At the end of July I declared my intention to quit the iPhone and AT&T, port my mobile phone number to Google Voice and use any mobile device that I pleased (or lots of them at once) in the future. Like others, I will no longer blindly follow all things Apple. Today I’m pleased to report a status update on those efforts: complete. I am no longer a member of the Cult of iPhone.
Porting my phone number to Google Voice was a three day process, which I was pre-warned about. The mobile carriers in the U.S. have made the porting process between them fairly easy, and it occurs over a couple of hours. But they are in no hurry to help customers move their phone numbers to Google Voice, and so it took a few extra days. Also, I’m one of the first people to port their phone number to Google Voice, and there are always a few hiccups when you’re a guinea pig.
A week ago I was an unhappy AT&T iPhone customer. I couldn’t get cell phone reception here at my house and so I was always missing important calls.
Today I’m a happy Google Voice customer. My old mobile number, which all of my contacts already have, now rings simultaneously on my home Vonage phone and the TMobile myTouch 3G Android phone that I’ve started using (and, by the way, TMobile works just fine here at home, too). If I want to start using a new phone, I can make a switch in the settings at Google Voice and calls will ring through to that instead. no carrier will ever have a stranglehold on me again.
Not only are calls being sent to both of my phones simultaneously now, but all my voicemails are now aggregated at Google Voice and immediately transcribed and emailed and SMS’d to me (complete overview of Google Voice is here). And since I’m using the Google Voice application for the Android, all my outgoing calls appear to be from my existing phone number, not the one assigned to the phone.
Single best feature of Google Voice: Call blocking. Someone spams my SMS or calls me too much, I click a button and they can never call or SMS me again.
So what’s the downside?
I had to pay the AT&T termination fee of $175. But that’s it.
And this myTouch phone (which TMobile has supplied to me for free for a test period) is an excellent piece of hardware. I believe it is superior to the iPhone 3GS – it loads the camera app and video app faster, and web pages load in about 2/3 the time it takes on the iPhone/AT&T (likely more AT&T’s fault than the iPhone). The Android apps are far more interesting because they have the ability to integrate with any native function (so, for example, Google Voice, banned on the iPhone, has taken over the myTouch native dialer). And I can run persistent apps in the background like Google Talk, which lets me keep a chat window open to contacts all the time.
Google Voice really is nearly perfect. The only thing that would be better is if they became a MVNO and offered mobile services directly as well. And tethering would be a nice feature. But for now I’m extremely happy with my mobile situation. And I plan to never do business directly with a carrier again.
Want to port your mobile number to Google Voice and do what I’ve done? You can’t just yet, but porting will be released later this year publicly. Prepare yourselves, and don’t sign any new long term contracts with your carrier. Life will soon be good for you, too.
I wish I had people to call…
Tell me about it!
I would love to utilize all these products and apps but have no reason to – no one to call…
HollyM
http://www.thessayist.com
The essayist – go offload your crap elsewhere
When is TechCrunch going to ban messages containing this url? It’s obviously spam. They hardly even contribute anything.
How does the speed of the myphone compare to the speed of the iPhone 3GS? We don’t care about how the myphone compares in speed to the original EDGE iPhone.
AT&T’s $175 termination fee is prorated downward $5/month of service, so you did not pay $175.
LOL @ Michael Arrington,
You are in America, that is why you have to to be “slave” of mobile phone /Google like companies.
here in India, we can choose WHICHEVER carrier we want… NO CONTRACTS… and YOU CAN KEEP YOUR OLD NUMBER, no Google Voice slavery either.
Just prepay ($5) for A WHOLE YEAR! + $.01 per call per minute.
Oh yes, you need not BEG the telephone operators to provide ‘low’ cost mobiles. WE CAN CHOOSE WHATEVER mobile handset WE WANT to USE!!!….
That’s what I call FREEDOM of Choice
Get over yourself and your country.
In America these days , you have to beg. Was in SF last week and could not believe that a supposed first world country had so many homeless people.
get over your all caps.
Ethan, not too long ago, I have seen that in NY too.
James, I can understand, you do envy us and our freedom. Tell me one thing that ‘you’ can get without a contract or minimum balance payment or mortgage attached to it. (’you’ is not specifically directed towards you, i mean ‘you’ in general)
Jehosephat, just did that. I was trying to stress some of the words for ‘easy readability’
Now you’re just acting arrogant. We don’t envy you and your so called “freedom” is just as real as America’s “freedom.” Otherwise non-existent.
I bought my iPhone from Airtel in India for 650$ and I have a postpaid connection worth 10$ that gives me gives me 500 mb free download and 444 free sms and 444 minutes of free talktime each month.
Each local call is worth 1 cent and std calls cost 2 cents. Now that’s cheap…. but then we still don’t have 3g…. iphone 3gs is yet to be launched in India. We have to wait for newer technologies and it sucks. Also, India is a poor and developing country so I guess things should be cheap!!
#1, Don’t consider India as “poor” Why? because we have 500m+ population that can afford BMW’s and Merc’s, also we have more billionaires than US!.. not sure where you see India as Poor. Even our economy did not slow down, we are immune to recession!
that 500m is more than US population and not everyone in US could afford BMW’s or Merc’s (even with credit cards)
India has 3G, BSNL has launched it country wide. the speeds are 3.6 MBps and Much Cheaper than Airtel. It’s faster than typical US 1Mbps ADSL.
My 3G experience in US this year showed iPhone 3GS to be slower in 512Kbps, even if i am standing next to AT & T tower.
I am happy to be a Indian and living in India
Despite India’s impressive economic growth over recent decades, it still contains the largest concentration of poor people in the world, and has a higher rate of malnutrition among children under the age of three (46% in year 2007) than any other country in the world….Even though India has avoided famines in recent decades, half of children are underweight, one of the highest rates in the world and nearly double the rate of Sub-Saharan Africa.
http://en.wikip....org/wiki/India
India is improving but has a long way to go. However, your cell phone situation is enviable.
Sorry lol, I’ve already seen Slumdog Millionaire and Salaam! Bombay and they’ve shown that most of those people are poor.
It’s been said that iPhones weren’t selling in India because the people couldn’t afford them. I think that indicates they are poor. I know poor is a relative term but for every billionaire in India, there must be a million poor people looking for a place to piss on the streets.
I have never heard that India was considered a rich country although I’m sure there are the ultra-rich that steal everything from the common man in India even more so than in the U.S.
“It’s been said that iPhones weren’t selling in India because the people couldn’t afford them.”
No one here likes contract and to pay $650 for hardware alone. Basically contract is some thing that most Indians hate (one of the reason iPhone failed). Since independence, no one wants to be “slave” of ANY ONE. 99% here pay bills by Hard Cash (not by slavery induced credit card). Here, owning a house means a person actually have saved enough money (not like USA, where they ‘own’ house on life long ‘contract’… or shall i say Mortgage)
We have phones phones that are higher in price and yet they sell fairly well. 5 to 6 times iPhone.
If they charged $99 for iPhone (same as in USA) then iPhone might have a chance. People here don’t usually go for ’style’ or ‘cult’, they no longer blindly follow (they have learned this from the past British invasion), they first think what is being offered by the device. If the device is more functional, they buy it, if it is just a bling, only those who have ‘excess’ money buy it.
Slumdog is a very true representation of India, when you visit here, you will find a lot of people walking through ’shyt’ and becoming billionares (Mittal steel comes to my mind) but at the same time not everyone is slum dog.
Yeah, but try buying real estate in India and then we’ll talk about hassles. Exactly how many gangsters do you have to bribe to grab a piece of real estate in Mumbai?
Another added benefit of living in America? I don’t have to worry about stepping in human feces on the street. India? well put on your boots buddy.
Staying in a location is choice of individual. It depends, how you want to weigh in yourself when you reason out things. Like, weather you want to a$$lick US or want to do something that will make difference in being some one. Weather you care enough for your own self or your own pockets. Weather country comes first or US slavery comes first. (don’t really wanna start a ‘war’ here). All have equal right to be where they want. It’s their own decision. As long as they are happy a$slicking, it’s their choice.
