Google will be shutting down Grandcentral on 12/31/09.

With all the hoopla about Google Wave, another set of invitations coming out of Google (s goog) seems to have been overlooked. After months of waiting, certain Twitterers are reporting that they’ve finally received invites to Google Voice, which I wrote about back in June. I’ve had GV myself since it was GrandCentral, but I got another invitation last night. The folks selling Voice invites on eBay may lose their customers soon! If you haven’t received an invite yet, you can request one here.

The concept behind Google Voice is simple: You’re given one phone number that can be configured to ring in multiple places — office, home, on your cell phone or even on an account on the VoIP service Gizmo5. We’ve looked at a number of virtual phone systems, including 3jam and Grasshopper, and while they have many nice features, it’s hard to beat Google Voice’s price — free except for international calls.

Have you received your Google Voice invitation?

A few years ago there was a company called GrandCentral that created a virtual phone number service. Everything sounded great. The features were interesting and the service was free to everyone that was invited. The problem was that they remained dormant without a word for almost two years after Google purchased them.

The concept was simple. You get one phone number to hand out to everyone. Whenever someone calls that number, it rings on every telephone you have set up on the service. With one unified phone number and voicemail, the service is made to consolidate you home, office, cell and VoIP phone into one cohesive solution for you.

Fast forward to just a few months ago when Google finally reveals the new and improved GrandCentral, now called Google Voice. I’ll let the nice lady from Google explain.

This has been a blessing for me as I search for work. Because I lowered my minutes on my cellphone plan in an attempt to save money, I can now have Google Voice forward my calls to my Magic Jack VoIP number while I am at home.

ProTip: One day I was on the phone with a friend and needed to leave the house for an errand. If you hit * Google Voice will ring your other phones and you can transfer from one phone to another. I was able to transfer from my Magic Jack phone to my iPhone and the caller never noticed. Sadly this only works for incoming calls.

Example of voice mail transcription.

Google Voice brings along with it a whole suite of features that are both useful and much welcomed. Voice mails are sent to SMS and email. Emails include an audio attachment and text transcription. Sadly, the voice recognition seems to have trouble with all the various accents we have here in South Florida. More often than I had hoped, I find myself listening to the voicemail to figure out what the caller really wanted to say. Are you finding similar issues with the voice mail transcription? Let us know in the comments. Another bonus is that the GMail team added a new GMail lab feature where you can listen to the voicemail within GMail. This removes the need of loading up the Google Voice site.

Google Voice integration into GMail.

The next few features are, what I believe are the most useful and least used. Conference calling is extremely simple to use. If you are already on a call, all you need to do is hit 5 to join the incoming call with the original call. This also only seems to work with incoming calls. Call Recording is another very useful feature that is easy to enable; just hit 4 and the call starts recording. But once again we find this feature has limitations. You can only record calls you receive on your Google Voice number. You can’t record calls you initiate using the  Click2Call from the Google Voice website or the Return Call feature from your voicemail. Notice a pattern? Many of the great features of Google Voice only work when the call is incoming. Why? I don’t know, but that’s the way it is. Hopefully this will change in the future.

GV Mobile brings the power of Google Voice to your iPhone.

Do you have a Blackberry or Android phone? Then grab the Google Voice app for your phone. It integrated GVoice into your phone and makes things much better. Now, are you like me and have an iPhone? Well you have two options. Use the really bad Google Voice mobile site or jailbreak your phone and get GV Mobile. Apple has seen fit, to completely remove any meaningful way of using GVoice on the iPhone. I’ll leave the venting for others but needless to say, it’s a extremely stupid thing to do with a weak ass excuse. If you haven’t Jailbroken your iPhone yet, I’ll cover that in a future article. GV Mobile also suffers from being slow and unpolished, due to the beta nature. With time we should see some polish delivered, but it just doesn’t compared to what you get on an Android phone. Hopefully the new Motorola Android phone will offer what I want so I can switch. Apple and AT&T have driven a very loyal, and life long customer away from them.

There are some weaknesses to GVoice that myself and others have noticed. If you only have one phone, say a only a cellphone like many do, then GVoice may not be worth it for you. Before I started using multiple phones, GVoice’s only use was for free SMS, and voicemail transcriptions. You also can not stop text messages from being forwarded.

This is just the beginning of something wonderful.

So in the end we are one step closer to turning telecoms into dumb pipes much like ISP’s are today. I’m sure this terrifies them as their current model is a combination of content delivery and access.

