option checked on the settings.

Unfortunately this app doesn’t yet work with BBM (BlackBerry Messanger), MMS, or other IM clients (AIM, Gtalk, Live, Yahoo messenger, Facebook) however it will read Facebook and Twitter sent by text message.

Price: Free or Pro for R118.00
Developer: iSpeech.org
Size: 1806 kb
Version: 2.130.0