In the show today, we will talk about two chatbots that can help you challenge your parking ticket and organise your work life. Also, are you looking for a secondary phone to take with you on that hike? We will talk about an option that is light, thin and small as a credit card.

 

Show Notes:

 

DONOTPAY

 

Chatbots are increasingly providing services today that humans did only a few short years ago.

 

DoNotPay is a chatbot which was developed by Joshua Browder and he calls it "the world's first robot lawyer".  When Joshua was about 18 years old he began driving and started to receive a large number of parking tickets. He decided to create a service – a computer program that can help him challenge these tickets.

 

It worked so great that a year later it successfully appealed over 250,000 tickets. He then expanded this service to cover emergency housing and now it helps asylum seekers.

 

Refugees can complete immigration applications in the US, Canada and the UK by using this service. This service uses Facebook Messenger to gather information about a case before providing advice and legal documents.

 

"It works by asking a series of questions to determine if a refugee is eligible for asylum protection under international law," he tells BBC Trending, "for example: 'are you afraid of being subjected to torture in your home country?'

 

"Once it knows a user can claim asylum, it takes down hundreds of details and automatically fills in a completed immigration application.”

 

The bot suggests ways the asylum seeker can answer questions to increase their chances of having applications accepted as well. It also provides locations to send their applications in along with other documentation and resources.

 

Currently, the lawyer bot is available via the Facebook Messenger app for Android and Apple users. Browder is looking to bring this service in other languages and apps including WhatsApp.

 

Astro

 

Astro is a native email app on iOS and Mac that separates your email into two groups - Priority and Other - and allows you to snooze emails until later. In addition to this the company is working on adding a chatbot to this service.

 

This service will help to create filters and mark VIP contacts. Also, it will monitor your usage and then offer to automatically do it for you like if you normally snooze emails from the family until the evening then Astro will offer to do it for you instead.

 

You can tell it to clear out old emails, or remind you to email your boss in the morning.

 

It will observe the emails you delete and ask if you just want to unsubscribe.

 

So what Astro is looking to do is to become an assistant that can eventually handle most of your daily tasks by working through different systems.

 

The Light Phone

 

The Light Phone is made to simplify your life and make it distraction free.

 

I know some people carry a second phone around, if you are considering such a move, the Light Phone is a good option to look at.

 

The size of the Light Phone is the exact size of a credit card with a thickness of about stacking about 5 credit cards together which is still thinner than the iPhone 7 plus.

 

Specifications

 

Color – Matte White

Weight – 38.5 grams (iPhone weights about 100 grams more)

Display – OLED

Battery – 3 Days Standby

SIM – Nano SIM

Connector – Micro USB

Language – English

Connection – GSM 850/900 1800/1900 MHz

OS – Android

 

In the U.S. you can set up this phone as a call forwarding from your primary smartphone, which will forward all incoming calls to The Light Phone. This comes with a $5 service fee. For international users, this phone can be used as a standalone with no service fee.

 

The Light phone is on pre-order for $150 US and you can place your order at theLightPhone.com.