Still have more questions about Google Voice? Leave a comment or visit this site for videos on every aspect.

I currently have three phone numbers. I must confess that one is a landline. It’s on the same Verizon bill as our internet access. It’s pretty reliable, but seems expensive, and I doubt that we’ll have a landline after we move.

We recently got some voicemails from Verizon about voicemail. Apparently the system will soon be upgraded, and the upgrade will not be completely automatic for all customers: some manual intervention will be required.

I’m surprised that I haven’t heard about this upgrade from other sources. I can find nothing about it at Verizon.com. I’ve seen nothing about it in Boston media, although I should confess that I haven’t made a systematic search of either old or new local media.

My second number is for my cellphone, or was until my cellphone recently died. I use a T-Mobile prepaid plan. I previously posted about T-Mobile’s customer service, or lack thereof. My more recent experience is that service is pretty good once I get through to a human being, but that I have to provide my phone number an inordinate number of times before that happens.

My third number is on GrandCentral. It will become a Google Voice number if I am ever able to access it.

But I can’t access my GrandCentral number. I’ve forgotten my password. Attempts to reset it just lead back to a page that prompts for the very password I’ve forgotten.

While I’m not thrilled with the service I get from Verizon and T-Mobile, at least there is service. That’s more than can be said for GrandGoogle.

Here’s a question the FCC neglected to ask Apple (AAPL) in its inquiry into why the company rejected — or as Apple prefers, declined to approve — Google Voice:

Why has a free app that does essentially the same thing — and would seem to raise the same red flags for Apple — been sitting on the App Store for nearly 10 months?

The app is called RingCentral Mobile and not only does it perform most of the same functions as the Google (GOOG) app that’s making all the headlines — universal telephone number, voicemail, dial-by-name directory, click-to-call, call forwarding, answering rules, call screening, music on hold, etc. — it was the template on which both Google Voice, and its predecessor, GrandCentral, were built.

Moreover, unlike Google Voice, RingCentral uses VoIP — the voice-over-Internet protocol that causes AT&T (T) such problems. But like Google Voice, it “alter[s] the iPhone’s distinctive user experience by replacing the iPhone’s core mobile telephone functionality and Apple user interface with its own user interface for telephone calls … and voicemail” — to quote from the explanation Apple gave the FCC for why it didn’t okay Google Voice.

There are differences. Google Voice is free — or would have been if it had been approved. RingCentral Mobile is free, but it requires a subscription to RingCentral, a virtual PBX service that costs $9.99 a month for individuals and very small businesses and $99 a month for larger enterprises.

And unlike Google Voice, which is still in beta and available by invitation only, RingCentral is a profitable 10-year old company with nearly 90,000 paying customers and the backing of Sequoia Capital and Khosla Ventures.

More to the point, according to a source close to the company, RingCentral has signed a strategic agreement with AT&T to do “something much bigger and cooler that they will not discuss openly because of intense competition.”

Could this have something to do with Apple’s objections to Google Voice?

Of course, RingCentral does not pose the same existential threat to Apple that Google does. To quote the graph in Michael Arrington analysis in TechCrunch Friday that rings most true:

“Multiple sources at Google tell us that in informal discussions with Apple over the last few months Apple expressed dismay at the number of core iPhone apps that are powered by Google. Search, maps, YouTube, and other key popular apps are powered by Google. Other than the browser, Apple has little else to call its own other than the core phone, contacts and calendar features. The Google Voice App takes things one step further, by giving users an incentive to abandon their iPhone phone number and use their Google Voice phone number instead (transcription of voicemails is reason enough alone). Apple was afraid, say our sources, that Google was gaining too much power on the iPhone, and that’s why they rejected the application.”

These are some of the issues the FCC might consider when it meets Thursday to vote on whether to proceed with a full-scale investigation.

See also:

• Arrington to Apple: Liar liar pants on fire
• The FCC is asking Apple and AT&T all the right questions
• 40 staffers. 2 reviews. 8,500 iPhone apps per week
• AT&T: We didn’t ask Apple to block Google Voice

Google Voice, formerly called GrandCentral, is a free phone service from Google.  The basic idea is that you choose a local US lifetime number which forwards calls to your phones (home, work, mobile, computer, and more) automatically.  It is currently in an invitation only roll out, so you have to request an invitation and then wait for an email from Google to sign up.

