On Our Minds

reQall Updates

We see that some of our users are concerned about updates to reQall, so we wanted to let you know what we're doing. We're working on our next-generation personal assistant application, reQall Rover. We're currently not doing incremental changes to reQall, as we expect what we learn from reQall Rover will influence the design of reQall. The features and capabilities of reQall are necessary for a complete personal assistant application, so reQall is definitely part of our future plans. We are tracking change requests, and will be looking at how we can address them in the future plans for reQall and reQall Rover. reQall is doing good and it's we who pressed the pause button for a while. We'll definitely announce when reQall is updated. We appreciate your understanding and patience.

--Rama, India

Silence on the reQall blog

Some of you have asked “why hasn’t reQall posted on their blog for awhile?” I apologize for our silence, and want to explain what’s caused this. First, we’ve been working in stealth mode with partners around the world. We plan to announce one of those partnerships in first quarter, and another in second quarter, with more to come.  In the long run these partnerships will provide people worldwide with some exciting, new, personal assistant applications. We are pleased to report that we have strong traction, but can't say much publicly yet.  

Frankly, we’re also not very good at blogs and such. We’re a bunch of engineers who like to solve problems, so our focus is always on what we can do to take personal assistant apps to the next level. We don’t think you should have to ask an assistant for help, and are working to make our apps smart enough to know what you need based on your context and who you are as an individual. Still, we recognize that just doing the work and not talking about it isn’t sufficient. We understand that we need to get better at communicating.

Finally, I (Deb) have generally been the person to post. However, I’ve had some personal constraints over the last year and a half as my house was destroyed in the Fourmile Canyon fire in Colorado last year. Until recently, I’ve only been working part-time as I dealt with the aftermath of the fire. Given the needs of working with our partners, I’ve let the blog lapse more than I should have.  We’re going to change this going forward.

Starting today, my reQall account has a recurring to-do that says “Write a blog post every month on the last Monday.” I know one post a month still isn’t enough. I’ll try to do more, but I’m also asking several other members of our team to post to the blog as well. So, you’ll start to see posts coming not just from me in the US, but also from members of our team in India and other places.

Again, I apologize for letting the blog go stale and hope this new approach will keep you informed and engaged on what we’re up to. As always, if you have any questions or suggestions, please ask on GetSatisfaction or send an email to support@reqall.com. We greatly appreciate your support.

--Deb, U.S

 

reQall Rover on Android beta launch!

 

Today, the reQall team is announcing a new addition to our family—the beta version of reQall Rover on Android. reQall Rover is a brand new type of mobile assistant that brings you your slippers before you ask and rolls over on command. Just kidding! Truthfully, reQall Rover IS a new type of assistant—one that goes far beyond the memory assistance that reQall has always provided.

What is reQall Rover?
reQall Rover is a personalized assistant that smartly anticipates your needs to provide you with the information you need to know . . . before you know you need it. reQall Rover uses your context, location, time, social networks, emails and more to learn what you need.

What can reQall Rover help me with?
reQall Rover prepares you for a meeting by pulling pertinent emails you’ve exchanged and by accessing background information, such as LinkedIn profiles or Facebook posts, on the person you’re meeting. reQall Rover can also give you travel estimates based on current traffic conditions and your location; provide email relief by summarizing just the action items in your Gmail; show news related to your interests; tell you what’s trending on Twitter; suggest places to eat; offer deals based on your location; and more! The more it learns about your preferences, the more it personalizes the information.

Can reQall Rover speak?
Yes it can! reQall Rover provides a voice interface so you can hear a summary of what you need to know. The app can also hear and understand when you ask for help. Its vocabulary is limited right now, but over time, its understanding of words and commands grows.

Does reQall Rover work with reQall?
Yep! You can see your reQall To Do’s in reQall Rover as well. So you’ll have a one-stop source for all kinds of assistance, including memory assistance.

Is reQall Rover just for Android users?
The initial reQall Rover beta test is on Android. We’ll add other platforms in the future.

How do I get reQall Rover?
We’re starting a limited beta test where invited users can offer feedback to help us improve the app before we let everyone play with it. We’ll be sending our loyal reQall on Android Pro users a special code to give you priority access in a week or so. We’ll also let you invite three of your friends to try it. Others can sign up on the waiting list at http://rover.reqall.com/rover.

Feedback!
The reason we’re doing a limited beta is so we can get feedback to make reQall Rover the assistant that you need and want. Send us your scratches, hugs, er, we mean, comments, questions, suggestions to support@reqall.com.

 

reQall Rover Summary View

 

Meeting Prep

 

Gmail Action Summary

Voice Summary

News: Android, Web, Features

Lots of news today.

First, for all of those loyal reQall fans who have been asking/demanding/pleading for it: reQall for Android Beta is here. We implemented the top reQall functions: Here & Now, All Items list, Add by voice and text, Location and time-based reminders. We want and need your input to shape where the product goes from here. Please try it out and let us know what you like, what you don't like, and which of the other reQall features should take priority in coming to Android. Download it at http://www.reqall.com/android. It's a public beta, so everyone has access.

Second, there's a completely revamped web interface. We've done a lot of user testing on this and believe it is a significant improvement over the past interface. Again, try it out and let us know what you think.

As part of the web changes, we've introduced a bunch of new features that users have requested. Those include categories, tags, adding locations by address, new lists and viewing options, a configurable Today list, favorite lists, bulk operations. You can see what's new at http://help.reqall.com/whats-new.html. We'll be migrating many of these features into the iPhone (next) and then Android.

