Google Voice & Voicemail with your crappy carrier

Awesome news guys. Google voice now is allowing adding of google voicemail (and it's online transcription, access, ease of listening within gmail etc etc) right to any carrier you have. The official news is at Google Voice Blog at http://bit.ly/40FdPs

Honestly, this is just awesome. I now have my Google Voice number, along with my regular T-Mobile number, but I can one of the best features of Voice without the need to switch numbers. I was planning on eventually migrating over just to a Google Voice number, but informing all your contacts of a new number is more painful than you would think.

For a little preview of how Google Voicemail works, check out this

Officially from Google:

Google Voice is all about enabling choice: which phone you pick up your calls on, where to review your voicemail messages, how to send and reply to text messages, etc. So when it comes to your phone number, it was logical for us to also offer a choice of which number to use with Google Voice.

Previously, when you created a Google Voice account, we asked you to select a new Google phone number. This allowed us to offer features like call forwarding, screening, and recording. But we know not everyone wants to start using a new phone number, so we've been working on another option for people who are willing to trade some features for the ability to keep their existing number.

We're excited to announce that you now can get Google Voice with a Google number OR with your existing mobile phone number. If you choose to use Google Voice with your existing number, you won't get some features (like call screening and recording), but you'll still get many others -- including Google voicemail. If you already have a Google number, this new feature should also help with the transition to your new number, as you can now forward unanswered calls to your mobile phone to your Google Voice account. This way, people who still call your old number will reach the same voicemail as people who call your Google Voice number.

Snoozeeee

So I've been using Google Calendar for a while now. It of course needs some function upgrades, but it's still by far the best Calendar program out there I think (especially since it's out in the cloud). Google just added a cool feature called snooze. Why shouldn't I be able to snooze my Google Calendar? I snooze my real alarm at least 4 times a day. Now when my credit card payment is due or I have to meet with that guy I don't like very much, I'll just snooze away!

Full info at http://bit.ly/Tgn6C courtesy of the Google Apps blog

Picture is how the snooze button looks in Google talk fyi

Google Chrome 3

It's FAST. Get it. Dang, no really, it's really really fast.

A lot more at Lifehacker:
http://lifehacker.com/5359986/google-chrome-3-brings-more-speed-and-features-to-the-stable-release?skyline=true&s=x

Download at http://www.google.com/chrome

Grandcentral...the original Google Voice... closes today

I was lucky enough to sign up for a Grandcentral account years ago before it was bought by Google. Today, Grandcentral officially shuts down and you have to transfer your number to Google Voice (well worth it of course).

From Grandcentral.com

We are happy to announce the launch of Google Voice, the next version of GrandCentral. We've kept all the things people like about GrandCentral and added new features like transcripts, SMS, international calling, and conference calling. If you are a GrandCentral user, over the next few days you will be prompted to upgrade to Google Voice.

Currently only GrandCentral users have access to Google Voice, but we will be opening up the new service to new users soon. For more information about Google Voice, click here.

Another Android phone...this one for the masses?

We've been hearing for over a year now about the multiple new Android handsets that are supposed to be rolling out post TMobile's G1. Well the myTouch is here, and Hero is not far behind. Now HTC has announced the HTC Tattoo, an Android based phone that some are speculating might be priced under $100. The phone is equipped with Android, as well as the usual smartphone goodies such as wifi, 3.2 mp camera, etc.


Cnet at http://bit.ly/c9NN3 and HTC's product home page at http://bit.ly/2Fxxwp are good places for some more information.

Could be really sweet at under $100 and the right carrier. We'll see who gets it...stay tuned.

Google v. Apple: Buisness

Buisness insider is outlining 7 ways Google is trying to kill Apple. In the article they talk about iTunes vs YouTube, Chrome OS vs OS X, Safari vs Chrome, and of course the big one in my opinion, Android vs iPhone.

The mobile OS game is clearly what will determine success in the near and distant future. We know that it's heating up now that Android has some legit hand sets (see HTC Hero, myTouch). But is it already too late for Android after iPhone's incredible start? Seriously, who do you know with an Android phone (I can count the # of people I know on one hand)? Now how many do you know with an iPhone? As much as I love Google, it's clearly way far behind right now. But hopefully they'll catch up as it doesn't look like I can check my Google Voice voicemail from an iPhone anytime soon.


Full Link: http://bit.ly/q9EoE

Google Maps Monopoly...AWESOME!

From Gizmodo:

No, that's not a snarky business headline. Google and Hasbro are launching a worldwide game of Monopoly using Google Maps as the board. It's called Monopoly City Streets.