Some neat features:

• Forward all calls to voicemail (voicemails are delivered via email or SMS)
• Make calls for free to US numbers (calls your phone and then the other persons phone)
• Send SMSs for free to US numbers
• Temporary forwarding to a hotel room or other temporary number
• Press * to switch phones without loosing the call
• Forwards to phones in other area codes, giving you a local number even if your real number is in another area code
• You can create a separate number that only goes to voicemail for use when buying things online
• You can setup a number for a “duty officer” and forward it to the on-call person of the week

Sign up for Google Voice now (requires requesting an inviation)

Read more about how to use this along with Project Gizmo (which gives you a free phone number on your computer) at Gizmo Voice

I’ve been using Google Voice (s goog) since it was GrandCentral, and have been quite impressed. But it’s still in beta, and while invitations to the beta are finally becoming available, I understand that they’re still hard to come by.

3jam is billing itself as an alternative to Google Voice, and it’s available today, so I’ve given it a quick spin. This is not a complete review, as there are some of 3jam’s features that I haven’t tried, such as SMS messaging, forwarding to Skype, an API that lets you write your own applications to interact with their service, and “group” numbers that allow multiple users to share voice mail and messaging.

Signing Up and Getting a Number

Signing up for the service is easy. Just select an area code where you want a number and 3jam will display a series of available numbers from which you can pick. You can also enter words to see if you can get a “vanity number” that spells something. You can also port an existing number to the 3jam service for a onetime fee of $25, something that Google Voice doesn’t yet offer. Right now, 3jam is only offering incoming numbers in the continental U.S. If you want an incoming number in another country, you’ll need SkypeIn or another VoIP service.

Pricing

In my opinion, a major weakness of 3jam’s service is its complex pricing structure. For those of us who are used to the clearly-defined packages offered by most cell phone and VoIP providers, it’s bewildering to be confronted with a choice of monthly fees and SMS packages, and to realize that the monthly fees include only a ridiculously small number of incoming minutes (just 30!) and no outgoing minutes at all.

3jam charges a monthly fee ranging from $4.99 per month for a 12-month contract, to $8.99 per month on a monthly basis. Additional minutes, SMS and even transcriptions of voice mails (over the first 30) cost extra. Additional minute rates for calls (apparently both incoming and outgoing) are competitive. The SMS prices are puzzling, though: 5 cents per message to the U.S., but only 4 cents to Uganda or Uzbekistan?

Annoyingly, information about pricing is very difficult to find on 3jam’s web site. The monthly fees are displayed during the sign-up process, but only after you’ve already selected a phone number. A more comprehensive list of pricing seems to be available only in the help section, which I found by doing a search.

By comparison, the Google Voice service does not currently charge a monthly fee, or fees for calls and SMS messages in the U.S. Google Voice charges for international calls at rates that are competitive with other VoIP services. It’s rumored that Google could make the service advertising-supported at some point.

While some people may find 3jam’s à la carte approach to pricing advantageous, I think that businesses will need to know what they can expect to pay; 3jam makes that difficult. The 3jam control panel does offer a running total of calls made and the costs incurred, so users can at least keep track of what they’ve spent.

Setup

Setting up the service is straightforward. You can set incoming calls to the 3jam number to ring on as many as six different phones, not only in the U.S., but in many other locations throughout the world. You can also forward incoming calls to Skype, something that Google Voice doesn’t offer. And you can forward incoming SMS messages to IM services like Google Talk and AIM, which is a nice touch.

3jam offers the ability to import your contacts to its address book from external email accounts like Gmail, and from Outlook, Thunderbird Entourage and .csv files. I was unable to get either Gmail or a .csv import to work, however, and didn’t try the other options.

Quality

Like many VoIP services, sound quality varies from call to call. I had several friends place test calls to me, and we heard occasional echoes, delays and crackles. But generally, call clarity was good — as good as Google Voice, if not better. The transcriptions of voice mails seem to be on a par with Google Voice as well, which is to say, good enough to get the gist of the message, even when some words are missing or incorrect.

Applications

3jam offers three applications that I didn’t try because I’m on a Mac (s aapl). The first is a Windows-only (s msft) desktop application for SMS messaging. (The site mentions a web version, but the link to it doesn’t seem to be working.) There is also a BlackBerry app (s rimm), and a way of having 3jam send messages to you via Twitter.

For people who need maximum flexibility in routing calls and SMS messages, especially internationally, 3jam is likely to be an excellent choice. For those who need to forecast their communication costs, and those who don’t need the international forwarding options, Google Voice is probably a better choice, once it becomes more widely available.

Have you tried 3jam? How does it compare to Google Voice?

