Google Voice Daily

While the debate over net neutrality continues, David Pogue of the New York Times, a huge Apple fan, is livid over the Google Voice apps rejection, and a good summary of reasons not to use GV appears.

TruVoIPbuzz: 8 Reasons Why You Should Not Use Google Voice as Your Primary Number

Writer, and long-time GrandCentral and Google Voice user, Alok Saboo cites 8 reasons not to use GV as your primary number: Possible SMS receiving problems, difficulties with making calls from your GV number, no in-network free minutes, the possibility of outages, reports of slight delays in voice calls, privacy concerns, lack of SIP support (err, what about Gizmo5?) and lack of support for users.

My take: A very good roundup of the case against using GV as your main number except for a huge omission: doubts about how you can use your GV number overseas. The case as made seems a weak one to me, against the benefits, cost savings and control Google Voice gives you.

New York Times: Is Google Voice a Threat to AT&T?

David Pogue describes the App Store rejection of Google Voice apps, highlighting the two retroactive rejections. “The blogosphere goes nuts”, he puts it. He blames AT&T/Apple and their “Soviet information-control style”, which has made “martyrs” of the apps. He points out that Google is working on improving the Google Voice mobile Web site to offer the same features in a way Apple can’t easily block.

My take: A must-read. Pogue has been a HUGE booster of both the iPhone and Google Voice. (He wrote the book on the iPhone – the very popular iPhone, The Missing Manual.) With Pogue taking Google’s side, Apple is not due to have many friends left in this battle.

PC World: Why We Need Net Neutrality — And Why We Need It Now

A rally ing call for net neutrality by a developer. The article compares the open situation on computer broadband to the much more restricted situation for mobiles.

My take: Worth reading, this will be fought out in Congress with the new bill introduced (see yesterday’s post).

ZDNet Asia: Smartphone battleground: Apple and Google head to China

The #1 cell phone carrier in China, China Mobile, will soon be offering two Android phones. The #2 carrier, China Unicom, will be offering the iPhone a few months later. Apparently the exclusive for iPHone will run three years, giving Google three years to sell China Mobile customers – those who aren’t willing to change carriers to get an iPhone – on Android. Separately, the Financial Times speculates that the reason for Apple’s rejection of Google Voice apps has to do with intense competitiveness over China

My take: The China situation has no direct effect on Google Voice, as it’s not available in China and may not be for a long time to come. But if and when that does happen, Android, which has the best-integrated Google Voice app so far, may have a very strong position in the market. Indirectly, success with Android encourages investment in it and Google Voice, and vice versa. As for China competititiveness affecting the App Store, it’s hard to see it. The FCC’s queries should help get to an answer.

Ethiopian Review: Rejected By Apple, iPhone Developers Go Underground

This in-depth article profiles Cydia, the App Store alternative for jailbroken iPhones. Cydia is now the only place you can get GV Mobile, the leading app that was canned from the App Store by Apple.

The article claims 10 percent of iPhone/iPod Touch users, or 4 million people, have installed Cydia – which looks like a claim that 10 percent of iPhone/iPod Touches are jailbroken. The article describes most jailbreakers as “nerdy rebels” and describes the relative chances for developer success on Cydia versus the App Store, including some sales figures.

My take: If 10 percent have done a jailbreak, that’s amazing. If it’s made faster and easier – and, through Apple and AT&T’s actions, ever more necessary – that number could double or triple, which would be a very big impact on Apple and App Store developers indeed.

Voxilla: Skype Only Winner as Apple Jilts Google

Article points out that Skype is the winner from the App Store hassle over Google Voice apps. Skype is the world’s largest telephone company, by minutes, and Google Voice keeps minutes on AT&T and other traditional mobile carriers, whereas with Skype they’re lost.

My take: Good point, though it ignores AT&T’s potential loss of highly profitable SMS and long-distance revenues to Google Voice, which complicates the picture.