Each player starts with $3 million. They can buy any street in the world to erect houses, stadiums and even skyscapers allowing them to collect more and more daily rent (ranging from $50,000 to $100 million per property). The goal? "Play to beat your friends and the world to become the richest property magnate in existence."

Streets will vary in cost, of course, with the White House's Pennsylvania Ave. listed at $2 million, while Downing Street (London's home to the senior British cabinet) goes for just $231,000. (America, fuck yeah.)

If anyone sees a spot to register, please say so in the comments. So far we've only tracked down the game's official site and blog. And if we don't start playing right when this game starts, we'll lose out on another rare opportunity to be financially humbled by the real estate market.

From the site itself at http://monopolycitystreets.com/

Welcome to Monopoly City Streets. You versus the world in the biggest live game of MONOPOLY in history!

On the 9th SEPTEMBER, a world of property empire building on an unimaginable scale will be launched! A live worldwide game of MONOPOLY using Google Maps as the game board. The goal is simple. Play to beat your friends and the world to become the richest property magnate in existence.

Own any street in the world. Build humble houses, crazy castles and stupendous skyscrapers to collect rent. Use MONOPOLY Chance Cards to sabotage your mates by building Hazards on their streets.

Which strategy will you employ? Determined drive? Ingenious daring? Intelligent caution? Will you thrive under the pressure of a fast growing global property empire – or will you crumble? Find out if you’ll thrive, or even survive, in the amazing world of MONOPOLY City Streets. It's going to be epic fun!

Sound's ridiculously cool to me. Full link here: http://bit.ly/ALJ7f

HTC phone with Android coming to Sprint

Sprint, home of the cheap Simply Everything plan (w/ text, data etc), is getting an Android phone from HTC starting in October.

Sprint's plan gives 450 minutes, unlimited text and data for around $69.99. The comparable plan on AT&T runs around $90 a month (39 for voice, 20 for texts, another 30 or data). Having a Android alternative to the iPhone would be huge (especially since the Pre hit a few roadblocks, notably the App store).

As explained on cnet:

Other goodies on the 3G (EV-DO) handset include a 5-megapixel camera with video recoding, Bluetooth with a stereo profile, an accelerometer, visual voicemail, Sprint TV, a MicroSD card slot, NFL Mobile Live and Nascar Sprint Cup Mobile, a speakerphone, personal organizer options, messaging and e-mail, a music player, Wi-Fi and integrated GPS. Two especially welcome additions are the 3.5mm headset jack (previous Android devices had only proprietary connections and Out integration with e-mail, contacts and calendar (the MyTouch has e-mail only). And naturally, the Hero will support the full range of apps from the Android Market.

Full text at http://www.cnet.com/8301-19736_1-10338820-251.html?tag=TOCmoreStories.0

Happy Birthday: A Look Back at One Year of Google Chrome

An awesome look back at Google Chrome's 1 year by Kevin Purdy at Lifehacker.

http://lifehacker.com/5351067/happy-birthday-a-look-back-at-one-year-of-google-chrome

Can I sue Gmail for going off-line?

An interesting article by Chris Beam (actually an old college acquaintance of mine) over at Slate.com. He examines if he can sue Gmail for going off-line.

Gmail, Google's e-mail service, went down for about an hour and 45 minutes late Tuesday morning. Google apologized and blamed the outage on server maintenance, but only after millions of users were shut out during work hours. Can those people sue Google over the incident?
Sure, but they'd probably lose. Google's terms of service, which a user must accept before signing up for Gmail, explicitly state that "you acknowledge and agree that Google may stop (permanently or temporarily) providing the Services (or any features within the Services) to you or to users generally at Google's sole discretion, without prior notice to you." It also says that Google isn't liable for "any loss of data suffered" or "the deletion of, corruption of, or failure to store, any content and other communications data maintained or transmitted." In other words, Google has no obligation to save your e-mail.

The mere fact that almost no one bothers to read these terms before clicking "I accept" doesn't make them invalid. This kind of contract, known as a "clickwrap" agreement, is widely used by software manufacturers and has been upheld by the courts over and over again. According to the Restatement of Contracts, a summary of contract law, "standard form agreements"—that is, simple contracts that apply to a lot of people—should be enforced "without regard to their knowledge or understanding of the standard terms of the writing." If you don't read it, that's your problem.

