Google Voice is probably the coolest service you can get for your phone. Of course the hard part is still getting an invitation. Well for those of you already in, here’s another new feature that you might be excited about. You now have the option to forward text messages to an email address.
This feature is similar to what they already offer for voicemails. Only they (obviously) don’t have to mess with transcribing the message. You’ll also be able to respond to such text messages from your email. Since you can also choose to not have your SMS messages sent to your phone, you could avoid text messaging fees by simply using this new feature. Granted, that would be an annoying way to do things, but it is possible. Google Voice just keeps getting more awesome with each passing month. Now where are those invites that everyone is waiting for?
You’ve probably heard me mention Google Voice once or twice, mostly because I love the service. Almost every phone call and text message I receive these days is to my Google Voice number. With a handy app for my iPhone, I even call out using it. Unfortunately the only downside to the service is that it’s a rather exclusive club.
Earlier this week we reported that Google had purchased 1 million new numbers for the service. Well yesterday the precious invites that everyone has been waiting for went out. Some of them at least. I know a few people that signed up some time ago for an invite that didn’t receive an invite. Hopefully at some point they will allow current users to invite a few friends, similar to how the Gmail beta got going. One cool thing about the number picker is that you can actually type in words, letters or numbers that you want included in your Google Voice number. I wish they had that when I signed up.
I’m a huge fan of Google Voice, which was previously known as GrandCentral. I was an early adopter to the service, so I’m one of the lucky few that actually managed to snag a number. If you’re not familiar, Google Voice gives you a number that conveniently forwards to any phones you would like. It includes features like sending/receiving text messages, transcribing voicemails and more. The only downside to the service is that they haven’t given out new numbers in a very long time.
While Google hasn’t yet announced their plans to start handing out, we do have news that the search giant has secured 1 million new numbers from Level 3 (which is whom they’ve previously purchased numbers from). There’s little doubt that Google will soon start sending out invitations. It’s (currently) a free service, so if you’re interested, I’d head over to their site and get registered.
The first Android smartphone to hit the market was the T-Mobile G1. The device was met with enthusiasm by many fans of open source phones, but there were some teething problems with the new OS. It took Google and T-Mobile a bit to get things sorted and other smartphone makers and mobile carriers watched to see how the G1 did before jumping into the Android waters.
Now that the kinks are mostly sorted out of the Android OS, more and more new smartphones are being announced that would run the operating system. Strategy Analytics says that in 2009 Android will be the fastest growing smartphone OS with a predicted growth rate of 900% for the year.
Oh Google, you will never cease to amaze me with your advanced knowledge of the interweb. It seems like not a week goes by that I don’t discover something new and wonderful tool that you’ve created. Why, just this morning I’ve stumbled onto your Autopilot for Gmail.
As you can imagine, I get a lot of email from PR companies and such, and I honestly don’t have time to read all of them. Sure, many of them are interesting, but I have the attention span of a 4-year-old when it comes to my inbox. But thanks to Gmail Autopilot, I don’t need to read them, let alone actually respond. All you need to do is let the Autopilot read a sampling of your conversations (more than 100 is ideal), then adjust a few simple settings and it will do the rest.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve been meaning to update my resume, I remember hearing something about Google opening a moonbase a little while back. I totally need to get in on that.
I don’t know if any of you got on the GrandCentral bandwagon back when they were still handing out numbers, but it’s one of my favorite Google services (next to my Gmail). Basically I have one number that I give out to everyone, I then have it ring both my house phone and my iPhone when someone calls it. If my cell phone or house number changes, I just log into my GrandCentral account and update it, and no one has to memorize a new number for me. If I want someone to stop calling, I just click a little button and when they call, GrandCentral tells them that my number has been disconnected. Pretty sweet, no? The big downside is that Google hasn’t been sending out any invites, and honestly they haven’t made any real changes to it in a very long time, making people wonder if it might get axed. Finally yesterday they announced Google Voice, which is essentially the new face of GrandCentral.
I’ve been using Gmail for around 4 years now. I’ve pretty much routed all of my email through there, because its just easier to use and keep track of. There was a period where I was a bit worried since it was still in beta, but after a while I realized that practically everything but the search engine is considered “in beta”. Well if you need a comforting reminder of your favorite webmail client, even when you’re offline, you might try these Gmail stickers.
The crazy cats over at Google made a few stickers, which they liked enough to share with the world. These include a glittery m-velope sticker, one of three bookplate style stickers and a set of Gmail keyboard shortcut stickers. Just send off a self-addressed stamped envelope to the address below.
Send me some Gmail stickers already
P.O. Box 391420
Mountain View, CA 94039-1420
Last week the GeoEye-1 satellite, which is co-owned/sponsored by Google, took a photo(above) of the Kutztown University campus in Pennsylvania. The satellite is primarily funded by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency(NGA) with Google being the second largest funder.
The satellite is able to take pictures at a resolution of 41cm which is close enough to zoom in on the home plate of a baseball diamond. Google is only allowed to receive photos that are a maximum of 50cm resolution due to government restrictions. The NGA will receive their photos at a 43cm resolution.
Even with restrictions the satellite will provide Google Earth and Google Maps with the best pictures yet.
Right now the GeoEye-1 is undergoing calibration to ensure it achieves maximum resolution.
Related Tags: Cellphones, Google
Permalink
