Geek Swagger.
Saving Money With Google Voice
Jul 27th
Let’s be honest, paying $20 a month for unlimited texting is ridiculous. Text messaging uses less data than almost any other service a wireless company provides, and yet it is one of the most expensive. You can read more about the cost of providing text messaging to wireless providers , but one of the more notable quotes from the article is just below.
"Six hundred text messages contain less data than one minute of a phone call. If we put that into dollars and cents, at twenty cents per text, those six hundred messages would cost $120 for the equivalent of a one minute phone call."
So just do away with texting, right? Get a data plan! You can do so much more with a data plan and it doesn’t cost a whole lot more per month than ulimited texting on most carriers. There is one problem, however. Texting is popular. There’s a good chance that you have more than a couple people in your life that love to text, so getting rid of or cutting back your texting plan would mean cutting off communication with them or risking overage charges every month when you exceed your text limit. That’s the problem I was facing, until I implemented Google Voice properly.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had Google Voice for a while and always thought it was a neat service. Essentially how it works is Google will provide you with your own phone number, and then this number can be forwarded on to your actual number (or any other phone number you have). Additionally you can use your Google Voice number to send free text messages on the web or from your phone! I actually prefer using Google Voice to text because I can do it right from so it’s like chatting on an IM client (there are far fewer that way).
To be honest the trickiest part of moving to Google Voice as my primary texting platform was getting the people I text most-often adjusted to my Google Voice number, and training myself to load the on my phone instead of going straight to the standard text messaging application. In both scenarios I applied a bit of brute force, and time. I would suggest starting with just the handful of people you text most often, for instance your family members, close friends and significant other or spouse. The next time you see them (after you’ve set up your Google Voice account, of course) ask to borrow their phone for a second. Just go into their contacts application, replace your current number with your Google Voice number and you’re all set! If you’ve set your Google Voice phone number to forward to your mobile phone number then you can receive calls and texts from them for free. It’s as easy as that.
VoiceMac - A Desktop Google Voice Application
I do have one more tip if you’re planning on switching to Google Voice. I mentioned above that I like texting with Google Voice because the web app makes the experience more like sending an instant message than playing finger ballet on my phone’s small screen. That’s true, but I also think that the Google Voice website is in need for a redesign with some functionality enhancements. One of the most annoying parts of using is that you have to manually refresh the page to see new texts as they come in. There is good news, however! If you’re using a Mac, there’s a cool desktop Google Voice client called VoiceMac that automatically shows you new texts as they come in, just as though it were an instant message in iChat. VoiceMac supports growl notifications as well, so you’ll never miss an important text, and best yet it’s completely free. You can take a look if you’d like.
I haven’t tried any of the Google Voice desktop clients for Windows but a quick Google search shows that there are some available, so don’t shy away if you’re not using a Mac. Now that I’m using Google Voice I was able to pare back my texting plan from $20 a month for 5000 texts to $4.99 for 250 a month, which is Verizon’s bare minimum package. That’s means I’m saving almost $200 a year by relying on my data plan that I was already paying for anyways! If you’ve had success cutting your monthly bills down by implementing free web services please let me know about them in the comments, or if you’re a Google Voice fan tell me what your favorite feature is! I do have a couple of Google Voice invites if you’d like to give the service a try. They’ll be available on a first-come, first served basis so don’t hesitate!
Is Android Tablet Abundance a Problem?
May 24th
I was taking a look at an article on Mashable about the new HTC Flyer tablet, a 7-inch newcomer rocking a 1.5 GHz processor with 16 gigabytes of storage and dual cameras. I could go on listing features but it has the standard affair for premium Android tablets: Bluetooth capability, HDMI output and expandable storage through microSD. Basically, it seems like a pretty solid Android tablet with a nice set of features.
Next I scrolled down to the comments section of the article to see what people were saying about it and, spam comments aside, most people were waiting for something for a different tablet. I found at least 3 separate devices that have launched or are launching in the same timeframe that folks would rather buy instead, including the Transformer from Asus, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 from Samsung and the recently released Motorola Xoom. One of the best parts about the Android operating system as opposed to iOS is that any hardware manufacturer can create a device for it. Ultimately this means more options for users, so rather than being stuck with one iPad model you can choose from several different Android models to find what fits best. Right?
In the end I’m wondering if all of these new tablets and phones being released every month end up confusing customers, or end up causing techies to wait and wait for the perfect model. I see a lot of folks bargaining with themselves in comments for new tablet announcements. Things like “This model is pretty good but next month Acer is coming out with XYZ that will have an even FASTER dual-core processor” or “I like this one but have you heard about Samsung’s new ABC? It’s supposed to have double the on-board storage!” At some point there’s a reluctance to commit to a single product when something newer and better is right around the corner. The only problem is that once next month arrives something even newer will be announced, causing folks to be stuck in an infinite wait loop.