Living in India made me learn ‘not to step on’ others shyt, and walk carefully, without blindly following people / company like Apple
I would love to Visit US on short trips, to enjoy the ‘clean’ environment and beauty but that’s about it for me
I personally enjoy both “worlds”
yeah, that’s great and all but you ARE LIVING IN INDIA! who the fvck wants to live there?
lame. arrington is just mad that at $99 the iphone is not cool anymore.
a phone is a phone. wtf cares?
lol at you LES
because you dont understand that behind that $99, over a period of 2 years, you have to pay roughly $3000… I presume you are weak at maths or logic in selecting iPhone and considering it as a $99 phone…lol.
To LOL:Yeah India has one of the the highest poor concentrations. Also there was a bloomberg article that was 23 pages long talking about how India has one of the poorest sewage systems. In other words you have a defication problem. Its so bad that the water is not drinkable and that 90% of the water drunk contains a percentage of feces because of how bad the defication problem there. I would never want to live in India I like the clean and safe streets of America and i am happy that i can drink the water straight from the faucet wihtout the risk of getting sick. Also i am also glad that i am not at risk at contracting malaria. If you read the center for disease control on India you have several epidemics going on. So please stick to your country and your cell phones and i will stick to my coutry with my awesome cell phones and choices that i can make.
The iPhone has loads of negative sides to it, ifag.
That iApproval process of iAppStore itself is such a mess. Again, all users who do not jailbreak ‘iPhone’ are ’slaves’ because developers have to BEG to get it approved, common users can use ONLY those apps that are ‘Approved’ by Apple iGods!
This is the only negative aspect that i can see, of course apart from being pegged to AT & T.
Let Apple free the iAppStore’s iApproval process and AT & T carrier restrictions, I bet people like Nokia will have a little chance of survival. Apple could make more money this way.
You’re right, and my old 90s Nokia is just as useful as the iPhone.
Oh, wait, now you’re realizing how what you said was stupid.
you forgot to mention CUSTOMER SERVICE… Tmobile has the best customer service of any company… compare that with AT&T where even their salesmen tell you that customerservice sucks.. has sucked for years…
What bothers me about AT&T is not the customer service per se… when I cancelled my AT&T account, I got an automated voice call asking me to rate the “customer service”… really, I don’t have a problem with the service (at least not the people helping me).. I have a problem with __AT&T__ and their goddamn policies!!!
But of course, they assume that it’s the “customer service” and not THEM. WTF??? I have no avenue to complain to them about this.
there is always a way. i had a problem with another carrier, actually the one i’m using now, and after they sent me to china, india, and the phillipines i said screw the runaround and started hitting google and doing some research about the company and other carriers. i kept trying. i even lied and said i will get the media involved, and i got the numbers of the president and vp and call them and left messages. the vp called me back and told me they would make sure my concerns were dealt with and if not i can call him at his personal number and he’ll make sure something is done. i told him i don’t want to have to call his personal number or ever call their customer service again and that i will switch to the competition which i hated and had canceled earlier. he made sure everything was good. their customer service still sucks but they know to take me seriously if i call them. i may be younger but i am not that dumb.
we also had sprint and they f**cked us over really really really bad and for that i f**cked them right over. i’m just sad that i couldn’t help more people who were in our situation get out of that threat. i don’t know how a company can charge you thousands and thousands of dollars for something you never did, something they know you never did, but of course they don’t check their own records (fail), sued us, threatned us, and i kept fighting them, because unlike them i can read and i’m not that dumb. sprint is the worst. their customer service also sucks.
Sites like consumerist and other similar ones are one of the best advocates people have in dealing with monolithic corporations that makes tough policies and expect front line customer support to enforce (and take the heat for). It seems Google is helping to add the “customer” part back into customer service.
You want to really screw them over, setup a scriptable terminal program like zoc terminal and have it dial their 800 numbers all day and night. Set the script to dial it, wait the length of time for the call to complete, then disconnect, and dial again. They’ll get charged 3 cents per minute (as that’s the cheapest you’ll find for toll-free number service). Just be sure you’re on an unlimited voip line or a land line. Or use one of the free toll-free voip sip providers,
http://www.voip...ation+Providers
hahaha isn’t that funny when you get not one but more than two customer service people for at&fail to say they suck, and then you ask them why they’re working there and they say hey why are you calling me for again…cause hahah their supervisor or whoever manages the call center is there. at&t customer service is horrible, but NOTHING like sprint. sprint takes the entire cake. i dislike them sooooooooooooooo f**king much.
Interestingly enough, within the past year or so, I have found that AT&Ts customer service has actually been pretty good. Granted, I haven’t always felt this in the past, and I’m sure they’ll do something to piss me off in the future, but recently it’s been better than I ever expected from them. Let’s hope they keep it that way. It really wouldn’t take much for me to drop them fast and do something along the lines of what Michael has done.
yeah after we had the whole sprint fail debacle, found out their customer service was improving steadily cause we actually considered going back to them after dealing with at&fail. but i will never go back to sprint. hahaha never is a long time but i know when people try to screw me over, especially when i am paying them money. if we hadn’t taken a look at our bills and were automatically paying sprint all the time we would have gotten r*ped and never would have been the wiser. atleast at&fail when they mess up they know they mess up, even if they don’t do anything about it. sprint people have some sort of amnesia memory. verizon is not so bad but supposedly it can’t handle apple. oh well. apple needs to find an alternative to at&t, because if they did maybe people wouldn’t be so mad. i can’t believed it’s been 10 years and the same problem i had them is what iphone users are talking about now. oh well. be better consumers is all i can say. if you’re paying for something and you always get consistently dropped calls…then there’s no point in you paying some company for their service because that service is bad. and that’s the bottom line. people have been at at&t for years. i don’t think they listen. i thought sprint was bad, but sprints been getting better. now if only we can get apple to get away with the only carrier they deal with here so maybe we can have 2 carriers i would be fine. i’m not asking for much. it would be better if they were open and i could go with whatever carrier i thought was best for me. kind of like how we can do that now with all of our other mobiles.
another small but important thing i love about the G2/myTouch – security. It’s so annoying to type in 4 digits on the iPhone, but I hate leaving my phone wide open. The pattern thing on the Android is so easy. Yes, there’s the grease smudge issue, but it’s worth it. http://www.tech...t-is-it-secure/
Great work man. seriously.
Who gives a f**k.
F**K YOU MIKE “B*TCH@SS” ARRINGTON
>>>Who gives a f**k.
F**K YOU MIKE “B*TCH@SS” ARRINGTON
==============================
Are you serious? Why even read Techcrunch if your going to come here and bash people, especially the site owner. People are just trying to make a living and this kind of verbal abuse is really lame.
I dont really (at all) know Mike but this blog is really helpful even if I dont agree with some of the writers.
Just reading such filth makes my stomach get all sour.
Bummer…..
>Just reading such filth makes my stomach get all sour.
There is no reason – none – for TC to retain such posts, other than a very misguided sense of egalitarianism. TC should go hire a student at minimum wage to clean out the trash periodically. It probably wouldn’t even take more than a couple of hours a day.
Maybe it has to do with them not wanting to employ censorship perhaps? Ever think of that?
I find it a bold and strong choice on their part. Why spend the money on hiring someone to remove them when it clearly doesn’t hurt their brand in any way. People ignore and move on from posts like that.
If they actively pursued removing such worthlessness they would be just as bad as the app store and would have no grounds on speaking/writing actively about censorship out there..
“Just reading such filth makes my stomach get all sour”
I understand how you feel. Try not to let it bother you too much. In the past I used to get quite irritated when I saw the type of post that ‘Sarah Palin’ spews like explosive diarrhea. Anymore, I understand that they are nothing more than Web trash that is either to be ignored or occasionally pitied. I find that ignoring them works much better since pitying take too much effort.