There are situations in which courts might not uphold a clickwrap agreement. Say one term is especially outrageous—like you have to promise Google your firstborn—and the provision in question is buried in Volume 3, Section 2, Line 478 of a 1,000-page agreement. A judge isn't going to say, "Whoops! You should have read the whole thing." Or suppose that Google got people to sign up for Gmail by misrepresenting some aspect of its service—its reliability, say. In that case, a Gmail user could claim that he or she suffered "reliance damages" if Gmail suddenly collapsed.
Some e-mail programs do promise a certain level of reliability. For example, businesses contract with Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Notes to provide e-mail services, which cost money and come with performance guarantees. If they delete all your company's e-mail, you'll get some compensation. Gmail does offer a premium service known as Google Apps Premier Edition, which costs $50 a year and promises to be functional more than 99.9 percent of the time. But the basic free service doesn't have the same guarantees.

Bonus Explainer: Can I back up my Gmail? Yes. There are several ways to do it. One is to simply set up a second Gmail account and automatically forward all your messages to it. That protects you if your primary account gets deleted or corrupted but not if the whole Google system crashes. For that contingency, you can set up your Gmail account to automatically save messages to your hard drive, which you can then access off-line with an e-mail program like Mozilla's Thunderbird. (See more detailed instructions here.) There's also a simple program called Gmail Backup that copies your archives to your hard drive with one click.

Full link here. http://www.slate.com/id/2227093/

Tuesday's GMail outage due to server overload...get more servers

I'm guessing Google owns more bandwidth than pretty much anyone, but somehow it wasn't enough Tuesday when GMail went down. According to Google:

This morning (Pacific Time) we took a small fraction of Gmail's servers offline to perform routine upgrades. This isn't in itself a problem -- we do this all the time, and Gmail's web interface runs in many locations and just sends traffic to other locations when one is offline.

However, as we now know, we had slightly underestimated the load which some recent changes (ironically, some designed to improve service availability) placed on the request routers -- servers which direct web queries to the appropriate Gmail server for response. At about 12:30 pm Pacific a few of the request routers became overloaded and in effect told the rest of the system "stop sending us traffic, we're too slow!". This transferred the load onto the remaining request routers, causing a few more of them to also become overloaded, and within minutes nearly all of the request routers were overloaded.

Sad times for those 30 minutes for me yesterday...

Chrome to be browser on Sony Vaio

According to the WSJ, Google and Sony have reached an agreement to get Google Chrome preinstalled on Sony's Vaio computers. Awesome for Chrome, which as I described before, is just a sweet browser (minus no extensions, but that will be fixed soon I am sure). Got a long way to go though in terms of market share. According to the article

As of July, Chrome accounted for 2.6% of the global Web browser market, according to Net Applications. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer accounted for 67.7%. Since the Sony laptops will still run Microsoft’s Windows operating system, people will likely also be able to easily access Internet Explorer from the computers too. Google executives have said in the past they are looking at a range of Chrome distribution deals.

Full link here. http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2009/08/31/googles-chrome-nabs-sony/

Google Tip of the Day: Bookmarks in Chrome Toolbar

If you're still using Firefox (or if you somehow know what a blog is and are using IE), try out Chrome. It's just so much faster than the others. As one person said, it makes Firefox look like the new IE. Anyways quick tip from the Downloadsquad about how to add a bookmarks button to your Google Chrome toolbar. Useful because I don't like the additional real estate the bookmarks toolbar right now takes up if I keep it open and if I keep it closed, I need to open a new tab to get it quickly.

Most users of Google Chrome enjoy its minimal interface. So why use a clunky toolbar to display your bookmarks full-time if you don't have to? Like many other excellent Chrome features, adding a miniscule bookmarks menu button is only a command line switch away!

Just right click your Chrome shortcut and choose properties. In the target box, add a space and --bookmark-menu after chrome.exe. the result should something look like this:
C:\Users\LeeM\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe --bookmark-menu
This works on versions 2, 3, and 4 of Google Chrome, so it's a tweak anyone can use. That is, as long as you're running Windows - my Linux and Mac versions don't seem to be able to add the button yet.

Netbook users, enjoy your extra 28 vertical pixels!

Note: as mentioned in the comments, yes, you CAN add multiple switches - just put a space in between each one like so:
chrome.exe --enable-user-scripts --enable-sync --bookmark-menu

Full link here. Thanks Downloadsquad

GMAIL DOWN!

My Gmail is down! 502 server error. I guess that's why its still in Beta. Problem is, without Gmail, I am lost. I just scanned a bunch of documents that I need to email myself, but now will have to do it all over again (public scanner). Scary how dependent we all are on Gmail/Google. Please come back soon!

