Google Talk + Voice = Unlimited Free Calls

As myself an evangelizer of what I say "telecommunication 2.0", I am happy to see the proof of GrandCentral not being killed off by Google. Yes, Google launched their Voice service as a "preview" based on GrandCentral and it's existing users.

Although Teleflip, an email-over-SMS service, is a goner, Google has integrated SMS in to their Voice service. Well, it's no replacement of Teleflip since the concept is pretty much the opposite, but with push email becoming more common, this type of service is probably unnecessary. However, the other way around would be useful; you can receive text messages on Google Voice number even though it is not a mobile phone number. Now, only if this feature would forward messages to your email account, I can really get rid of my text-messaging plans.

As I pointed out in my earlier post, you can use Google Voice and Gizmo5 to make free calls within the U.S. Now you can also make cheap international calls; maybe cheaper than Skype.

BTW, what do I mean by "Google Talk + Voice = Unlimited Free Calls"? Well, this is the case with Google Voice and Gizmo5 as of now. But will Gizmo5 be happy about this model? I doubt it as this brings traffic to Gizmo5 without any immediate revenue. If this becomes an issue, Google can always turn to itself, Google Talk which is it's own VoIP service. Then, totally within Google's own hands, it can provide a free VoIP (Internet-to-landline) service.

GrandCentral Up-to-dates

As a "telecommunication 2.0" preacher, here are some updates regarding to Google's telephony service, "GrandCentral".

Click2Call Has Been Alive

I posted earlier that Click2Call may have been dropped, but Vincent@GrandCentral quickly posted a comment that it was not the case. And true, I am still able to use this feature; it may just have been a glitch.

Another thing was the lack of documentation regarding Click2Call. It doesn't mention this name, but it's now described in the help.

Forwarding Number Can Be Shared

Finally something new! One inconvenience was that a forwarding number could only be activated with one account, or one GC number. But now, a forwarding number can be used on multiple accounts, according to GC Blog.

Example:
My roommate and I each have a GC number. We want to forward that to the same home phone that we share.
Before, this was not possible, but now it's allowed.

My wife and I each had a GC number and was impacted by this limitation so I really have to try this out.

Other Help Documentation Updates

Some articles seems to be added in the help center including mentions about iPhone. This is good. At least this confirms that Goolge is putting some effort to make GC compatible with iPhone.

Although minor, it's good to see some updates so that we know Google is not ditching services after they acquire them.

GrandCentral Disables Click2Call?

It seems that Click2Call has been disabled at GrandCentral.

This is one of the appealing feature where you can make a call directly from there online address book. When you hit CALL on the address book, it will call both yours and the other party's phone and then bridge the calls.

When I tried to use this feature today, it did not work. I looked at the help website which now seems to be migrated to Google Help, there is not mentioning about the Click2Call feature.

If they don't bring this feature back, this is very disappointing. I can't preach about this service anymore.

Telecommunication 2.0? (tips and tricks...)

Let me tell you what I am trying to do this past couple months...

Shall I say "telecommunication 2.0"? It's the technology or the service of combining existing voice communication systems and the Internet; such as web 2.0 applications.

If you say telephone 2.0, that may be VoIP, but VoIP itself doesn't really have much appeal. True, in many corporate infrastructures, IP phones are becoming standard. But for most consumers, this doesn't really matter; VoIP is just an infrastructure technology. For the tech savvy, Skype and the sort may be cool, but it's not convenient as existing phones. Carrier backbones may switch to VoIP, but that again really doesn't matter to the consumers. So then, what am I trying to do? Not saying that I like the term "telecommunication 2.0", let me explain what this is about.

Recently, it's very interesting to see a lot of Internet applications that work with the public telephone network. They work with your land line phone or mobile phone and adds convenient features. It's not a replacement, but a complement. And it seems to be more attractive and useful than closed VoIP services which probably comes with bells and whistles. Here are the things I am trying out right now.

• GrandCentral - Lifetime permanent telephone number.
  Now owned by Google, this service provides you a free lifetime phone number. It comes with advanced voicemail and call forwarding feature manageable via a web 2.0 interface. Calls to a GrandCentral number can be received on any of your existing phones. (It can be, but doesn't have to be VoIP!)
• Teleflip - Email over SMS. (Hey, I like this copy... This is mine!)
  They actually have two services.
  flipMail fetches your emails and then sends them to your mobile phone via SMS. As long as you have text messaging (SMS) capability, you don't need a fancy hi-tech mobile phone.
  flipOut is a simple email-to-SMS service. Just send an email to <phone_number>@teleflip.com and it will be delivered via SMS. Plus, the recipient can reply back via SMS and return an email to the sender!
• Pinger - Voice bulletin service.
  I really haven't tested out this service well yet. Basically what it does is that you record a voice message and then Pinger will send out a text message with a call back number. This text message can be sent to as many people as you want. The goal is, you just record once, and that voice message can be delivered to hundreds of people at the same time.
  