ChapMaster, do you get that name because you wear ass-less chaps?
apparently from all the threads i’ve been to (you don’t have to answer my retype of copy+paste question) it looks like you actually retype all those characters. lol.
congrats michael and welcome to the cool kids table.
omg!
How corny can b?! I quit, i love , i hate..Seriusly, stop being so sensitive/insecure get a life.
this stuff is my life.
Good answer ✔
Stop sucking D&CK
Michael Arrington FTW
Learn to write English, zx. Your case is never helped by illiteracy.
I am allways amazed by how people from the US expect you to have perfect grammar. Have you ever been outside of the US Sammy? There are other countries beside…you know.
zx
You shouldn´t be so sensitive about how people talk about your strange language
You all need to STFU. Seriously how can TC help other countries enact laws that can assist consumers getting the same options Mike was able to achieve with T-Mobile. Developing countries like the ones in the Caribbean are being raped annal without Vaseline.
I cannot wait for the day Google join forces with the top players and create a universal Internet phone that can be used anywhere and not pay a extra dime except the Internet connection fee.
I’m not. I just find it very funny☺
… *Always.
Literally, every sentence you typed /besides/ that first one was just fine grammar wise, so your point is null.
You’re just a shitty typist when you choose to be.
“In mother Russia…”
…and by the way, if I want to go back to the iPhone, I can. I can just get a new account and point the google voice number to it. Which I may do once other carriers offer it, or AT&T gets much, much better.
meanwhile, I can’t wait to try Google Voice with the Palm Pre. Waiting on the Google Voice app.
And despite claiming you never have to deal with a carrier, you, of course, STILL ARE DEALING WITH A MOBILE CARRIER.
Sprint doesn’t offer short term contracts on the Pre do they?
Plus, CDMA phones don’t work in Europe, so that’s useless outside the US.
No, they don’t. I asked (or tried to ask) a customer service rep (and even Sprint “tech support”, if they can be called that) why, if I already have unlimited internet, that I had to go with their silly $100/month (pay for) Everything plan.
They can’t (or won’t) explain.
It would be cool if the calls went directly to google through the data plan.
Since Flash has microphone support, it would be possible to call directly from the Google Voice website.
Imagine, a chrome netbook that is a phone too! Instead of using the sound input jack, just have an extra built-in mic that with a cord that rolls out of the computer. If you need to switch to a mobile, just press *.
can’t you just pay full price for the phone and skip the contract (pay month-to-month)?
Not on Sprint you can’t. Well, maybe. I got conflicting answers. But if I bought one from someone on ebay, bypassing Sprint getting their ‘full price’, I would have no way to get *new* service on Sprint without entering in to a 2 year service agreement. I had 4 different reps confirm this for me. If I bought for full price *from them* then I have the ‘privilege’ of only paying them $70/month on a month to month basis, not necessarily over a 2 year period.
yes you can. If you are willing to cough out the bucks for the full price of a phone you do not have to take their contract. I have three lines with sprint…Blackberry Tour, Pre and a data card with no contracts.
no need to wait, gDial Pro and dkGoogleVoice are available now. I use gDial Pro and love it.
Mike your just a bit upset at the moment which is understandable. iPhone is like the unfaithful sexy girl who seduces you and then ignores you because she does not really depend on you. Google however needs you and her life revolves around yours. She will always be around, she is boring and does not know how to keep you satisfied. As a result you will get bored of the monotony and guess what thats when ms iPhone will creep back into your life
Right… and thats why you end up dumping the unfaithful girl to avoid STDs and marry the woman you can depend on…
Or you can marryt he unfaithful girl, get STDs and then to divorce her you have to give her half your money
The Palm Pre is an excellent phone, and I’ve had no problems with Sprint. I am very much looking forward to them opening the app store up and getting a flood of cool apps!
A flood of cool apps. Haha.
O.K, now i get it. A Pre fanboy..how funny☺
You’ll get these Apps when pigs will fly!
I will never consider a CDMA phone. Far too limiting.
I’ve had AT&T service for years, and I’ve always liked the idea that I can switch my SIM card and get service anywhere in the world, or even switch over to T-mobile without buying a new phone. But you know, I’ve never actually used that capability. Even when travelling, when I do need to make a phone call, skype is good enough.
So is CDMA too limiting only in theory? Do you actually use the freedom of GSM?
I use Skype for calling home when I’m abroad because the gateways in North America are pretty good and it’s free. For local calls in most other countries, I buy a prepaid SIM and leave it in my unlocked iPhone. at&t’s international roaming charges are obscene.
I have a Pre now and cannot wait until Google Voice comes out with a native app for it this fall (hopefully). I also have hopes that public porting will be available relatively around the same time. Except for the fact that my phone is tied into my business number (we have had this setup since it was Grand Central). When is Google going to let two phone numbers call my phone. My first number is my business number and the second is my personal. When I try to add my phone to my new Google Voice Invitation Account it states that I have already signed up my phone. Although Google Voice is in Beta (and could be for the next five years…) it still lacks a few features that I need at this time.
I’m using the Pre with Google Voice now. I’m not blown away by either one. Google Voice’s service is sketchy (calls ring once, then go straight to voice mail; callers complain of long delays — like you’re calling overseas — between them speaking and me responding, etc.), in my area at least. The Pre, which I’ve been using less than three weeks, is starting to feel flimsy. I can see the “oreo effect” coming soon; the mini-USB charger input is getting loose and wonky.
Yeah, the Pre UI is schnazzy, and Google Voice has great promise. But neither one of them is there yet.
I had been hoping to use Google Voice but the reported voice lag/delays has kind of turned me off to the idea for now.
Otherwise the feature list for G voice is awesome.
How does Google Voice and TMobile co-mingle. Is the phone number now “tied” to Tmobile…or strictly w/ Google Voice? You pay voice & data plan still w/ Tmobile?
make up your mind Michael,
Some times you say, you already dumped iPhone.. the very next moment, you say you CAN go back to iPhone…. or a Pre, or Google… lol… are you DRUNK?
This whole post, and the “quitting iPhone” rant is such BS it’s a joke. Mike sees Apple as a competitor with the CrunchPad releasing soon.
quitting iPhone is realization of rationale. not a BS joke.
CrunchPad is a great device. Apple has not only copied the concept from Michael but also patented it!
Even Google took the idea “Machine booting to a browser” from Michael.
I would not be surprised if there was any ‘back door’ deal between Michael and Google, perhaps we even will have Google OS’s first implemented on CrunchPad
And yet the gOS already came up with that idea before Michael did. You can’t simply say that companies got idea from Michael without any proof
The CrunchPad looks awesome. I’m just waiting for availability. I will buy two as soon as they are. Much better than any lame duck imitation that Apple may or may not release. More importantly, I doubt it’ll be locked down as hard as any Apple tablet device would be.
I’m not surprised that t-mobile shines in the US, they do a pretty good job here too in the UK compared to other carriers.
Remy – t-mobile does not shine in the US. Their national coverage is terrible but t-mobile coverage in the Bay area where all these tech bloggers live happens to be better than at&t. In Dallas where I live, at&t shines and t-mobile bites.
True, they only have 3G in a microscopic part of the country. These fancy phones they advertise give the impression they are a 3G carrier, which they are NOT. I can’t use Tmobile in my office in the middle of a decent size city. But, I do prefer GSM because I frequently go to Europe.
If it helps, CDMA carriers offer several hybrid phones with SIM card capabilities.
Oh no, Tmobile sucks here in Sunnyvale. The valley fair store sold me a phone that didn’t even work inside Macy’s halfway out the mall, let alone my home.
Not surprisingly, AT&T service is ok. But then I live a couple of miles from the Mother iShip.
realy T mobile is in trouble in the Uk supposedly its up for sale by DBP
Good for you but what’s the downside for T-Mobile? Do they have to subsidize some equipment so you can make calls with your Vonage number?
no…Google Voice controls my phone number, and it automatically rings my vonage home number and my TMobile phone whenever a call comes in (this is a setting, and can be changed based on who’s calling or what time/day it is). If TMobile starts to suck, I just switch phones/carriers on a short term contract.