Google Tip of the Day: Google Scholar

For years physicians have been using PubMed as their main source of searching for information about published research. Recently though Google Scholar has been making headways among students and scientists. The results are similar or better than PubMeds, as with pretty much anything Google tries. What is much better though is the links through which you can download full articles. It is significantly easier to pull up the original article/paper through Google Scholar as it searches what network you are on and automatically finds the best route to download it from.
Try it http://scholar.google.com/

Not Just Highways Anymore

Google Maps just got more high tech. We all remember how awesome it was when Google Maps first came out...you could scroll in and out to see as much (or as little) detail as you wanted. Next came traffic, yes actual traffic on major highways! Green was good and Red was bad. Thanks Google. That actually was useful. Why didn't anyone think of this before? Plus, don't forget the satellite images, street view, and public transportation trip planner.

Now Google is taking it to a whole other level. What's the point of avoiding the red highways when you have no idea what the traffic is like on all those other (they call them 'Arterial') roads? Well as of today, you no longer have to worry. Google maps now gives you traffic information for these other medium sized high traffic roads so you can plan your trip accordingly.

What's actually cooler is that Google Maps is now using crowdsourcing to get traffic info. What do I mean? Say you're using Google Maps on your iPhone and you turn on 'GPS enabled.' This actually sends data back and forth letting Google Maps know how fast you're moving, ultimately updating the traffic you're viewing on Google Maps...Imagine if everyone 'GPS enabled' themselves...everywhere. You'd have a pretty accurate traffic asseseement wouldn't you? Oh yeah, you can also now get live traffic updates, view the average traffic patterns on a specific day and time too.

Google maps does it once again...Aside from google search I think Google Maps has been one of (if not the) most useful pieces of technology our favorite company has produced. Keep up the good work!

Google Tip of the Day: Have it do your homework for you

Back in freshman year physics I remember being stumped by a few problem sets. That was when it first occurred to me to try google to search for the exact problem (this was back before everyone knew google, so it was indeed a new thing to do). Turns out almost every single problem I ever had to do was already done and explained somewhere on the web! Whether it be through forums or through problem set answers at other Universities, it was all right there. It was a great way to get the problem sets done and also learn.

So tip of the day, search for your exact math/gmat/physics/chemistry/mcat whatever problem right in google. Take the simple physics problem "A ball is thrown horizontally from a cliff at a speed of 10 m/s. What is its speed one second later?" Check out how many answers you get...ahh Google...Thanks for that A.

Yahoo takes on Google...and will probably get beaten down...again

Over at TechCrunch Erick Schonfeld writes about Yahoo's attempt to be the best at people search.

The new design will focus on making search more personalized, and specifically going after Google in people search . “We’re taking that away from them,” vows Yahoo’s VP of Search Products and Design Larry Cornett. When you type in a person’s name in Yahoo, it will do a better job of bringing up links to their profiles on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and FriendFeed—something Google already does exceedingly well. But Cornett throws down a challenge for Google: “When we launch this, you’re going to come to Yahoo to search for people.”

Full article at http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/08/24/what-matters-most-to-yahoo-is-taking-away-people-search-from-google/

I bet you Yahoo looses...badly.

Wave of the future

Most of us geeks are well in tune with what Wave is by now, but for those that see the outdoors every once in a while Google Wave is foreign. I recently checked out the developer's preview and I can say that it slows down my computer, but is damn cool. For more info on how you'll be communicating in the future, check out http://wave.google.com/help/wave/about.html

This video illustrates what Wave is pretty well. It also illustrates just how socially awkward computer dorks can be.

Google Tip of the Day

On her blog at smarterware.org, Gina Trapani describes a way to navigate through both GMail, Google Search and Google Reader without lifting your fingers for your mouse. This should let my hand get a much needed rest from the repeated 6 inch movements that I had to do back in the day to reach the mouse.

http://smarterware.org/2773/google-tip-navigate-items-with-j-and-k-in-reader-gmail-and-search

The J and K keys navigate through lists of items in Gmail, Google Reader, and even Google search results–without getting the mouse involved, which saves you point-and-click time. J goes to the next item down the list, and K the previous. J and K aren’t easy for your brain to remember, but they are for your fingers: most keyboards have a little nubbin on the J key, and if you’re a touch typist, your right hand’s forefinger rests on the J key. The J and K shortcuts move the cursor up and down in other (some old school) software too, like vim. Here’s how to give your J and K keys a workout in Gmail, Google Reader, and even Google search results.