Thanks for all of your support. Our user community keeps us going during the long days that lead up to a release like this. And a special thanks to our beta testers who helped over the last month by finding bugs and making many suggestions for improvements. 

Getting Things Done

 “I work as a programmer and web designer and it involves a lot of concentration. I can either let interruptions occupy my mind and forget about it permanently – or reQall it!
 
If I need to come back to something later, I reQall it and keep going with my train of thought. No more loose ends. If I see a great design idea, I grab the phone and leave myself a reminder instead of sending myself email or writing on scraps of paper. It's much safer when driving, too.
 
When I finish one task, I can open up reQall to see what I need to do. Today, reQall reminded me to call and ask a question. I hit the ‘show related items’ button and there was my Evernote snapshot of the business card with the phone number I needed. Brilliant time saver!
 
David Allen of Getting Things Done says, ‘Anything that does not belong where it is, is an “open loop” pulling on your attention.’ With reQall, I am better able to keep my attention on what I am working on instead of what I have to do later.”
– Jim Sewell, programmer, Key West, Fla.

Game, Set and Match

"I'm a professional tennis coach and I live my life mostly on the tennis court. I work over 30 hours as a full-time coach and it can get hectic, especially as my clients can sometimes swap and change times with little notice – and that can happen whilst I'm concentrating on coaching someone else.
 
Before reQall, I was using different applications. Many of them were quite useful, but they never really satisfied my idea of a memory jogger or an app that I could use to help me remember things, such as booking courts or creating lesson plans for my tennis groups.
 
After coming upon a clip on YouTube about reQall’s full range of uses, I got really addicted to it and used it on an hourly basis at times. I use the SMS and email notifications to remind me of the little things that I have in my brain.
 
reQall Pro allows me to organize my thoughts in so many simple ways. Since then, I've managed to remember 90 percent of things – the rest is just me being lazy and not remembering to input information. I must add that the sharing of information, which allows me to remind my girlfriend of things from my iPhone, is so useful. I find it amusing that even with her amazing memory, she can find my reminders that I send to her quite useful.

Thanks, reQall. You have inspired me to remember more!!"

– Lam Huynh, Birmingham, England

Dude, Where’s My Car?

“Before reQall, I used to park a 10-minute walk from my place of employment and pay $8 a day, three days a week for parking. Since getting reQall, I park in a two or three-hour parking space that’s a three-minute walk from work. I set a reQall reminder to move the car to another spot just after midday – the parking inspector usually doesn't get around on time, and I need to move the car only once a day. Apart from two parking tickets – not reQall’s fault, since I neglected to act on the reminder – I have saved $24 a week since November 2008.

reQall has saved me at least $1200 (Australian) and covered the cost of my $879 pre-paid, unlocked iPhone I purchased on the first day it became available – not to mention the fact it has also saved me many hours of walking around.”
– Doug Young

reQall Saved My Bacon – and Remembered the Beer

“My wife and I were about to go grocery shopping. I was walking around adding stuff to a hand-written shopping list.

I had just installed reQall on my Blackberry. She took a few minutes longer to get ready, so to test it out, I decided to read the shopping list to reQall.

When we got to the store, I realized I'd left the shopping list on the kitchen counter! My wife wasn't pleased, and told me I'd forget my head if it wasn't screwed on, and she's probably correct there! She said we'd be bound to forget half of the stuff we wanted.

Then I remembered I'd used reQall!

I brought up the app on the phone, and there, transcribed, was the shopping list! My wife was happy, peace resumed and we were able to get everything we needed. It probably saved my bacon, as that was one of the items on the list that we might well have forgotten to buy! My wife was so impressed that she installed it on her Blackberry too, and uses it all the time.

Not sure if I like all the ‘honey dos’ but, I got my own back last week. I called reQall and said: ‘Ask wife to buy a six-pack at store at 5 p.m.’ As she was leaving her downtown office, the message from reQall popped up on her Blackberry and she swung by the store on the way home. When I got there, there was cold beer waiting for me!

Thanks, reQall. Twice.”
– Ian B. May, North Charleston, S.C.

On Your Mind: Mother's Little Mobile Helper

“I’m a new mother that had a mad case of Crazy Brain before finding reQall.
 
I went back to work just six weeks after my daughter was born. I very much underestimated the life of a working mom, and would very often forget things – even really important ones! So I had to take a stand and get my life back in control.  
 
I am an iPhone user, so I did a little research and found that many people enjoy reQall. I tried it for free and now I can’t live without my reQall Pro. Thanks for such a great application!”
 
Gerri M. Kimble

reQall: Top 10 Productivity App and Top 10 Overall App for Dummies!

We're very excited that reQall is featured in a new book, Incredible iPhone Apps For Dummies, by Bob LeVitus. reQall is listed as one of the Top 10 Productivity Apps (Chapter 11) and one of the Top 10 Overall Apps (Chapter 17). A few quotes from Bob:

• "reQall is smart and different from most organizer apps."  
• "I think what I like best about reQall is that it remembers things for me with the least possible effort on my part."
• "I love it so much that it's one of the sixteen icons on my home screen."

Thanks, Bob!  The book also includes great recommendations for apps for business, education, food, fitness, sports, travel and more.  It's available now in stores and online.