What I meant is the service itself. IIRC, the point of Google voice is to use different services with a single phone number. However, if T-Mobile is like most carriers, they want you to use their service as much as possible and in return they give you a subsidized phone. So if you use your Android phone as just one part of your array of equipment tied to a number, they’re not getting enough call revenue.
Cheers
I am on a T mobile flat rate plan. They collect the same from me every month whether I talk on my phone or not. In fact, if I never talk, they benefit.
so, basically:
I call 012345 which is your phone number, google then redirects that call to 543210 which is your *actual* number that you have with t-mobile? How does it work with outgoing calls?
it doesn’t work on outgoing directly, one has to have a smart phone w/ browser (or future mobile web or native apps), point to voice.google.com and have google voice call you back (and your party you are calling).
Not true. I have a BB 8900 on TMO and i just open the google voice app and dial the number. It shows up to the other caller as my GV # not my cell #. It also doesnt call me, the call connects straight away.
You obviously didn’t read the post.
> no…Google Voice controls my phone number,
While I really understand the disgust with AT&T (as an iPhone user and developer), I do not understand the total acceptance of Google as either reliable or trustworthy. This is a company built solely on parasitizing other people’s content – other people’s web content, print content, video content. They scanned virtually every book in existence without regard for copyright and crossed their fingers hoping that they had enough money to handle the fallout (and their millions sent towards Washington are paying off big time in that regard.)
So what makes anybody think that Google won’t use Google Voice in the same manner? Do they permanently archive all of your voicemails and VM transcriptions? Will they care when you tell them to stop doing it? Would *you* care who heard those VMs or electronically searched the transcripts? Do you ever discuss anything private or confidential on the phone?
Google Voice is cool technology, but it’s worth taking a hard look at the ethics of the company behind it.
I have to agree with this point. Google remains an advertising company – albeit one with a bunch of neat gadgets and add-ons. But in terms of trusting them with any personal information, I pass.
Truth be told, advertising is a fact of life. You will be bombarded with it no matter where you go.
With that simple fact in mind, I’d much rather have ads that are targeted brought to my attention rather than random ads that have nothing to do with what I’m doing or looking at.
While some things Google does might be questionable they have yet (key word there) to do something as bad as Microsoft, Apple, or AT&T. It should also be noted that Google is working on and trying to bring us technology that’s cool, innovative, and interesting. Something that has long been associated with Apple.
Seeing as it’s been documented that AT&T has cooperated with the NSA by allowing them basically unfettered access to anything they want ( http://www.salo.../06/21/att_nsa/ ), I think Google’s record is a little bit better at respecting customer privacy.
Two points. First, do you really think any company *can* say ‘no’ to literal force imposed by a government that is now virtually unrestrained? You are dreaming if you think Google wouldn’t handle over any of your records to the first government agent that asks for them. This is the company that willingly accomodated the Chinese communists in censoring queries.
So, second, the real issue isn’t really whether the government can force AT&T, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, etc., to hand over data. It can and will, as they laugh at the Constitution. The issue is how and when Google will use your data (which they certainly will claim is also *their* data) to commercially profit by selling it to advertisers and anybody else willing to pay.
how is this different than having ATT or any other phone company controling your number? maybe they are archiving all your voicemails, SMS, call logs, etc. And as others have pointed out, ATT creates a copy of virtually everything on it’s communication network for the US intelligence community. Please give up any grand visions of “privacy” – it hasn’t existed for years (if ever).
and that’s exactly how i got sprint to stop it’s fake case against me. got them and other people to check sprints records of our time with them an dthey had to back off because they were wrong. by the whole ordeal they had already made lots of money of some poor people who got hoodwinked. i love records. atleast it’s evidence you can use when a carrier is doing you dirty.
Sounds like you need a refresher on Google Books. They certainly ARE paying attention to copyrights. They aren’t stupid.
I have been using GoogleVoice for 3 months or so….and since It has totally changed the way I use phones. I divide my time between China (dev office), Japan (wife-kid), San Francisco (corp office) and everyone calls me on my Google-Voice 415#— In Japan I use Softbank and they give you an Iphone 3GS for $10 a month + the 2yr service plan fee which is $40. In USA I use Verizon and HTC Touch and tethering is 100% free with WinMobile 6.5.
Needless to say ATT does not fit anywhere into the picture and with Google Voice I feel truly free and am NOT dependent on any one Mobile Carrier!!
Did I miss the explanation where you detail how a Google Voice account holder initiates the procedure for porting an AT&T Mobility # to Google Voice? Because, I just looked at my GV account interface continues to state the the porting feature is not yet available.
So PLEASE, supply the details on how I go about ported my current mobile # to GV. I need this NOW!
Did I miss the explanation where you detail how a Google Voice account holder initiates the procedure for porting an AT&T Mobility # to Google Voice? Because, I just looked at my GV account interface continues to state the the porting feature is not yet available.
So PLEASE, supply the details on how I go about ported my current mobile # to GV. I need this NOW!
—————–
Was there a response to this?
I have made Fire!!!!
it does sort of feel that way. I have mobile phone freedom and choice now. totally coolness.
But you are still doing business with a carrier… Tmobile. So isn’t that statement in your post mis-leading?
Not really, he doesn’t rely on any carrier anymore. If t-mobile go shit he can just switch to a new one in minutes.
But will he pay a big early termination fee every time? I don’t see how that helps.
and you can do that now anyhow… every carrier allows you to port your number over.. so i really don’t see the advantage here except the extra features of voice. you’re still tied down to the contract just as before and you can leave whenever you want, pending a possible fee, and port the number over to a new phone and carrier whenever. i really feel like i’m missing something here with all this hubbub around gvoice.
With a Pre-Paid phone… no termination fee if he decided to switch but he would still have the same phone # he had before.
Yeah, he’s a dumb f**ker.
It is very cool. Enterprises have had single number service for years. The carriers could have deployed this feature years ago as well but they wanted to keep the walls up around the garden for as long as possible. I hope the CFOs at the carriers are removing any remaining entries on the balance sheet for goodwill.
Michael Arrington (@arrington) “I have mobile phone freedom and choice now. totally coolness.”
Do you …. really? think again. lol…hahahaha…
Unless you’re buying out of contract, you have no more mobile freedom than you did before. Because you can always switch to a new service and port your existing number.
Would love to hear how you have more freedom and choice now.
Businesses should absolutely start giving value to their customers otherwise they will go bust before they even know it in this internet era. You no longer can get away with it.
Almost 15 years into the internet era, Microsoft has gotten away with a lot.
yeah it has.
well it looks like apple’s on some kind of path.
and so is google. we’ll see who goes the way of ms.
You forgot to mention you get free unlimited SMS messages with Google Voice with full notifications. Savings of $20 per month.
Yah, since I balked (and did not grab GV Mobile Paid version App BEFORE it was removed from the App Store) I now have to log into Google Voice on my iPhone and leave the Safari window open (so to speak, I still use other apps at will) to easily access Google Voice by just returning to Safari to check SMS messages and place calls. I still need to tackle the issue of Google Voice SMS notification though.
jailbreak your phone. solves all these issues.
for receiving SMS notifications for GV, use PROWL app in combination with GROWL on your computer and a python script (check it out on the Prowl website). It’s not pretty but it works.
I’d also recommend jailbreaking your device (it takes 5 minutes) and downloading GV Mobile free from Cydia.
You have to do the same thing with the GV app. It doesn’t notify you of incoming SMS messages.
Often free domestic SMS comes with unlimited data. But you do still have a real point. And international SMS is free too.
I call Hong Kong for 2 cents per minute, the call quality is pretty good, and I just dial a 406 number to reach a specific number. It’s just awesome, after being ripped off by international call service companies again and again.
What do you mean “…I just dial a 406 number…”?
The obvious down side that everyone will be quick to point out over the course of the next 700 comments is that the Andriod doesn’t have as many apps as the iphone. I wonder if this is truly an issue, or perhaps this is a case where quantity doesn’t necessarily mean quality.