In some ways I’m wondering if part of the reason for Apple’s success with the iPhone and iPad isn’t that it’s a much simpler purchasing decision. Typically for both products there’s one new version per year, so unless you buy right before a new version is announced you can be pretty sure that you have the latest and greatest. On Android you can buy a phone or tablet and it’ll be outdated in a week. Anybody have thoughts about this? Is Apple’s admittedly limited product line a testament to their dictator-style approach to product development, or does it make it a little easier for us decide what to buy? In a way, as there is no clear answer, I’m sure it’s a bit of both.
Google Adds Desktop Updates to Gmail
Jan 28th
Alright, yes. I love Sparrow and try to use it as much as possible BUT what am I to do when I'm working from Windows? Truthfully I usually just head back to the web browser version of gmail. The good news is that Google improved their already excellent webmail service this wee by adding desktop alerts similar to what you may have seen in Outlook, or with any mac application that supports .
Wait, there's more?
So first let me say that these HTML5 alerts are only available if you're running Gmail from Google's Chrome browser. That's kind of disappointing if you're a fan of other browsers but Chrome happens to be my favorite across-browser so I'm set. It's also worth noting that these updates aren't just limited to new email messages, you can also receive Google Talk alerts as well. This is especially useful because I'm terrible when it comes to hearing the gtalk audio notification, so the extra visual cue is a big help. Finally, if you're a fan of the priority inbox that is new to gmail you can set the notifications to only fire when a new high-priority message comes through. Pretty cool!
Well, since today's post is admittedly light on words (because really how much can you say about email notifications) here is a video that's funny and has a catchy song in it. Enjoy.
The Google CR-48 and Chrome OS
Jan 7th
In case you missed it, Google had an event not too long ago which detailed Chrome OS in-depth and, in effect, "launched" the cloud-based operating system. Chrome OS has been available for some time now, but it was never available as a product - you could download a copy of it and install it yourself, but starting this year you'll be able to purchase devices with Chrome OS pre-installed.
Chrome OS in a nutshell
If you haven't heard of Chrome OS before, it's very similar to Google's Chrome web browser. In fact, from a user interface perspective it's basically identical. The first thing you see when you login to Chrome OS is a window that looks just like the Chrome browser, and from there you can navigate the web and use various cloud services and web applications to get your computing done. The idea with Chrome OS is to work 100% on the cloud, which means you can't get a whole lot done if you don't have an internet connection, but more on that below. Chrome OS also has the existing Chrome web app store built-in, so you can run various rich web applications much like normal programs on Windows or Mac OSX.
CR-48
As I mentioned above Google will be partnering with hardware manufacturers to preload Chrome OS on certain devices available later this year, but at the Chrome OS launch even they also unveiled their own custom laptop running Chrome OS that is being used for testing purposes. As is usually the case, everyone in the audience had an opportunity to take one home for free, but Google also opened availability up to the public. It makes sense, they want to have as many folks try Chrome OS as possible so that they can work out the kinks before people start spending money on the hardware. The sign-up page is still available as of the day I'm writing this post, so head on over and if you'd like to try the CR-48 out. Not everyone gets picked but who knows, you might get lucky!
My Thoughts
It seems like Chrome OS is the perfect operating system for someone who needs a thin client. Say for instance you're a traveling business person, or someone who just needs a modest computer for meetings. However it could also have big implications in various areas, such as schools. Presumably when hardware running Chrome OS is released for purchase it will be a much more inexpensive alternative to traditional computers, I'm just wondering where they'll fit in the grand scheme of things with the prevalence of tablets lately. Even Google has its own tablet play, not the hardware per se but more and more Android-based tablets are coming out every month. So really, I'm just kind of curious about which attributes will cause a person to buy a Chrome OS device over a tablet. Some obvious benefits are larger displays, physical keyboards and not having the burden of storing information locally since the device is entirely cloud-based. In the end what will make or break Chrome OS will be the apps. If folks can get an experience that's very close to a traditional desktop computer for cheap then it could take off.
My hope is that when these devices come out they're super cheap...I'm talking sub $200. Since you need an internet connection for them to be used I wouldn't be surprised if they were subsidized, or even if they came free with a data package from one of the major wireless providers like Verizon (the CR-48 has a Verizon data connection). My worry is that Chrome OS was mostly developed and conceived of when netbooks were the big thing, but since that time the popularity of netbooks have died down and tablets are taking off.
As a web developer I'm very interested in what folks think about the CR-48 and Chrome OS in general. How much of your computing takes place while you're on the web? Do you think you could use ONLY the web to get your computing done? Would you buy a Chrome OS device? Leave a comment below and let me know!
