Take a Memo, Miss Jones.

Remember how we used to worry about developing over-developed thumbs with all that texting? Or developing arthritis and the thumb equivalent of carpal tunnel syndrome?  Not to mention eye-strain from using teeny-tiny keyboards?

Those worrying days are over.

Over on Business Filter, Maura Welch had a good one the other day, introducing a technology/company called Jott that's going to put an end to having to text in something with the form factor of a matchbook.

What Jott does is allow you to send an e-mail or text message without having to type it in. Instead, you speed-dial Jott and dictate your message and Jott will key it in and deliver it to whomever you'd like (individual or group).

And - get this - the system is NOT based on speech-recognition technology.

Instead, it does things the old fashioned way. An actual, human being transcriber will do the typing for you.

The idea of Jott is not actually a bad one, although I find it a little hard to believe that there will be all that many people who are just too rushed, etc., to do their own texting or just go ahead an make a damn phone call.

And, as speech recognition technology becomes more refined and pervasive, won't this just do away with Jott entirely?

Why call them when you can bark your own message into your Blackberry and have it transcribed automatically. (Plus you can get to do quality control. Just how many Jott transcribers do we think are native speakers?)

There's not all that much info on Jott's site - you can sign up for the free beta, etc. - but one question that they pose did catch my attention. 

Have you ever ...

... felt like you don't remember things you should? Gifts to buy, a stroke of genius, a song to download, a cab fare?

Does it really make sense to call someone on the other side of the world to send you a text message when you can just do things the old fashioned way and jot yourself a note. Yes, I know, all those jotted down notes get lost.

But what about the other way you can send yourself a reminder?

Why, you could just go ahead and leave yourself a voice message.

How about that for a novel use of technology?

No outsourced transcription services required.

When you have the time, you can check your voice mail and jott down the message you've sent yourself. You could even type it in if you want to save your auto-messages for posterity. 

Let's face it, twenty years from now you might want to know that on April 30, 2007, you left yourself a note that said, "Buy milk. Send Tom a birthday card. Win MacArthur Foundation Grant."