I had been pondering downgrading my treo 650 unlimited calls & texting sprint line @ $130 and using google voice on my blackberry curve via tmobile (my faves with the GV number added as a fave). Hmm when one calls from the app does it take up minutes or is that an IP call? This post opens up all sorts of possibilities and congrats for making the move!!
That does take up minutes unless you Google Voice is one of your MyFaves.
I’m using Google Voice on a Windows Mobile device. I plan to get an Android phone soon. What I do is ask people to send a single SMS to my Google Voice number. I receive it from a 406 (Montana) area code number assigned to that contact (for me only). So then I can dial that 406 number directly (from my phone only, or is it any of my Google Voice phones?) and the contact receives the call with my Google Voice number in caller ID. There are some glitches, like I think if someone is already on your contact list, it doesn’t generate a 406 number. But it works nicely for people I call overseas! I just dial their 406 number and it dials the overseas number for that 406 number. I guess it could be handy if you want to make outgoing calls from your land-line or Vonage phone.
Anyway I plan on getting an Android phone and tossing everything else. Even if I only used one phone and one carrier, the international calling service provided by Google Voice makes it worth it.
And being able to type SMS in the browser and keep records of all of my calls, SMS and (transcribed) voicemail is really nice. I think Microsoft is working on something like that for WinMobile too, but I don’t think they offer “Mobile Telecom Freedom” the way GV does.
that sounds like a really good deal. would come in real handy for my family.
one other thing i’d really like on android is an official yammer app. https://www.yam...ut/applications
yammer is one of our main productivity tools in the office, having an official app for it is important.
I’d prefer they iPhone/mobile-optimize. An App is over-kill for this.
Isn’t Yowl a yammer client for Android?
http://nullwire.com/yowl
Yowl is fine, but it’s a third-party app, not an “official” one.
Slow news…. Year?
LMAO NICE
TECHCRUNCH SUX
yupp and here you are. lol.
I can’t wait for this. When I joined Adobe I wanted the same phone number so I put my number in their system. I’m hoping that when Google voice opens up the number portability stuff I’ll be able to get it back.
Anyone know how much of a pain it’s going to be to port numbers from a corporate plan? Anyone done it before on any system (not necessarily Google Voice?)
=Ryan
ryan@adobe.com
Waiting till they re-open GrandCentral for Canada to do the same thing.
Why would they limit it after it was already available for Canada — very lame google!
canada always gets shafted.
I think you are being very tolerant to android because you are moving to it and you just want to convince yourself that there is something better than iPhone 3Gs. You’ve ignored all the bad stuff in android and focused on the good parts in effort to reach your conclusions and strengthen it.
That is not how journalism and reporting should be, too bad.
so far there is nothing about the myTouch that I don’t like. But you are right, perhaps I’m just basking in the glow of actual mobile coverage at my house. silly me.
Yeah, being able to make/take calls is a nice thing.
most likely that’s att and not the iphone.
But, you can’t have iPhone without At&T, unless you pay for an unlocked device. But then, you can’t use all features on other networks.
Current equation is iPhone=At&T coverage, and it sucks.
You aren’t the only one feeling this way Mike. You forgot how good it feels to discover something truly amazing, that also can make outgoing calls
T-Mobile sent me a myTouch review unit as well last week. After just a day, it became blatantly obvious that the myTouch is the ultimate communications device. Its seamless integration with Google voice and its other services is truly amazing.
The iPhone may be a great multimedia device, but (mostly) because of At&t, it is a terrible phone. I will happily do without iTunes to have a working phone again. HTC and T-Mobile have finally done it.
and yes, mytouch does give the iphone 3gs a run for it’s money, and in various cases, outdoing it. there is nothing about the UI, various apps, memory, etc that isn’t customizable. it can do everything the iphone can do… and then some. the only thing it can’t do that I know of so far (since I’ve used both phones) is pinch a web page to zoom. (awww noooooooo!!!!!!!) lol
>> is pinch a web page to zoom. (awww noooooooo!!!!!!!) lol
actually, that is kind of a big deal. touchscreens and gesture-based human/computer interaction are the future.
but anyway, the reason people love the iphone is the interface NOT the features. For some reason, many people don’t seem to understand this (mostly people who don’t have an iphone).
But the UI (user interface) IS a feature. I do agree with you on that, but also that people like the iPhone for the many applications that one can use. Just like how the iPhone was advertised : “You want to do this.. we have an app for that”. however, the android google (and android sense) UI is much more than what iphone is offering as just standard. plus while the quantity of apps admittedly fails in comparison (apples 60,000 to androids 6,500), there’s more than enough to find what you need to suit one’s purpose. It’s not about the quantity, but the quality. and once the masses realize that… apple and att will be in trouble.
no no people actually understand about the interface and the efficiency of the interface. eventually though apple and at&fail will win in the end because the user will always make the decison, not the company. it’s good mike went to something he ca nactually make calls with and recieve calls with. i mean like it was pointed out it’s not mostly an apple problem as much as it is an at&fail problem. apple has it’s own problems.
also people understand apple ads and apple design. it’s all in their favour…even if i think people definately fell in the herd with the whole iphone ipod markets. they make good products though. good for apple.
Yep, copy&paste is a great feature; it is available in iPhone. GPS is a great feature; new apps are coming to iPhone.
Apple is really innovative in introducing age old ideas in its products and keeping innovation as their core strength!
Wait…, again, what is the definition of innovation? Shall we ask Apple? Who else can give an innovative definition?
5 minutes to root your phone and you can have pinch zoom – I’ve got it, but don’t use it, the tap-to-zoom built into the browser it far more comfortable for single-handed usage.
What about email and other PDA functions? Are you only interested in phone functions? What about email?
Thanks.
I have a blackberry, Verizon – dislike immensely. Was considering IPhone.
Looking for alternate solutions, live by email, don’t use Vonage.
right now i’m using an imap email solution and just set it up in the Android email app on the phone. I’m syncing Mac contacts to Gmail contacts and then syncing Gmail contacts to the phone. And syncing Google Calendar to the calendar app on the phone. overall, it’s working very well. And much better than mobileme on iPhone/Mac, which never synced contacts or calendar properly at all.
If you want awesome syncing, the Palm Pre has it. I just entered my e-mail address, and it automatically synced my calendar, contacts, and of course e-mail. It was the easiest thing!
But palm pre is CDMA. Yuchhh.
Mobileme syncing works perfectly for me. Perhaps in this case it’s the user and not the software?
I sync my iPhone with my Google Voice account’s Contacts using Google Sync – No need for MobileMe.
I will say that some iPhone Contact fields (i.e. ‘Company Main,’ – I use ‘Work’ instead) may not sync properly with GV, but most do. I haven’t gotten around to sync’ing the Google Calendar as of yet.
Also, check-out Nuevasync, as mentioned on TechCrunchIT – Sync your Contacts and up to 11 Calendars for free. Premium svc adds email sync capability, dedicated servers, and up to 50 Calendars.
With mytouch 3g (or the G1) being google phones, gmail is the standard native email app. and it’s flawless. You get the email to your phone the moment it gets to your inbox. you can also do other forms of email as well (another email app that’s also standard) and format it to notify you whenever you like. Trust, android is on it’s way.
damn I wish GV was in the UK…
over here in Urop, we don’t usually have exclusivity contracts, so people can get their iphones with any carrier they like, plus switch easily w/ phone portability, so i don’t know if it’s as useful as it is in the US
It is all shiny and fine when you first move to a service…
Mike: what would be good is that you give us an honest review in about 1-2 months after using the HTC Hero (which performances sucks!) / T-mobile / Google Voice.
That would make your post a bit more credible and interesting. I would like TC to get less “personal” posts that we have seen in the recent weeks.
Also, I don’t understand what are you all going on about Apple these days. If you don’t like it just quit why shout about it?
“I don’t understand what are you all going on about Apple these days. If you don’t like it just quit why shout about it?”
because I shout for a living.