This past week, after waiting years, I was graced with a Google Voice invite. I immediately set it up to use my new number as a forward to my iPhone. Things were looking good and I was adjusting the settings within GV so I could avoid little annoyances such as SMS messages being forwarded etc, when I started to wonder what developers had already done with the technology (after all it had been in existence awhile as GrandCentral). So I found two apps on the iPhone App Store that would dial out, playback voicemails, send and view SMS messages, and a few more common things. One of the big features I found missing was the ability to receive calls through the apps. One may think this is no big deal, but considering that I live on a campus without a strong GSM cellular signal I need all the help I can get! Fortunately I found a solution…

While exploring an App idea of mine I stumbled upon a website/service I had signed up for years ago called Gizmo5. Gizmo is a SIP service. Without getting technical this is pretty much like any VOIP where a

user can make calls to other VOIP users or to outside lines for a small price. However I found out that Google Voice will allow you to forward to your Gizmo line. After a little searching I found a few apps for the iPhone that

would let me make and receive calls with my Gizmo account. To cut things short I found that TruPhone was the best

option out of fring and NimBuzz due to its ability to use the numeric pad. However to use

TruPhone you have to forward once more. So sign up for TruPhone and then go into the settings of Gizmo and put forwarding to “Forwarding all calls” and set it to go to yourAccountName@truphone.com (put your account name in where it says “yourAccountName”). This way you’ll be able to receive calls within the TruPhone app when using Wifi.

Now you will want to go into your GV settings and verify that Gizmo number while you have TruPhone open. hopefully the phone will start buzzing and you can enter in your verification code.

After that you are set to receive GV calls on Wifi!

…However I wanted to go a little farther. If you are like me I’m pretty sure you won’t want to leave your phone on one application most of the time anticipating a call. That is why I wanted to take advantage of push notification. Now unfortunately the most obvious solution is not there… TruPhone does not send notifications for calls coming in.

What I decided to do was start up a second Gizmo account and forwarded that to one of my gmail accounts (after going through the verification like with the first account). What this will do for me is send me a message in Google Talk (or chat in gmail) requesting I answer the call within the app. However for what I am doing I just want that message sent as soon as a calls coming in. So with your favorite push chat app (Beejive for me!) for iPhone setup you GTalk or gmail account and make a test call with the app open. You will have to verify the senders before you can exit the app and wait for pushes. Once you are ready to go close the app and have a friend give you a call.

As soon as you see that notification press “close” and open up TruPhone. Wait a second for the app to open and then it will start ringing. Pick up the phone and you are in business!

If you would like to place a call when outside of your cellular network but in a Wifi area use GV Mobile or the lite version to dial out and then immediately open TruPhone.

One of the best things about this method is that when on a college campus that is blanketed in Wifi (like I will be my senior year) it is not even necessary to use an iPhone. If I had an iPod touch and a headset I would be set!

Ideally I would like to see TruPhone add Push notification for incoming calls or Beejive to include SIP services so I can run Gizmo within that. For now this will do and I’ll be saving money on calls!

Feel free to leave comments if you found this useful or have found a better way of achieving the same results!

If you’re one of the lucky ones to have scored an invite to Google Voice, check out VoiceCentral. It’s a very slick application which integrates well with the iPhone, making it possible to make calls through your Google Voice (or GrandCentral) account.

Why would you want this? My primary reason for wanting an application for GV is so that I can make calls and have my Google Voice number appear on the Caller-ID.

VoiceCentral makes this a simple process. When you first install the app, it asks you to select your iPhone number on the Settings page. When you make a call through the app, it happens in two steps: 1) your iPhone rings (this is Google Voice’s servers calling your iPhone), 2) your call is connected.

Why is this important? If you end up leaving a message for whoever you are calling, their voicemail system may give them the option to call you back at the number you called from. Our landline phones also make it easy to return calls from the caller-ID list. As a Google Voice user, I want those calls to go to my Google Voice number, not my iPhone.

If you’re a fan of Google Voice, you know that having a central place for all of your voicemails is great. Google Voice will transcribe those voicemails (my favorite feature, although sometimes having a computer try to decipher my friend’s “late weekend night” messages does lead to some interesting “translation issues”).

VoiceCentral will let you access not only those voicemails (in a style very similar to iPhone’s own Visual Voicemail) but if you tap on the arrow, it will also show you the transcription. You can even read the message without listening to it, which is especially handy for checking messages when you are in a meeting, a movie theater (oh, like you’ve never!), or anywhere loud enough that you might not be able to hear it. The transcripts can also be copied (on iPhones running OS 3.0 or later, of course) and pasted into notes or emails if needed.

