Google Voice

I was fortunate enough to get invites to both Google Voice and Google Wave this week, but for now I’m going to stick with discussing Google Voice. This is mostly because nobody I know has Google Wave yet and, for a product that’s about collaboration with other people, it makes it hard to form an educated opinion about its usefulness.

Google Voice is a new service from Google which lets you link multiple phone numbers (home phone, work phone, mobile, etc.) to one new number of your choosing, as long as it’s available.  You can search for numbers via keyword (for example your name), area code or zip code.  Once you’ve chosen your new number all you have to do is link your pre-existing numbers to that one and you’ll have access to the host of cool features that Google Voice provides.

The most obvious feature Google Voice provides is call forwarding.  Using the site’s settings you can set Google Voice to forward calls and messages to one of your various phones automatically.  For example, you could set your work phone to only receive Google Voice calls between 9 and 5 on weekdays, or your home phone to only receive calls on weekends.  You can even setup and manage certain groups of contacts and set the default phone for each – for example, if you want to direct work calls to your mobile phone you can do that.

The next feature I like is getting Google into some hot water with carriers – free SMS messaging.  From the Google Voice website you can send text messages to any phone, for free.  Many people have presumed that this feature alone is why the Google Voice application was denied from Apple’s App Store.  You can be sure that AT&T wasn’t too excited about the idea.

One of the best features you get with Google Voice is the purest form of free visual voicemail I’ve ever seen.  Voicemails sent to your Google Voice account are automatically transcribed to text and forwarded to the Google Voice website where you have an inbox for all incoming messages.  The transcriptions are surprisingly accurate, but you can also playback the message from the website if there are a few missed words.  As you would expect, from your Google Voice inbox you can read incoming messages as though you were reading email from your Gmail inbox.  You can search for messages, leave notes to yourself and even add stars to important messages so you can come back to them later.

All said I think Google Voice is an excellent service.  I can only hope that someone at Apple or AT&T decides to let the application through to the App Store.  If not, you can bet that Google will work on a mobile web version of Google Voice like they’ve done with most of their other services, and we’ll get access to it anyways.

Subscribe to Jason Calacanis’s Newsletter

The headline pretty much says it all.  Jason Calacanis, founder of Mahalo.com, puts out an extremely intriguing newsletter every now and again that’s totally free.  Who is Jason?  Well, he’s basically a successful tech entrepreneur who is business-minded but doesn’t neglect the inner geek.  You might have seen or heard him on the This Week In Tech podcast, which he participates in from time to time.

I have to admit, at first glance Mr. Calacanis might rub people the wrong way.  His brash manner and uninhibited honesty is a departure from the norm, but that’s also the reason he’s garnered my respect.  That’s what inspired me to subscribe to his newsletter when I first heard about it a few months ago.  That being said I tended to ignore it when it landed in my inbox for the first few times.  That has changed.

A couple weeks ago Jason sent out his now famous email about the Microsoft/Yahoo partnership.  I won’t go into details because they’re readily available online, most notably at his blog, but it was the first newsletter that I took the time to read.  He presented a well-written argument which, if nothing else, inspired me to think a lot more about the matter.  He’s since followed up with emails about Apple and their flight from openness in regards to the iPhone, each equally if not more thought-provoking than the “seppuku” note.  Calacanis provides the perfect mixture of equal parts experience and opinion that stimulates great discussion, and he doesn’t shy away from readers replying to his comments (in fact he has shared some of them in follow-up newsletters).

So, with that said, hit up http://tinyurl.com/jasonslist and subscribe right away.  Even if you don’t agree with everything he writes about it’s a great way to keep in the loop and stimulate thinking.  In the meantime I’ll steadfastly await that next [Jason] subject line to drop into my inbox.

Google’s Eric Schmidt Resigns from Apple Board of Directors

This is a very interesting development given very recent conflicts between Google and Apple/AT&T.  Sure, Steve Jobs has stated that Eric’s resignation was a mutual decision made by both companies because Google’s encroachment on familiar territory is becoming a conflict of interest.  Still, Android has been out for some time, so why now?

One of the biggest stories last week was Apple’s denial of the Google Voice application on the iTunes app store.  The dispute has since been consumed by the gaze of the FCC to determine if this choice was made by AT&T moreso than Apple, or if AT&T in any way influences the content found on the App Store.  If that’s the case, as it may very well be, the ruling could be important for a couple reasons.

1. Consumers have one more reason to detest AT&T
2. It gives no logical support for the claim that the denial of Google applications has anything to do with Schmidt’s descent from the board
3. Consumers have one more reason to dete….oh, I already said that one

Honestly though it doesn’t sound like Apple’s style to bend to the will of AT&T.  They love their products enough to say something to the affect of “Listen, we have a product that has made you millions, you think this app conflicts with your service then tough cookies – we’re working on a Verizon version of the iPhone anyways.”  I’m getting off-track here.

Does this departure setup a feud between Apple and Google?  The two companies have seemed almost philosophically aligned for some time now, and most pundits don’t really consider Android or what we know of Chrome OS as major threats in their individual markets (phone and PC operating systems).  All this time it has been Microsoft who has been desperately trying to compete with the big G, and just when it seems that they’re making a solid go of it the focus might be shifting towards an Apple/Google main event instead.

There is one area in which the philosophies of Apple and Google conflict, however.  Openness.  It’s been proclaimed that this might be the achilles heel of Apple.  Google always happily opens up their projects to developers while Apple severely shies away from such behavior.  Sure, the iTunes App Store is extremely successful, but the only complaint we seem to hear about weekly is that certain apps get shot down for seemingly silly reasons, and of course Apple’s proprietary take on their hardware and software is always criticized.  If Apple had the market share Windows does, they’d have one of the worst monopolies we’ve ever seen.