I’ll definitely check back in in a couple of months. Although I’ll likely be on the Pre by then, or a new Android phone (a ton of new ones are coming out). The cool thing is I will keep my phone number at Google Voice, so I can switch my phones all the time easily.
…and control is indeed ‘carrier-independent’ cool.
So I understand you can switch phones and not worry about porting ever again, but that doesn’t really make you totally carrier independent. You are either still signing a long-term contract, or if you are not, then you are over paying for the device/service. Can you pls explain this?
I don’t know about the other carriers, but T-Mobile has no contract plans if you pay full price for the device. So, you can cancel any time without having to pay a termination fee. However, I don’t believe any of the other carriers give customers this option.
But if you are paying the whole price, that defeats the purpose. I find Michael’s statement “I am now carrier independent” totally misleading.
Michael, I will request again, please may I have your iphone. I’ve been wanting one of these for a while but dont want to get into a contract with AT&T. Pretty Please
You can only switch to T-Mobile phones. You’re still a slave, you’ve just switched owners. Google Voice did nothing for you, and you’re an idiot for paying that early termination fee. In terms of functionality and power, iPhone still blows everything else out of the water. MobileMe doesn’t work well at all? More like YOU don’t work well at all; you have to be dumber than those slumdogs in India to have trouble with MobileMe syncing. Gmail is horrible with contacts. Do they still create new contacts for everyone you email? Yuck.
haha. most ridiculous comment ever. seriously made a good laugh out of it
I, and I suspect many others, enjoy the “personal” posts. Truly, I find personal insight backed by well informed experience way more valuable that white paper sterility. Arrington successfully represents the sentiments of millions of tech users and lovers and it is refreshing (and fun) to have him articulate his good and bad experiences with the same tech services and products that we use! So thank you, Mike, for sharing with us. Ignore the tossers that don’t get what blogging is all about. Cheers.
are you british?
british people are the best. they use words like “tosser” and then say “cheers”.
what do we have:
“f*ck off and thanks.”
thanks german (the language not the people)
Palm Pre x2
Yes google voice is cool. But Didn’t we have number portability like a long time ago ?
er, this really isn’t about number portability
you tell me…and tell me how i can get that with my carrier, cause we don’t have that here. at all. we always get shanked.
Seriously great update. This is going to gain a ton of momentum in the wake of your actions. Thanks for not sugar coating it and managing expectations.
You’re joking, right? The average user doens’t care about this, no care who arrington is. There is no momentum. You’re living in a dream world.
So true.
Exhibit A: Vindication By Troll (VBT).
November 24, 2003 was years ago and for a reason. Google it. Learn something.
VoIP providers offering SIP O/T services have been enabling “average users” to port numbers into and out of services with wondrous degrees of sophistication and success for several years. Larger players in this reseller field include larger CLEC operators such as Level 3 (used by Google Voice).
If you are a running a small business and you’ve put your life blood into your company and given YOUR company phone number to customers, printed it on everything, and then your local RBOC fails you — you actually do care about this.
In summary, piss off.
lol. good reply. i don’t own a business. i don’t know who arrington is (i didn’t really know anything about him and i am only little more knowledgable about who he is since coming to this website) and i care about this. i was finally going to get the new iphone…and i didn’t. maybe my money can go into getting something like this and not having to deal with f’n companies who like to stick it to you and you always have to take it. at&fail. don’t even know how they ever got to move to prrovide service here. f’n government. now we have the local telcoms f’n us over because they don’t want anyone moving in on their territory. and yet everyday someone complains. never was happier when government started ruling in our, the publics, favour. atleast we will have choice in the future. and some small startups are getting smart and actually giving us customers what we’ve been complaining about for years. about time. and we gladly pay those startups money. lol. it’ll be the best if people didn’t use the two nationwide telcoms.
I wanted to know though, since you are using Tmo, but making phone calls out from your Google Voice number, then you are not able to take advantage of the Unlimited IN Network / Mobile2Mobile calling minutes then right?
These days, it seems as if everyone tends to move to a carrier not only because of hardware, but because of this marketing in network free calling deals. What can you do? Get a high plan w/ more minutes I guess.
no idea about free calls/minutes to whoever. finding a way to save money on mobile isn’t really my thing. I just want a perfect user experience no matter what it costs.
that being said, tmobile is a lot cheaper than at&t overall. and the coverage is waaaaaay better here in silicon valley.
The main reason I’m hesitant about moving to GV is the in/out costs for calls with it – if GV = free, like totally free except for little service costs (changing the number, porting a number in/out, expanded voicemail space, etc.) then that’s not a problem and I’m more than willing to switch over ASAP.
The other problems I have are call quality and reliability – quality is key, and this is coming from a former Vonage cancellations drone. I used Vonage all the time and the quality was pretty good, but for other people it was one of the killer features – it killed the experience for them and forced them over to another service. There were times, few and far between, that the call quality suffered for me (mostly when the calls were forwarded to my cell for whatever reason) but on the whole it was a decent experience (only switched away from them for a landline because we got a good deal with a landline/DSL combo deal at the time).
Reliability, well.. Vonage is pretty solid but GV is an unknown at this point. GrandCentral was pretty solid but suffered a little during the transition into GV and frankly it may be a little too new for me to switch completely over at this point. The one thing that would have me over in a heartbeat is a SLA from GV that would provide for something like 95-99 % uptime or something.. and at the same time a provision to keep our numbers and move over to another service with no strings in case Google decides to sell or kill it in the near future.
Other than that, it’s pretty awesome. =)
“finding a way to save money on mobile isn’t my thing”
but it is for most consumers
“I just want a perfect user experience no matter what it costs.”
This is just about the most ridiculous thing I have ever read. I hope you and your gobs of money are very happy together.
Most of us want an honest opinion of the value of the tech reviewed here on this site. I don’t expect TC to give us every detail of the T-Mobile billing system, but it would be nice to know that the reviews here are written by people who live somewhere on the same planet as the rest of us.
depending on the plan that you have and how much you actually spend. I have unlimited everything (minutes, messages, email, data) for about 85 on tmo.
OMG please don’t let MG Siegler find out
yeah, he’s been whining about this whole process, says i’ll be back on iphone/at&t within a couple of months. that isn’t going to happen.
3 months
AT&T customer service is okay, although I’m pissed at the GV Mobile banning (I fortunately downloaded it before the ban).
If Android and Pre get enough decent apps, I would consider ditching the iPhone too–but I need more productivity apps for me to consider that.
you guys should have a bet. yes it’s childish but you can make it fun.
Once you’ve done an Android, there’s no going back!
Mike, I wonder… how is the SMS experience via Google Voice using the Android phone? Do SMS(s) spontaneously appear as they do on all current handsets, as well as responding is it the same too; just as easy and intuitive?
Yes, but I turn the SMS off, because Google Voice has push.
That’s a very good point! I think there is a delay – no persistent connection. And when you receive a forwarded SMS (through GV and then your carrier’s SMS gateway), the reply-to number is sometimes a 406 number (Montana area code – assigned by google). Google needs to figure out some way to make things more persistent. If Google Talk can be persistent, they can set up an XMPP based persistent connection for Google Voice, Gmail, etc.
That’s a real flaw.
True, but they’ve got to support the thousands of other users who don’t have data plans, and therefore can’t send through the web or an app.
It would be nice to be able to send an sms through google voice with a certain security code, like this:
t 05321
where 05321 is your sms pin.
Let me fix that:
It would be nice to be able to send an sms through google voice with a certain security code, like this:
t 05321 text-message-body
where 05321 is your sms pin.
Sorry, this is the real post,
It would be nice to be able to send an sms through google voice with a certain security code, like this:
t 05321 5555551212 text-message-body
where 05321 is your sms pin and 5555551212 is the person you are texting.
That sounds, great. I can’t wait until I get my hands on Google’s voice service!