Probably there are more of these cool services. But I only brought up some that I thought were promising; plus, we don't want to over complicate here. Managing multiple services is not easy.

Just FYI, I don't have a land line and I'm using Gizmo and/or Skype for that purpose. This is another topic, but here, I consider them as land lines because all I need is a phone number. For mobile, I'm trying to make use of my iPhone but I'm not all happy with it yet. I've been contacting support of the service providers and sending them feedbacks and requests. We'll see how well they'll support the iPhone.

In the near future, I will post more details on each service and also discuss how it can well be used with an iPhone. And of course, your input is always welcome.

Free SkypeIn + SkypeOut Equivalent

Skype has changed the life of many with their SkypeIn and SkypeOut service. At least for me, this is very true as I had depended on this service for an international relationship.

But now that I live in the U.S. and time has brought new things on the table, we can get SkypeIn and SkypeOut equivalent service for free. Maybe I should add "for now", since this is taking advantage of Google's beta program: GrandCentral. Users who sign-up (currently in private beta and requires an invite if you want to avoid long wait) will be provided a U.S. phone number, voicemail, call forwarding and "click-to-call" service. All of this is free during the beta period. There is no information on when or how they might charge this service in the future. Anyways, lets get started.

First, you need to sign up for a GrandCentral account. I recommend you get an invite to get started right away.

Next, download the Gizmo Project VoIP software and sign up for an account if you don't have one already. It's similar to Skype but uses a common SIP protocol instead of a proprietary one. Don't worry, we won't be using any of their fee based service. "Can I use Skype instead? It's already setup on my computer." I completely understand how you feel; I wished the same too. But unfortunately, Skype will do you no good here...

Now you are ready to setup the trick for the free SkypeIn + SkypeOut equivalent. Go to your profile in Gizmo. Take note of your SIP number which starts from "1747". Then, login to your GrandCentral account on the web. In the Settings page, click on "Add/Edit Number" and add the Gizmo SIP number. You are now all set!!

So, what does this do? The phone number you got with GrandCentral will serve as the SkypeIn number + voicemail. When a call is received at the GrandCentral number, it will forward the call to your Gizmo via SIP which will be free. If you are not available, GrandCentral can take voicemails. Then, you can retrieve your message via any phone or preferably the web.

What's equivalent to SkypeOut? The click-to-call feature that is. In the address book, a call button will appear next to the phone numbers. Click on it and make GrandCentral call your Gizmo. Again, this is done via SIP and is free. After you pick up the call on your Gizmo, GrandCentral will make a call to the number on your address book on the same line and you will immediately start to hear the ring tone.

This only works in the U.S. where GrandCentral is providing service but so far so good for me. I have been using this method for work and personal use and has been working great!!

So what is the future of GrandCentral and other Google services? What about Skype and Gizmo? Any good ideas using with iPhone or other mobile devices? Let me bring up this topic on another post.

GrandCentral reports they had problems too... What's up?!

GrandCentral reports that been working over the last several days to take care of a problem affecting about 400 of their users. What's going on with the Internet communication world?!

At least, I am not an affected GrandCentral user. As I stated earlier, I have been using their service with Gizmo smooth and sound.

FYI, the GrandCentral fix is: use a large and reliable carrier. Yeah, go mainstream. How about GrandCentral? Is this large and reliable?

Skype Network is Down

Skype network has been unstable for the past day or two.

It does seem to be getting better. I was not able to sign-in few hours ago, but when I tried now, I was able to. Skype said they disabled Skype downloads, but that seems to be back and available as well.

Not really sure what they mean by "it's a software issue". Obviously, they did not push updates to fix the problem. Since Skype is a P2P network, maybe this incident indicates that the P2P structure has its limits.

I am a Skype user using SkypeOut and SkypeIn along with it. Although, I just recently started using Gizmo project and GrandCentral as well. No product is perfect, and I thought it would be wiser to not limit myself to one particular solution. Maybe I was right, for this Skype outage really did not impact me since I was able to use Gizmo and GrandCentral to make calls. (I do not have a land line.)

Skype has its strength, and so does others. This incident may drive some population of the Skype users to switch to other networks or encourage them to have an alternate solution. Maybe even back to a land line. I won't though...