DailyTech: Apple Rejects Dictionary, EBook Apps on Profanity, Piracy Grounds

A dictionary app has been rejected from the App Store for containing curse words, and eBook apps are being rejected en masse because many eBooks have copyright problems or open issues. Separately, Apple senior VP Phil Schiller claims it wasn’t censorship, but a wait for parental controls in new Apple firmward – the first time Apple has said anything publicly about any App Store rejection.

My take: This of course seems a bit rich when most songs on iPhones and iPods are illegal, so by the same logic those devices shouldn’t be sold. However, it may be part of an effort to clean up the App Store, though not communicated or managed at all well by Apple.

Wireless Week: Google Voice Indicative of a Trend

Writer Andrew Berg describes 3jam, a Google Voice competitor. This service does cost money, but it can be “white labeled” by competitors, meaning that a Google Voice-type service could be offered with your cell phone plan. This would lack number portability, though. The article also describes someone having multiple phone numbers for, say, Facebook, another for their soccer team, etc.

My take: Things are about to get strange if we have different phone numbers for different purposes. The situation will only get more confusing before winners emerge, though Google, through Google Voice, looks set to be one of them, or the biggest one. (You might need Google Voice even more to deal effectively with calls coming from new sources.)

Quick Takes:

• myTouch is said to be cheaper than Palm Pre or iPhone, at about $2000 for 2 years of average usage (myTouch) vs. $2400 (Pre) and $2900 (iPhone).
• FierceBroadbandWireless writer Lynnette Luna anticipates quick FCC action potentially leading to mandated wireless openness, outlawed handset exclusivity deals and regulations for app stores, among other changes, and all sooner rather than later.
• Ethiopian Review makes a case against FCC intervention in the App Store, citing overall intense competition in the smartphone market.
• Mashable writer Ben Parr shows momentum growing for Android apps.

After yesterday’s monster post, I determined to be more selective and only write up stories that directly related to Google Voice. Seemingly in response, dozens of stories came up, either quite specific about Google Voice or tying it quite nimbly to broader themes that will affect the mobile telecomms environment for years to come.

TechRepublic: Google helps military personnel

Michael Kassner describes how impressed he is by a new Google offer: guaranteed, priority Google Voice access for soldiers – anyone with a .mil e-mail address – and 24-hour processing of the request.

The offer was introduced by soldier Sgt Dale Sweetnam, working with Google on an Army training program, who described it thus on Google’s official blog: “Loved ones can call to leave messages throughout the day, and then when that service member visits an Internet trailer, all the messages are right there. It’s like a care package in audio form”.

This received huge, and hugely favorable, press coverage. It contrasted to news that social networking sites (including Twitter, Facebook and MySpace) are immediately banned for Marines and likely to be restricted for other servicepeople. Google Voice will be a welcome alternative.

My take: Brilliant marketing by Google, “doing well by doing good”. Also making a virtue of Google Voice’s slow rollout, limited availability and inability to put through calls when you’re out of the country. Sweetnam again: “I know when I return to combat, Google Voice will help make life a little more manageable”.  It doesn’t get any better than that, in style or substance.  (Invites are here.)

CNET: Apple, Google Voice, and number portability

Dave Rosenberg ties the Apple/AT&T mess over Google Voice to an overall battle over number portability, not just the actual number but the experience across different environments, including caller ID for your portable number and not the device’s number.

My take: This is exactly what a dialer accomplishes, and the article is valuable for tying Google Voice to bigger issues.

DailyTech: AT&T Blames Apple for iPhone Google Voice Rejection

Jason Mick passes on AT&T’s dismissive comment on the FCC’s letters about banning Google Voice apps from the App Store: “AT&T does not manage or approve applications for the App Store. We have received the letter and will, of course, respond to it.”

He points out that this is false. In reference to the earlier decision to restrict Slingbox (a TV forwarding service) on the iPhone to WiFi only, AT&T had said:

“Slingbox, which would use large amounts of wireless network capacity, could create congestion and potentially prevent other customers from using the network. The application does not run on our 3G wireless network. Applications like this, which redirect a TV signal to a personal computer, are specifically prohibited under our terms of service. We consider smartphones like the iPhone to be personal computers in that they have the same hardware and software attributes as PCs.”