Question. I don’t really get this whole google voice thing. Are you still with a phone service plan and still paying a monthly fee to that company, or is this totally free? And if it’s free, does that mean that by switching from Verizon to Google Voice when my plan ends will save me the $30/month I’m paying for my phone service?
yes, you need a service plan with a carrier, or prepaid minutes, or something. and a device. but google voice controls my actual phone number, and their app (see links in post) take over the dialer automatically so that outgoing calls show that number too. they also take care of text messages.
For those that don’t have the luxury of test phones paid for by third party sources, porting to Google Voice would do nothing for them. I understand you are in a unique situation but it concerns me your post will cause your followers to make costly mistakes regarding their mobile phone service.
This is not the only feature, nor it’s most important. GV allows you to completely control and manage how, when, and where each contact (or contact group) is able to reach you. It also eliminates absurdly expensive text plans from the realm of necessity. GV additionally acts as a repository for all your SMS and voicemail transmissions (for you data pack rats out there). The fact that changing a phone or carrier doesn’t interrupt GV’s seamless service is just a bonus. A great one.
I agree with this. The average “Joe/Jane” does not have the luxury to have such a frivolous approach. As the author of this post has already mentioned and clearly demonstrated in his career that he “Shouts (read Yells) for a living” – it is one sided and clearly not news!
Mike is walking the fine edge of the blade and exposing the fact that he will always have bloody feet – ‘myTouch phone (which TMobile has supplied to me for free for a test period)’ AND the fact that you cannot yet port your mobile phone number officially just yet is a good indication that this post really was written just to raise the hair on peoples necks and nothing more. Oh, gee, this is almost the same senerio that made the Gilmore Gang on TWIT TV become homeless….
Hi Michael,
At the risk of sounding like a moron, here: Aren’t you still having to do business directly with T-Mobile?
If I’ve understood Google Voice correctly (I’m happily, luckily using it along with GV Mobile) it can’t work except as a piggyback on some other connection, e.g. T-Mobile.
No?
correct. but they don’t control my phone number, and i can do short term contracts and switch whenever i want.
Can’t you just use your Google Voice # and setup a new cell phone account with it? I currently have Verizon but I checked my GV# and T-mobile says it’s available for porting. Am I missing something???
Grossly misleading post.. you are still very much dependent on the carrier. Even without GV I can “switch whenever I want” if I don’t sign up the long term contract..
My grandma used to change supermarkets all the time because the price of bread would go up at one, or go down at the other. She kept a close eye, and would travel anywhere to pay 5 cents less, by principle.
And the Location of The Inexpensive Bread would make it into every phone call, somehow, no matter what else was going on in the world.
Hi, Grandma.
if i don’t have to for something i think i’m paying a ridiculous price for, then i am there. the minute i could vonage or skype or google voice…i was using it. if i don’t have to pay $20 for sms i am there. sometimes people cannot deal with something anymore. they have to go with what they want.
*have to pay for something.
Politely suggest to her to shop at sams for bread flour and get a bread machine.
You may not be tied to a carrier but you are becoming more tied to Google. With your contacts, email, documents, chat, phone OS and now your phone number, Google pretty much owns you.
I personally don’t see a problem with it as I use multiple Google services but it does open the door for things. Should Google become the next Apple and turn into the thing they hate most (Microsoft), you, me and millions of others are screwed.
Although if Google went crazy you could always port your number back to a carrier, keep your documents filed neatly on your drive or whatever ‘cloud,’ etc…
Point taken, though. There’s something about looming largeness that makes me a little nervous.
yes. all true. hopefully we’ll have a couple of years before they turn evil in the mobile space.
“Turn evil”? You sound stupid boy.
really. this is coming from someone posting under the name sarah palin. please excuse me if i pissed in my pants from laughing at the complete irony.
“no carrier will ever have a stranglehold on me again.”
Yep, you’re right. Now only Google will have a stranglehold on you.
One way or the other, you still have a master to answer to.
Until you can run your own telecommunications service off equipment you put together on your own without assistance from anyone else, at all, yes, you’re going to answer to someone.
but wait, you’re still going to need a license for the band you’re using on your home made setup.
that makes the fcc and the govt your master.
it all just makes me sad.
i LOVE GV btw, I use it on my g1.
I just don’t understand why Google voice has everyone so excited. If I want to switch providers, I take my number with me. So far, my number has been with Nextel, T-Mobile, Verizon and now AT&T. The only time I ran into trouble was when I switched to AT&T and wanted to switch over a New Jersey number to a California address. Took a little bit of time to sort out and then it was over. If I want to switch to another provider, it shouldn’t be too bad.
Everyone has my cell number, because that is the only number to call me at. Sure, I have a house phone that we use only to open the front door. We both use cell phones all the time for everything.
Now, don’t get me wrong I do see how some people might find this feature useful. But why is everyone like OMG I need to get Google voice. Do you really want to give out a single phone number that will have advertisements on it one day ?
The big winner for me is the dirt-cheap international calls. And if Google gets heavy-handed (in-call ads, for instance) I assume you can always port your number to any competitor.
By “heavy handed”, do you mean, “start making money”? Aside from advertising, how will GV make Google money?
There’s good advertising. And there’s heavy-handed advertising. (As noted, ‘in-call.’)
And so forth.
I suppose one day they could offer a lite (ad-supported) version and a pro (paid) version.
Actually, there’s quite a bit more features than just number portability, some of which are extremely cool. I suggest you check it out.
I do have an account and played around with it a bit. I still don’t get what the big deal with it is.
I haven’t seen anything earth shattering. What did I miss ?
it’s because you don’t need it.
people need something like google voice because it makes their life easier in some aspects. it’s not like staying with at&fail. i already see some really good benefits of getting something like this. i would be someone who would need gv, not for what or why arrington needed it, but for what i need it to do which is to give me choice and not gouge me.
I have been holding out for over a year due to Android vs. iPhone. I started using Google Voice about a month ago and when Apple banned related apps they made my indecision disappear very quickly.
The GV integration with Cupcake could use a little work, but it’s definitely good enough. I’m just bummed that T-Mobile’s stock Cupcake build is not as polished at HTC Hero’s. The myTouch’s current unhackibility is also a thorn on my side. I may downgrade to a G1.
So why isn’t Google an MVNO? I remember reading an article (LA Times maybe?) stating that most prepaid third-party MVNOs are doing horribly. Either way, I agree with you. I proposed this back in 2006: http://hectorpa....com/digiversal Glad to see what the VCs told me wasn’t going to happen has and is continuing to happen.
HGP
actually, from what various reviews have pointed out, is that the mytouch 3g has the same build as the hero from a hardware standpoint. however, due to google making a ui that is a bit more simplistic, and htc’s sense ui is a bit more complex, it actually makes the mytouch a bit faster because it has less to do… unless you want to make it do more like the hero
Aren’t you getting into a long term contract with T-Mobile as well?
You never mention that your Crunchpad uses Google OS so you have a conflict of interest in this whole scheme. The My Touch superior to the 3GS? Puh-lease. Especially in apps. You also forgot to mention that Google now has the ultimate control over you and thats not a good thing. I’m not impressed.
That’s a bit of a sticky issue for anyone covering technology these days. You’ve got to use _some_ sort of tech yourself.
And further to the point, if you look at the top of this page you’ll see a big ol’ Google ad.
I’m not sure there’s a way around it, though.
the only thing that the iphone is dominant in IS THE APPS. do you really plan on using all 60,000 of them? probably not. trust when I tell you. I’ve used both the iphone as well as the mytouch. mytouch is dominant in everything else.
I called someone with Google Voice for the first time the other day. It is somewhat off-putting for the caller to get the recorded message, have to say your name, and then wait to get routed. Michael, it sounds like you’re not doing this — all calls (other than blocked numbers) get immediately routed to both phones, skipping this step?
You can disable that name-announcement bit. And yes, it’s annoying. For the caller and the called.
That’s a feature you can optionally enable to screen unknown callers. If the person has you in their Google Voice contacts list, you shouldn’t get screened like that.
I like T-Mobile as a company but would never consider them for a smartphone because they essentially have no 3G service to speak of. Which you never mention.
their 3g service is definitely expanding.