As you’d expect, VoiceCentral also integrates with your existing iPhone contact list, and there’s also a keypad which allows you to make calls or send SMS.

The “Send SMS” feature has had some issues, but Riverturn has a newer version which…read more

OK, so we don’t feature well-known, press-o-rama products at Daily Grommet.  What would be the point?  But we’re making an exception for Google Voice.  Why?  Because we have been given 100 free beta accounts for our faithful followers.  Jeanne approached Craig Walker, the founder of GrandCentral (who created the product and was then acquired by Google) with the idea, and he agreed.  He liked the notion of getting these precious accounts into the hands of the thoughtful and adventurous people who frequent Daily Grommet.
In case you missed the tech world hoopla, here’s what BusinessWeek just wrote about Google Voice:

In late June, Google concluded a private test of Google Voice and began inviting consumers on its waiting list to sign up for the service. Users of Google Voice use the Internet to make phone calls, listen to voice mails and read transcripts of them, and also to get a unified phone number that can track them down based on what phone they’re near.

Anyway, we can’t just GIVE them away.  We have to make it a bit of fun.  Go here to the Daily Grommet blog to learn more about Google Voice and how to snag one of these accounts.  They do seem to be as rare as hen’s teeth.  Jeanne’s been testing the product with her own beta account, and her cousin who is a journalist, said,

How the heck did you get an account?  I’m a REPORTER and I can’t seem to get one!”

Jeanne just smiled her Cheshire Cat smile, and said something soothing.  (I imagine.)

I love the green arguments for reuse over recycling. The old 60s arguments is that it takes 10 years of carbon energy to make a car… so running an old gas-guzzling banger is better than scrapping it and buying a Prius. It’s interesting that the government has, therefore, started a scrappage scheme… it doesn’t hold to a green test! And, it’s also interesting that reuse is part of my kids refrain when they quote Bob the Builder (or is it Engi Bengi?)

And so to trains…

I’ve heard of the Shrewsbury service that’s rivalling Virgin. I’m now sat on Grand Central, the service that runs from Sunderland to London. While National Express has been taken into state control for overestimating its profit-potential, Grand Central is making business with the same model: fixed price fares, old stock, simple service.

Grand Central costs £58 single – where I’ve paid £80+. Their staff feel a sense of mission – they are the challenger brand. The tables have monopoly and draughts in the formica. And, Marilyn Monroe smiles at the end of train graphics. The train is dead old, but neat. Who cares, when you get smiles from the staff who are delighted you are trying their service!

Reusing redundant capacity. Reusing and re-purposing throw-away kit. There’s such an honest appeal to it. Bring it on… it’s going to be big, as the government announces (today) that carbon targets will be written into law.

Official Google Blog: Google Voice invites on their way

I have been using GrandCentral (now Google Voice) for over a year now. L has been on the invite list for about a year and she just got her invite. It does have a mobile app. And this is an application that still could use some serious upgrades. But it is invaluable to me as a traveler. Right now I have several recruiters over about 6 companies.  Some of them get annoying & pushy. That’s when they get put on voicemail only for a little while. That’s right. I don’t even know they called until I get a voicemail alert. It’s handy. Plus if I have a second home phone. I can make it ring that only and not use up my mobile minutes. Or I can get a new phone number. And not have to tell anyone. I can have a different answering messages for my friends than I do business contacts. That “Whazzzzup chicas?” is great for your friends, but you don’t want an employeer or a coworker to get the wrong impression. Plus if you work in an office it can ring your office phone. Video kinda explains some of the features.

I have written about them before so I’ll just link to the previous posts.

Once

Twice

Google Voice which is formerly known as GrandCentral that provides one phone numbers for all of your phones. It uses Voice over internet protocol to link customer’s phone number. Google Voice has been now used by the GrandCentral users, which was re-launched on March 11, 2009 with new features such as voice mail and sms managing. This service will be soon available for all the users over the entire world. Customer can also change the number which was provided for all his phones as a Google voice by just paying a fee of US$10.

The Google voice users can select any single phone number from any of the area codes. When a call is made to the user’s phones, which set all the phones to ring that can be categorized based on the calling number or based on contact group that is from family/friends or based on the date and time. Here the home phones can also be disabled and routed to business lines in the business hours. The main feature available in the Google Voice is the centralized voice mail and the indexable voicemail transcription which can be accessible by the PC or phones. The other features that are available in the Google Voice are to be continued.