The only thing we could possibly say Google has a monopoly on is the search engine market, but with Bing approaching 10%+ market share that’s not as much of a compelling case.

Want to win a Drobo?

Me too!  The guys over at My Digital Life are doing a contest where if you post a referral link to their site you’ll get a chance to win a Drobo.  You can find the details here: Only a Few Days Left to Win a Drobo!

As for my link, here it is: HTTP://WWW.MYDL.ME

Tangled Up In Blu

One of my favorite things about Mac OSX are the stylish applications it has.  Applications like Twitterific, NewsFire, Blogo and even Colloquy are all shining examples of beautiful programs that I love to use.  However today I’m not talking about a Mac app, I’m talking about a really cool Windows Twitter client called Blu.  The only caveat is that Blu is so pretty that you might mistake it for an OSX app at first glance.

Blu has a nice translucent blue user interface that’s pretty intuitive.  Want to shorten a URL?  All you have to do is paste it into the update box and it’s automatically done for you.  Not sure how many characters you have left?  Blu counts down the characters as you type behind the update box.  It has separate panes for your direct messages and @ replies.  Even the login screen is impressive, and if you save your login info you get a slick little animation of your details being entered into the fields when Blu starts up.  Add to that the dulcet piano tones you hear whenever a new tweet comes in and you have a neat little package.

I have to say that on Windows this is my absolute favorite Twitter client.  As long as you have the .NET 3.5 framework installed I see no reason to use anything else.  In case you’re wondering I generally use Twhirl when I’m working in OSX.  Also, I can’t take credit for discovering Blu personally as it wasn’t until my buddy @Eddie_Bell started using it that I tried it out for myself.  So, what Twitter client do you use?  If you’re interested, you can find Blu at the link below.

http://www.thirteen23.com/experiences/desktop/blu/

Need a one-time use chatroom?

Well do I have the product for you!  Actually props for this go to Amber MacArthur who tweeted about it.  TinyChat is a site that lets you setup a one-time use chatroom.  It gives your chatroom a unique link identifier (similar to what TinyURL or any link-shortening site does for your links) that you can share around.  Users can either join in using a new username or by logging in with their Twitter credentials which is pretty cool.  Once you’ve logged in you get…as you would expect…a nice small chatroom for you and your friends to communicate in.

You can also do the standard fare for chatrooms, private messaging and the like.  The only thing I don’t know is how long it lasts, I’m assuming that once the final person leaves your chatroom gets closed.  It would be cool if you could save the chatroom and return to it later, that way I could have a constant chat going for this blog or something, but either way I’ve created one and will stay in it for a bit if you happen to see this post.  Just go to:

http://www.tinychat.com/ivuo and say hello!

Ubisoft’s XIII receives a miniseries on NBC

If you liked the cel-shaded shooter XIII as much as I did, you were probably disappointed with its ending.  The game was great and it definitely setup a sequel at the end, but for whatever reason we never received the follow-up title (XIII 2?  XIV?).  Fortunately NBC has taken on a miniseries by the same name, and maybe we’ll finally get some resolution because of it.

The first part is up right now.  I watched it last night and it remained pretty faithful to the original concept.  All of the same characters are there, and all of the same basic plot points remained intact.  It’s only a 2-parter though, each part being about an hour and a half.  You can view the first part here, and the second part will be up on Sunday, February 15th:

http://www.hulu.com/watch/56944/xiii-xiii-part-1

Buzzword becomes shareable

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Live Mesh for Mac

Here’s my video post for the week.  I decided that since I did a video about Dropbox, and since I sort of criticized Microsoft during that video for not rolling out Mac support with Live Mesh, I’d go ahead and follow up now that that support is available.  Live Mesh is a lot like Dropbox with some unique features that make it either better or worse, depending on your point a view.  Take a look and leave a comment if you have anything to say!  Thanks for watching!

Now Playing:
Jedi Mind Tricks – Tug of War
Left 4 Dead, Call of Duty : World at War

Pandora Radio and complementary tools

Pandora Radio has changed the way I’ve listened to music.  It’s the most powerful music recommendation application I’ve ever used, and it’s led to me spending a lot on new albums.  If you’re a music lover looking to broaden your horizons, check it out at pandora.com.

In this video not only do I talk about Pandora Radio, but some complementary tools to improve your Pandora listening experience.  The first tool is PandoraBoy, a Google Code project that runs Pandora as an application (OSX only, but Pandora also has a platform-independent Adobe AIR application).  This is cool for a couple reasons – first of all, it lets you cut out the big advertisements that are on Pandora.com and in the Adobe AIR version of Pandora, and secondly it adds some functionality (Growl notifications, keyboard shortcuts) which only a desktop application can deliver.

The second tool is a plugin for Adium, which is (in my opinion) the best instant messenger client for OSX.  The script lets you use whatever is playing in PandoraBoy as your Adium status.  If you’ve used iTunes to show your Now Playing song in Adium you’ll know what I mean.  Check out the video and leave a comment!  Thanks for watching!

PandoraBoy
http://code.google.com/p/pandoraboy/

“Now Playing in Pandora” Adium script
http://www.adiumxtras.com/index.php?a=xtras&xtra_id=4604

Pandora Radio

Now Playing:
Young Dubliners – Follow Me Up To Carlow
Fallout 3