Does anybody know if/when Google will release a GV app for symbian phones ? Like many I am using now GVdialer but it’s not so great.
How does this prevent a carrier from having a stranglehold on you? The stranglehold is signing a two year contract to start your service, not that you can’t port your number. You’ve been able to port your number for years now, so until contracts go away (never) your carrier will always have a stranglehold on you.
I would love to have Google Voice handle my number and everything for me and can’t wait to do this, but I’m not doing it under the miss-assumption that a carrier won’t be able to tie me to two year contracts anymore.
Can you elaborate a bit on how this has apparently freed you from carriers having a stranglehold on you?
You don’t have to sign a contract to get service.
why do people talk about teleporting your number like it’s available/possible everywhere in the world.
Not a fan of google voice… how much more data should we give google?
Oh please. Do you think anyone at Google wants to keep all your text messages that say LOL or LMAO? Jeez people, get a life. Your carrier gets more information about you than Google does, they even have your social security number. And your going to complain about Google getting your text messages? ROFL!
i’m not using google and my carrier has all my information and they will keep it. yeah people are going to be scared of google monopoly especially if it gets better and is easier for people to use. it’s not like people act and don’t think about those kinds of questions. if you didn’t ask you probably wouldn’t be tied down to a contract and one company. not everyone wants to be tied down. some people like choices.
Michael,
I agree almost 100%. I too just got the myTouch Android and I am running Android mobile app on both blackberry and the myTouch (G2). The G2 though is still sluggish and camera quality not as good, but total number control via GVoice is nice.
Improvements needed on Google Voice:
– You cannot send any SMS’ to short codes – so you cannot use GoogleSMS, or banking services. I’m sure they adjust this, but it’s kind of needed.
- They have no “archive” option on the mobile apps – only delete – and need to add that because google search is useless if you cannot keep them.
– Int’l support is needed
Overall, Google Voice is killer. While there is some threat to Apple, I really see it as Apple and Google versus everyone else for the near term. The day will come when Google and Apple go head to head, but in the near term, this is worse for Microsoft, Nokia, Blackberry, Palm and everyone else.
It’s Design versus Openness. Ultimately, I predict even Design will not be able to beat the Darwinism of Android openness.
Maemo 5 with Ubuntu and QT will
Google Voice, is the future it will be interesting to see if mass adoption occurs.
Neal Saferstein
http://nealsaferstein.com
Nice article. I recently sold my iPhone 3g for the HTC hero and one of the reasons was due to the Google Voice banning fiasco, even though it doesn’t affect me in the UK.
The restrictions Apple impose are sadly hard for me to swallow. Android as a platform is fantastic. I’m currently using an alternative media player on my phone other than the HTC app. This is the kind of thing I like about open platforms, choice.
Good luck with Android and i hope you enjoy it as much as I have these last few weeks!
oh oh oh so you’re one of those people apple fans were saying wouldn’t be dumb enough to switch. keep up with arrington’s updates so you can comment and keep us updated too.
Oh please. You switched, and now EVERYTHING is better on the other side. I guess those grapes are sour, huh?
Eventually google voice will come to the iphone, and you’ll be stuck with a second rate phone, which is ironic, since you’re a second rate tech reporter. Enjoy!
Why make it personal, man?
It’s gadgets.
PWNED.
Not even 2nd rate. All the bastard does is down Apple in hopes of making the CRUNCHPAD look like a better device. Funny, I hear that it doesn’t do SH*T without the internet.
F**k that.
has everyone decided that this sarah palin person is a troll? lol. entirely rhet question and there’s only one obvious answer. it’s not even about what he/she/it typed out just now. it’s been spreading it’s goodness in the comments section. check out some of the other stories.
Being a troll, doesn’t make them wrong…
it doesn’t have to be wrong. you probably haven’t seem some of the comments “sarah palin” has been leaving in the comments section. it’s really redundant. but this was one of the only times he/she actually wrote something instead of F@*K THIS. i just wanted to know in another thread if he/she was actually typing any of this stuff or using ctrl v and then i saw the comment above and atleast he/she showed capability. whether i agree or disagree. i have to say it’s a level above some of sarah palin’s previous comments.
eventually maybe… once the head of apple/att decide to unban it. they are the reason that google voice isn’t on the iphone. because they want to be able to control everything that your phone is. Android however, wants you to be able to control your own individual phone
For many people, it is not the question of having or not having an object/app. It is about having freedom to have it or not, and who has control over it. With Apple, you have less control. With Google, you have options.
Only an Apple fan boy would call the myTouch 3G a second rate phone. I have an iPhone and a myTouch and, as a self professed Apple fan boy, the myTouch is hands down a much better phone than the iPhone. You want to know why? Try it out.
One feature that I love about the myTouch and hate about the iPhone is the inability to change the battery. The way I use my phone, an extra battery is always nice.
Time has changed. Apple is forbidding iPhone users to install Google Voice app called “GV Mobile” on the device. They decided to take it off App Store. Why? Just because.
This smart phone is essentially a computer with operating system and an ability to install third party software like any other computer. When I called Apple, tech support representative informed me that Apple does not have to explain why they are forbidding me to install Google apps after I purchased device planning to use it with Google Voice. She also informed me that App Store is like any other store has right to choose what they put on their shelves.
Well, I respect their choice, but the last time I checked in my neighborhood mall none of their stores are FORBIDING me to use products from anywhere else but from their store. Does Apple respect my choice? Communist China government did not dare to make Lenovo give me a list of software I can install on my laptop. Lenovo respects my choice because they know what will happen with their laptops if they would try to deny this choice to people in free world.
Just imagine what would happen if Microsoft would make an agreement with Comcast and set up a list of software you are allowed to install. What if they allow you to connect to internet only through Comcast? What if Comcast decides they don’t like some software and a week later Microsoft would FORBID using it without any meaningful explanation? That would definitely be considered mafia-like behavior and nobody would tolerate it.
We are not tolerating this behavior neither from China, US government, Microsoft, nor from Comcast. For how long are we going to tolerate this behavior from Apple? I erased my iPhone, I smashed it with hammer and I will send it on Monday to Steve Jobs, c/o Apple 1 Infinite Loop Cupertino, CA 95014
Time has changed.
The thing is everybody knows how Apple rolls. They have a closed system and do what they want to do without our input. This isnt the first time they pulled a stunt like this but everyone seems like it is. Before you bought the iPhone you know Apple controlled every aspect of the phone. So why complain now? Why didn’t people complain in the magnitude they are doing now before?
Everybody sounds like the NFL players who complain about their contract when they have one great year. They act like NFL is not giving them their freedom so they make this big “holdout” dog and pony show. They knew how the game was played when they signed their contract. They could’ve signed a 1 or 2 year deal but they sign the 6 year deal.
C’mon people don’t get new on me now. Apple is the total opposite of Google in terms of being “open”.
not everyone knows about apple actually…especially not apple the 80% apple users number that was used in mcg’s apple write up.
some people know about apple. others are willfully blind to the reality. as long as apple gives them a good design, interface, product, they don’t care. but some people do. sometimes people cannot stay with apple because at&fail is too much, and sometimes it’s because of apple the company and not the product. apple the company will not be getting my money anytime soon and i doubt they care. my apple relationship is one sided. like mcg said apple is the way they are because it works for them and this control of the apple experience is what works for apple consumers. and like another commenter said in that thread, it’s nothing new. just because people are asleep doesn’t make something new just because they’ve woken up. new to them maybe…but not new in general.
this whole porting your number thing…it’s not new, but i want to know how i can do that…cause we don’t do that. have never done it or know anyone who has. we’re not all like the u.s. or the u.k. or europe for that matter…or even china.
People have something called ‘tolerance’. So people tolerated Apples behavior, but people have limits. With GV app fiasco, Apple crossed tolerance threshold of many people. Hence, this outrage.
you posted same in other thread.
yes it’s the obvious. lol.
I completely agree with gvhater.
How do I port my number to Google Voice?
Nevermind, I just read the bottom of the article.
Long live Kubrick!!