Call screening can be done by announcing to screen callers and the unwanted calls are also blocked. Calls can be listened before taking the call and the phones can be routed to other phone if necessary. Sms can be forward and received in the Google voice. The main thing in the Google voice is the user can make free calls to US and can take any of his calls. Phones can be added and the ring is decided based on the contact group. The voice mail can listen through online and read the voice mail in sms or email and the same can be shared by forwarding and downloading voicemails.

Call conferencing can be done by joining people in to a single call and the calls can be record or store them online. If the user is in busy he can switch the call to any other by using the Google voice and he also able to view the inbox in his mobile. Google voice has directory assistance that help user to check his requirements from the directory. It is also expected that the Google voice can also make its appearance in the Internet Marketing. Now the requirement of this service becomes expanded and will play a major role as one of the significant communication tool in future.

Michael Jackson.
For a significant civic event a city is expected to pony up the money to help said event take place.  How did Michael Jackson’s memorial service become a significant civic event in a city where, according to the LA Times, $1.6 billion will be cut from education and as many as 4,000 teachers and staff may be laid off (LA Times Article)?  Is this event only about laying to rest a tremendously talented man who was taken too young? Somehow, I think not.

GrandCentral
Do you remember Cary Grant buying a ticket in Grand Central Station and then trying to get lost in the crowd in the movie “North by Northwest”?  Google is giving us a whole new GrandCentral and this one should make you feel even better than watching an old movie!  How many times have you thought, “WHY DO I NEED SO MANY PHONE NUMBERS???”  Well, Google has listened to your cries.  This week Google rolled out its GrandCentral service.  The service allows users to route all their calls through ONE NUMBER. WooHoo!!! (GrandCentral).

Shame on You! On Tuesday, June 30, 2009, Lieutenant Dan Choi who served in the New York Army National Guard faced a panel of colonels who decided to dismiss him from the service because he said “I am gay” on the Rachel Maddow Show on Thursday, May 7, 2009.

Here is that clip and an interview of Mr. Choi by Rachel Maddow (Maddow/Choi Interview).

The United States has the greatest military in the world and has a lot to be proud of.  Dismissing a West Point graduate and Iraq war veteran for saying “I am gay” is not something to be proud of.

Google Voice should be launching soon. Some of us are getting quite impatient. (HowStuffWorks.com screenshot)

Google Voice is apparently about to launch, judging by the amount of chatter going on in the tech world right now. This morning I saw an article in PC World by Michael Scalisi that discusses the phone service, and the author seems to think that Google Voice could be a real game-changer.

When you sign up for Google Voice, it’ll let you choose a telephone number that will work with all your different telephones. You can assign certain callers to certain phones, or even group your contacts together to do the same thing. You can also personalize who gets what voicemail message. It’s even possible to have voicemail transcribed and sent to you by e-mail or text message.

Last week, J.R. Raphael wrote about reasons to consider Google Voice, which, in addition to some of those I mentioned from Scalisi’s article, include the ability to record calls and store them online. But he also had some things to consider that might give you pause about the service, chief among them privacy, which is a frequent concern voiced about Google products — especially those that store information in the cloud.

Others Raphael listed include the probability of advertising used to support the service, the possibility that the service isn’t too reliable, confusion on the part of the call recipient, who can’t figure out why you’re calling from different numbers and which to call back, and the simplest of all: having to give everyone your new phone number.

It’s easy to see now why the company that created the software (before Google purchased the company, of course) called it GrandCentral. I should point out that I could’ve been talking to you about my own thoughts on Google Voice, but I could never decide what phone number to choose and I lost my GrandCentral beta invitation. I’ve been waiting for Google Voice to open ever since. Perhaps this time I will just choose a number and go with it.

Interested in learning more about some of these topics? You can read more here:

How Google Works
10 Useful Google Tools
How Cloud Storage Works

Android-Unleashed.com» Introducing G1 Central, GrandCentral Dialer …

We were hoping to sign up with Google Voice because of rumors that it&s going to be available for use by the public (internet users). However, Google Voice Help.

