The Google Voice App Fiasco: With the FCC Involved, Will the Truth Finally Come Out?

Om Malik on August 1, 2009

Last week’s Google Voice fiasco, which has led to a lot of fear and loathing — in the iPhone developer community, the blog community and in the media — has finally reached a point that the Federal Communications Commission is looking to investigate the matter.
In fact, the FCC has sent letters (below the fold) to Apple, AT&T and Google. I bet that now we’ll finally see some kind of “truth” emerge about the whole situation. By the way, in a poll in which we asked our readers who was to blame for the fiasco, nearly 35 percent blamed Apple and about 33 percent blamed both Apple and AT&T. Nearly 275 people have voted thus far. Read More about The Google Voice App Fiasco: With the FCC Involved, Will the Truth Finally Come Out?

The Fact & Fiction of Google Voice’s iPhone Rejection

Om Malik on July 28, 2009

[qi:gigaom_icon_voip] Updated: This morning’s tempest in the teapot involves Google Voice apps being rejected by Apple’s iPhone store. iPhone App Developer Sean Kovacs says his GV mobile app was pulled and since then several others have been rejected by Apple as well. Even Google’s official app has been turned down, because apparently it “duplicates features that come with the iPhone.” Some allege that Apple is doing this at AT&T’s behest.
That is just flat-out wrong: If it were true, then Google Voice would be banned on BlackBerry devices that use AT&T as well. As of this morning, everything is working fine on my AT&T-connected Bold (except for the usual dropped calls, of course). And are people forgetting that you need AT&T’s voice network to send and receive Google Voice calls? Read More about The Fact & Fiction of Google Voice’s iPhone Rejection

Meet Google, Your Phone Company

Om Malik on July 14, 2009

[qi:gigaom_icon_voip] Can Google (s Goog) be your phone company? The answer is yes. I came to that conclusion after I met with Vincent Paquet, co-founder of GrandCentral (a company acquired by Google) and now a member of the Google Voice team. Earlier today he stopped by our office to show the mobile app versions of its Google Voice service for Blackberry (s RIMM) and Android. Google recently announced that it was going to make the Voice service widely available to users in the U.S. soon. Read More about Meet Google, Your Phone Company

Google Voice to Offer Phone and Messaging Services

Charles Hamilton on June 19, 2009

google-voice-logoGoogle 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. Read More about Google Voice to Offer Phone and Messaging Services

GrandCentral Lives On As Google Voice

Judi Sohn on March 12, 2009

voice-logoIn a comment on a post here on WWD, David Pogue told us that change was coming soon to GrandCentral, and of course he was right. GrandCentral is FINALLY relaunching as Google Voice.

Om has details about the back-from-the-sleeping service over on GigaOM.

In addition to opening the service up to new users, Om reports that Google Voice will host a suite of new VoIP features:

  1. You can use your GrandCentral number to send and receive SMS messages, and have them forwarded to your current wireless phone. You can send messages from the mobile or from the landline phone.
  2. Make phone calls using the web or your mobile/landline phone.
  3. You can get transcripts for voicemails left on Google Voice. These transcripts, based on internal Google technology currently being used by GOOG-411 service, can be sent to you via SMS.
  4. Create conference calls by dragging phone numbers onto existing calls. This will be useful for small businesses and web workers.
  5. Free calls to all U.S. numbers. You can make international calls but that will cost you, depending on the country you are dialing.

Google Voice will also integrate with Google contacts, which will be a very welcome change.

None of these new features are groundbreaking. There are a number of startups that can do what Google Voice does and more. But with Google Voice we can likely expect a simple, straightforward interface and low barrier to entry, with only a Google Account required to sign up.

We’ll have a more in-depth look at Google Voice once it’s widely available.

Rumor: 17-inch MacBook Pro going unibody, no replaceable battery

on January 4, 2009

cimg1074MacWorld is almost here and there are definitely less rumors flurrying about what Apple may do than usual.  One rumor emerging has to do with the refresh of the 17-inch MacBook Pro.  The biggest MacBook was the only model not refreshed last year and it’s no surprise that Apple is planning to go with the unibody of all the new MacBooks.  What is surprising is the rumor that has this model getting a non-replaceable battery a la the MacBook Air.

I can’t believe this is true as the only reason the Air has a fixed battery is due to lack of space.  That’s certainly not true of the big 17-incher so I can’t believe that Apple would take the ability to augment battery life away from the mobile worker by fixing the battery in place like the iPhone.  The rumor also states that Apple is going with a super new battery technology that will last much longer than those in the other MacBooks.  Even so I will only have one word for the fixed battery rumor should it come to pass:  FAIL.

(via 9to5mac)