In Gmail, make sure keyboard shortcuts are enabled for your account. (In Settings, on the General tab, check off the “Keyboard shortcuts on” radio button.) Then, when you’re in your inbox looking at a list of messages OR in an individual message, tapping J will move you to an older conversation and K to a newer convo. From there you can open, archive, and do more with your Gmail messages from the keyboard: Here’s the full list of Gmail keyboard shortcuts. Print it out and put it by your computer.

In Google Reader, J and K work by default. When you have a Reader item open, hit J to go to the next (older) item down the list, and K to move up.

Finally, if you enable the experimental keyboard-driven Google search experiment, you can also use J and K to move up and down through Google Search results. Once you’ve joined the keyboard experiment and run a search, there will be a little pointer on the top link in your results. Use J and K to move up and down the list. Once you’re on the link you want, hit Enter to open that link in tab or the undocumented Shift+O to open it in a new tab. See the rest of the keyboard shortcuts available in results in the screenshot above.

Google v. Apple v. AT&T

AT&T has come out with a statement emphatically denying any role in the blocking of the Google Voice iPhone App. Statement is below:

AT&T statement on letter to the FCC regarding Apple App Store

On July 31, 2009, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued letters to Apple, AT&T and Google with a series of questions about the Google Voice app and Apple's App Store approval process. AT&T today responded to the questions raised in the FCC's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau letter. The following statement is from Jim Cicconi, AT&T senior executive vice president - External and Legislative Affairs.

"We appreciate the opportunity to clear up misconceptions related to an application Google submitted to Apple for inclusion in the Apple App Store. We fully support the FCC's goal of getting the facts and data necessary to inform its policymaking.

"To that end, let me state unequivocally, AT&T had no role in any decision by Apple to not accept the Google Voice application for inclusion in the Apple App Store. AT&T was not asked about the matter by Apple at any time, nor did we offer any view one way or the other.

"AT&T does not block consumers from accessing any lawful website on the Internet. Consumers can download or launch a multitude of compatible applications directly from the Internet, including Google Voice, through any web-enabled wireless device. As a result, any AT&T customer may access and use Google Voice on any web-enabled device operating on AT&T's network, including the iPhone, by launching the application through their web browser, without the need to use the Apple App Store."

Ok, so now we can just blame Apple right? If that is the case, what gives Apple? The new evil empire indeed! Let me have Voice and rejoice!

Google v. Apple

The Google versus Apple/AT&T battle is raging on. Engadget has a copy of the letter Apple sent the FCC regarding it's rejection of the Google Voice App for the iPhone... At least there was no mention of terrorists winning if Google Voice was allowed by Apple

Engadget Link: http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/21/atandt-tells-the-fcc-it-had-no-role-in-removing-google-voice-fro/

Google Reader New Features

Google Reader (www.google.com/reader) is starting to get better and better. What started off as a cumbersome (IMO) RSS feed reader now has some great features including one that just popped up in the last week. It now has a people share feature which allows people to share posts they like with you and visa versa. It's still a little antiquated in some ways, but a cool start. I haven't totally given up visiting nytimes, gizmodo, etc etc, but more and more refinement of Google Reader could get me there (although unclear what I would do with all the saved time). More info at http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/google-reader-starts-conversation.html

TWIG

Leo Laporte et al have started a new show called This Week In Google. It's an awesome look at cloud computing and Google news of the week. Highly recommended. Check it out at http://twit.tv/twig4. There is a new show every Saturday

Google Tackling Health & Science Communication

A while ago Google created a way through Google Maps to track the influenza virus (http://www.google.org/flutrends/). If you have not checked it out you should as it brings Google's power, ease and accessibility to health care.

Just recently Google took a new approach to the flu virus (particular H1N1) and opened up PLoS Currents: Influenza. It is a scientific communication tool more than anything else built on Knol (ok, so not everything at Google flys). An awesome little concept and peak at what the future of real time communication holds. Imagine the usefulness of a cohesive scientific discussion during an emergency situation. Work checking out at http://knol.google.com/k/plos/plos-currents-influenza/28qm4w0q65e4w/1#

BackRub

Welcome to ILoveGoogleMoreThanYouDo.com, a complicated domain name for a simple blog. This blog is dedicated to all things Google and how it has changed our lives forever. Appropriately, I thought I'd title the first post "BackRub" That's the name Sergey and Larry (ya, I like to think we are on a first name basis) originally called their little Stanford grad project. Oh how far they've come...