For those of you who haven&t heard of it, GrandCentral/Google Voice is an online phone consolidation service. Basically, you pick a single phone number for your account, and have Google Voice—which can manage calls, voicemail and now …

We were hoping to sign up with Google Voice because of rumors that it&s going to be available for use by the public (internet users). However, Google Voice Help.

with grandcentral with the G1 Central Dialer! G1 + Myfaves + GrandCentral # = free calling. Keep in mind Grand Central does not allow invites at this time so you will be unable to make a new account for now, the best thing to do is set …

For those of you who haven&t heard of it, GrandCentral/Google Voice is an online phone consolidation service. Basically, you pick a single phone number for your account, and have Google Voice—which can manage calls, voicemail and now …

Google Voice wants to be your phone manager, SMS and voicemail provider. The service is rumored to be almost ready for public access.

Google Voice germinated after Google (s goog) acquired GrandCentral almost two years ago. The service was relaunched earlier this year as a private beta for GrandCentral users. I’ve been using it for a while, and am generally impressed. Google Voice offers a number of features that should make it popular with web workers.

Incoming Calls and SMS

• You are given one phone number that can be configured to ring multiple places — office, home, cell phone or even an account on the VoIP service Gizmo5. (In the past, users were assigned a new telephone number. Apparently, it will soon be possible to port existing numbers to Google Voice.) Sound quality is quite good, although there can be a delay in transmission, which causes awkward pauses. It’s rather like a better version of talking via satellite.
• If you are not available, voicemails are recorded. They can be transcribed and sent to you by email or SMS. The accuracy of the transcriptions varies, but ranges from fair to excellent.

• You can choose to screen some or all callers, and have them speak their name before the call is forwarded to you. You can set up groups, and allow some callers to bypass screening.
• You can “listen in” on callers as they leave messages, or record calls.
• You can import your contacts through CSV files.

Outgoing Calls and SMS

• You can make outgoing calls through the Google Voice web site. Outgoing calls are free in the continental U.S. International calling rates are quite reasonable, and are competitive with many VoIP services.
• With the Google Voice Add-on for Firefox, you don’t even need to go to the Google Voice web site to make calls. You can just click the add-on and enter a number. And the add-on recognizes phone numbers on web pages and makes them clickable links, too.
• You can also send SMS messages through the Google Voice web site and the Firefox add-on. When you do so, you are assigned a number in area code 406 that allows recipients to reply.

There are a number of other useful features, including conference calling. The complete list is at Google Voice help.

Are you already using Google Voice? Will you sign up once it becomes available?

Hey everyone,

I just wanted to run a quick blog post bragging on how I have Google Voice, while many of you are not able to get it. NEENER-NEENER PUMPKIN EATER!

I also wanted to say that while “beta” testing of the service is coming to a close for those of you still on GrandCentral (the now over 2-year old Google aquired “one number for life” phone service), you will soon transfer over to the more refined Google Voice and it has been worth the wait.

Unfortunately, “ring back tones” are gone, as well as “outbound” call recording, but they might be back sooner then we expect.

With Google Voice, we can no longer call Canadian numbers free, something I used to do plenty on GrandCentral, but we do gain VERY competitive international rates to many countries, something we didnt even have ability to do before; call internationally.

We also gain voicemail transcript, so now you can get an email or text of what your voicemail said. That service is still a little off, and needs more refining and works better if the other person speaks naturally, not fast, and not on an un-clear line.

I just wanted to put up my little widget for people to click on it and give me a call. 99% of the time, I DO NOT ANSWER, so feel free to leave a voicemail. If its a good one, it might even make it onto the blog, text and voice and all. If you block your phone number, be sure to leave a call back number or way to contact you so I can ask permission to use your voice in my blog.

***Nevermind, Google is too fucking stupid to actually make an embed code that works for WordPress! How fucking ignorant!?***

Have a good one people, and click above for the widget to call me!

Voicemail transcription is freakily awesome.

Google has unleashed upon us its rebranding of GrandCentral with neato features like Voicemail transcription.

When I logged into my GrandCentral account, I was given the option to keep GrandCentral or to upgrade to Google Voice. I’ve futzed around with the interface a little and am very impressed by its Gmail-like feel. I also tested out the free SMS capability and it works like a charm.

Check out Adam Pash’s screenshot tour over at Lifehacker.

via Lifehacker

State of the Art – Unify the Phone Numbers and All Else Follows – NYTimes.com

FREE VOICE MAIL TRANSCRIPTIONS From now on, you don’t have to listen to your messages in order; you don’t have to listen to them at all. In seconds, these recordings are converted into typed text. They show up as e-mail messages or text messages on your cellphone.

