Google Voice

[gr8fl4porsche]

Finally received my invite - only took about a week.

Now what? I know what it does but why do I want it?

Anyone else use it?

[onlycafe]

haven't heard of it.
what it is?

[gr8fl4porsche]

It's a free service by Google that lets you choose a new phone number and it forwards calls to up to 5 different phones simultaneously. Also features visual voice mail and text interpreting.

Someone can call your new number and it can ring at your office, cell phone or home at the same time so you don't miss a call. Google captures the voice mail (if you don't answer), and alerts you via text message or email. The voice mail is a .mp3 and also gets converted to text so you can read the message rather than listening to it.

Also allows multiple folks to call you at the same time and you can patch the calls together - sort of a reverse conference call. Provides for call recording while in the middle of a call (while notifying the other party that they are being recorded).

All cool stuff but I'm not sure why anyone wants to use it when my iphone does many of the same things.

[cl8ton]

Randy, this was posted on TechCrunch yesterday! Hope you enjoyed your 1 day of service!

AT&T: You want answers?

TechCrunch: We think we’re entitled to them.

AT&T: You want answers?!

TechCrunch: We want Google Voice on our iPhones.

AT&T: You can’t handle the iPhone with Google Voice!

Son, we operate on network that has walls. And those walls have to be guarded by carriers with restrictions. Who’s gonna do it? You? You, Verizon Wireless? We have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for Google Voice and you curse AT&T. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what we know: That pulling Google Voice, while tragic, probably saved the network. And our existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves the network.

You don’t want the Google Voice on your iPhone. Because deep down, in places you don’t talk about at TechCrunch50, you want us protecting the network. You need us protecting that network. We use words like rate limiting, application approval and restrictions…we use these words as the backbone to a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline.

We have neither the time nor the inclination to explain ourselves to a blog who writes and profits under the blanket of the very network that we provide, then questions the manner in which we provide it. We’d prefer you just said thank you and went on your way. Otherwise, we suggest you pick up a router and build your own network. Either way, We don’t give a damn what you think you’re entitled to.

TechCrunch: Did you order Google Voice taken down?

AT&T: We did the job you sent us to do.

TechCrunch: Did you order Google Voice taken down?

AT&T: You’re goddamn right we did.

[gr8fl4porsche]

In case you don't have it, Visual Voicemail is where your phone or Google Voice records a voice mail and you can see who called, when they called, play the message, fast forward, rewind, send the message to someone else. Much better than listening to a whole string of messages to get to the one you want.

[gr8fl4porsche]

That's great! Very well written.

[gr8fl4porsche]

Been playing with it a little tonight. The text transcribing works perfect. Called myself, left a message and Google texted me with the caller id and message. Cool stuff but I doubt I'll ever give out the new number.

FYI - if your iphone is jailbroken, GV Mobile is free and available thru Cydia. The app works well but is not the google product which Apple and ATT removed. It is not as fully functional as the real deal.

[stomachmonkey]

AOL has had a similar service for a couple of years now.

Was interesting at first but the novelty wore off quick.

My cell phone is never off or out of reach.

It's the one number anyone I may want to talk to knows to call.

[gtc]

So they're datamining phone conversations now?

[Schumi]

Amazing service, but doesn't work the way I need it to. I don't want/can't give people a new phone number. What I need is all those features on my current number. If I could somehow tie my current cell number to this service, that would be awesome.


AT&T would NOT like that. They charge hundreds of dollars a month for similar services to millions of people around the country. Google is doing this for free.

Why can google do all that for free? BECAUSE DATA IS CHEAP. A text message or voicemail costs 1/100000000th of a penny to store. Google has petabytes of storage capacity and cheap cheap bandwidth. They aren't out to screw people.


I hate the phone companies. More power to google for doing things like this.

People talk about monopolies and corperate dominance of google... but how can the government get pissed at google for supplying all these services for free? It's not like Microsoft where they are forcing people to use their browser. They are giving it to you. You can pay for some other companies if you want, but google is free.



Wow I'm ranting. Sorry. Bad day here.

[m21sniper]

Originally Posted by gr8fl4porsche

That's great! Very well written.

Your age is showing bro.

That's an almost word for word heist of one of the most famous movie scenes of the early 90s.

[Schumi]

Originally Posted by gr8fl4porsche

That's great! Very well written.

1:35


:-)

[gr8fl4porsche]

Originally Posted by m21sniper

Your age is showing bro.

That's an almost word for word heist of one of the most famous movie scenes of the early 90s.

I remember the scene well. That's why I thought it was a clever use of Jack's characters speech combined with the nonspeak coming out of ATT/Apple.

Now if I could just wrap my head around why people need this service.

Can't really come up with a practical use for it when most cell phone services duplicate the free benefits. I could save a few bucks a month and use Google's free SMS in place of the ATT text plan - but I probably won't since I have to open 2 apps to text instead of one on the iphone.

[Schumi]

Originally Posted by gr8fl4porsche

I remember the scene well. That's why I thought it was a clever use of Jack's characters speech combined with the nonspeak coming out of ATT/Apple.

Now if I could just wrap my head around why people need this service.

Can't really come up with a practical use for it when most cell phone services duplicate the free benefits. I could save a few bucks a month and use Google's free SMS in place of the ATT text plan - but I probably won't since I have to open 2 apps to text instead of one on the iphone.

And this is why Apple will not allow Google Voice's app on the iPhone. Because you could cancel some of AT&T's services and use google's free ones...

[cl8ton]

The taking down of GVoice ordered by AT&T gets to the very fear they have of the Internet, old school
print journalism has been experiencing this reality for several years.

Apple just provided the platform allowing a virtual cell phone to be written and ran on top of a real cell phone.

It has all the features of real cell phone actually more, but is entirely free except for the internet
connection which is really minimal in cost.

VoIP, streaming media and mico/blogging has all but rendered old school brick and mortar media companies obsolete.

How many still have a land line at their house? I canceled mine.
I actually prefer Hulu now days. I reduced my sat tv to just basic channels.
I get my main news several times a day as it is happening. I canceled my local newspaper.
I use GVoice (for now) running in the IPhone, Skype before that.

They saw this coming for years yet they thought it was just a fad!

[Schumi]

Now all google has to do is release an embedded, touchscreen, palm- like device that runs a simple OS that has an integrated browser pointed at google apps that can use all the features Google Voice. Make it to where it can connect to wifi or if it cannot find wifi then use an AT&T 3G internet connection for a small price.


I would throw my cell phone in a fire right then and there.

[cl8ton]

Originally Posted by Schumi

Now all google has to do is release an embedded, touchscreen, palm- like device that runs a simple OS that has an integrated browser pointed at google apps that can use all the features Google Voice

Android runs on Palm Pre and couldn't give a rip about the carrier!

[cl8ton]

Multiple, online news reporting the FCC is now involved with the take down of GVoice, something about AT&T’s monopolistic tendencies (not them!)

I for one hope AT&T gets sodomized before this investigation is over with.
This is the beginning to the end of contracts in the cell business!

[porsche4life]

I applied for my invite. Have no clue what I will do with it but it will be fun to play with.

[porsche4life]

How the hell do I chose a number. There are none available from my area.