I have been a GrandCentral user for over a year now. I was still happy that the product was function, but there were some functionalities I wish had been there, but I put up with it. I’ve used the call screening to know who was calling before I answered. I do like the transcriptions. Yes they are off, but It’s no worse than JOTT did when I used them.

One thing I LOVE is they added SMS texting. You can now Text my GrandCentral #. Woot.

Another thing I love is there is now easy dialing without adding someone to your contact list on the website. This was a major pain. But calling from your mobile is still a bit of a pain. So I want an iPhone app from Google.

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sumber dan informasi lebih lanjut : agriculture.newholland. Written by sintanauli. Maret 14, 2009 at 12:00 am. Posted in environtment, innovasi, sci-tech. « Tahun pertama,… Nude Sledging Championships. …[More..]

The long wait is over…for those of us that have been die-hard GrandCentral fans, we know that they stopped accepting new customers/new phone numbers, quite a while ago, like early last year. Google purchased them sometime last year and everything has since been on HOLD since (no Pun intended!). But some new announcements just head the press this week and things are heating up again. In fact, there is now an “Invite” on their webpage now. Make sure you get an account ASAP while you still can!

GOOGLE VOICE (GrandCentral)…it’s worth every penny (It’s still FREE!!!).

GET AN INVITE!

Some of my favorite features are, you can have ONE LOCAL NUMBER, through GrandCentral/GoogleVoice, which routes all of your other phone numbers into it. You can have calls ring EVERY phone in the system at the same time, i.e. cell phone, work phone, home phone, spouse’s phone. Anyone can pick-up and answer the incoming call.

You can also SCREEN callers...like we used to know with our old answering machine systems at home (does anyone even still have those?), and as the person is leaving the message, pick-up, “Oh hey, it’s me, I’m just got out of the shower and hear you calling”…Well now, through the beauty of technology, we can listen to the incoming call on our cell phone and it anytime hit the button (can’t remember which, like #8), and it than picks-up in the middle of their voice message. PRETTY DANG COOL! (I’m easily amused!).

Also, a brand new feature I’m excited about is Voice Mail Transcribing! As soon as you get an incoming call, it coverts the Voicemail to TEXT and emails you what was said via text as well! Very cool!

• Call screening – Announce and screen callers
• Listen in – Listen before taking a call
• Block calls – Keep unwanted callers at bay
• SMS – Send, receive, and store SMS
• Place calls – Call US numbers for free
• Taking calls – Answer on any of your phones
• Phone routing – Phones ring based on who calls
• Forwarding phones – Add phones and decide which ring
• Voicemail transcripts – Read what your voicemail says
• Listen to voicemail – Check online or from your phone
• Notifications – Receive voicemails via email or SMS
• Personalize greeting – Vary greetings by caller
• Share voicemail – Forward or download voicemails

http://www.google.com/voice/about

I’ve been a Grand Central user since before Google bought them. But it seemed that GC users were left behind because there were no new features added and GC never went out of beta. Now that Google has finally rolled out several major upgrades and changed the name to Google Voice, I’m excited. Here are my first impressions:

Upgrade experience

I had to wait for the message that told me that my account was ready to be upgraded. In the meantime, I just logged into Grand Central as usual. When the upgrade message appeared on my inbox page, I clicked through.

The upgrade process was easy enough, you’ll get the chance to link your Google Voice account with your Google account. You also have to agree to their TOS and read the privacy policy.

What’s transferred, what’s left behind

Google Voice will migrate your Grand Central number, PIN, forwarding phone info.

Google Voice doesn’t keep your Grand Central call logs and voicemail. If you have any groups or individual greetings in Grand Central, you’ll need to recreate them.

You can still log into www.grandcentral.com to get them.

Export your Grand Central address book

When I logged in to my newly upgraded Google Voice account, I was shocked that my address book didn’t show up. My initial reaction was wtf? But a quick scan provided me with the instructions to export from Grand Central.

Voicemail transcription

One of the coolest features (I think) is the one that transcribes incoming voicemail to text. I called my Grand Central Google Voice number and left myself a message. There are caveats to the transcription: “Results will vary due to background noise, accent or speed of the message.” I think my voice was a little low to be effectively transcribed. Google Voice transcribed 91% of the words in my voicemail correctly. But then again, I kept my voice lowered on purpose – what crazy person leaves himself a voicemail? Some words that didn’t transcribe: seller’s became sellis; worth became worse; place became please. GV may have a tough time with speech impediments, like lisps and stuttering in addition to strong accents.

More info to come

I shall update this post as I use more of the new features. Stay tuned!