So AT&T is not involved – except when it is. Mick also points out that Steve Jobs said in public that AT&T is the reason apps like Skype are WiFi only and that AT&T is actively policing VOIP apps. (Which Google Voice is not, technically, but similar in some of its effects on AT&T’s revenues.)

My take: Part of the brilliance of the FCC’s letters to Apple, AT&T and Google is that the letters invite the principals to contradict one another in their responses. This was perhaps too subtle for AT&T, which has instantly and publically contradicted itself. (With further, public, help from Jobs.) Apple and AT&T are making it much easier, indeed almost necessary, for the FCC to take action of some sort.

ComputerWorld: Next-gen Android phone goes on sale Aug. 5

Matt Hamblen rounds up reviews of the new myTouch 3G Android phone from HTC. It will sell for $200 with a two-year service plan, has a 3.2″ touch sceen and a 3.2 megapixel camera with video.

Other key points:

• It has no physical keyboard, unlike its predecessor, the G1. This is a big differentiator for consumers – some will like it, some will cross it off their list.
• The Android Market only has a tenth of the iPhone App Store’s apps, but quality is high.
• myTouch 3G works well with Google Voice.
• myTouch 3G is thinner and lighter (that would be the “no keyboard” part), and has better battery life, but still has too many control buttons.
• 18 Android phones will arrive in the rest of 2009 and there are 30 carriers selling them in 20 countries. Andoid could become “the global standard for smartphones”.

My take: Android is getting good notices now and is seen as having a very bright future. Having the best Google Voice integration available is not going to hurt, especially in contrast to the current situation on iPhone.

Silicon Alley Insider: Google Will Triple In Three Years

Heather Leonard describes a visit by Scott Kurnit, tech investor and founder of About.com. Kurnit is extremely bullish on Google Voice, Google Wave and Google Android, saying, amazingly, that each could be as big as Google’s current business. He thinks Google’s stock could triple in the next 5 years as this unfolds.

My take: This sounds too good to be true, but even if it’s only partly right, Google has a lot of room to move upward. I can certainly  see Google Voice and Google Android helping each other to strong positions.

FierceMobileContent: Palm complaint charges that Apple restrains trade

Jason Ankeny both reports on and analyzes a ground-breaking move by Palm. Palm has complained to industry group USB Implementers Forum, which Apple and Palm both belong to, that Apple’s interference with the Palm Pre’s syncing to iTunes is a violation of USB standards. Rethink Wireless adds that this is “quite an extreme move” by Palm.

My take: Importantly, this is not a government action. Palm is actually pushing a different type of player to go after Apple. This sort of thing often ends up influencing government action. The pressure will be on Apple to settle with the industry body so as to avoid follow-on action by the government.

ComputerWorld: Obama administration, new legal research could jack up antitrust heat on Intel

Eric Lai describes how new energy from the Obama administration and new antitrust theories will change the rules of antitrust. He cites Intel as a target, but of course this affects the current iPhone/Google Voice brouhaha and Google itself, which is under antitrust scrutiny. Lai particularly cites possible antitrust effects of bundles such as phones and service packages, with iPhone/AT&T being only the leading example.

My take: An important article to read to understand the likely antitrust environment going forward, which will create both opportunities and concerns for Google. Google Voice and Android are a long way from any kind of monopoly, so they have a lot of room to run if the government tries to open things up. As DailyTech says separately, with reference to the Apple and Google’s still-interlocking directorates, “Google is in the sights of regulators. This is just the first of many instances where they are going to encounter regulatory scrutiny.”

UnStrung, the 4G Authority: AT&T, Apple & Google

Site Editor Dan Jones takes the occasion of the FTC’s letters to point out that the way forward for telcos is to accept “dumb pipes” status and offer creative service plans for different types of data. He cites Verizon Wireless as starting out in this direction.

My take: A useful indication of a possible different world in which voice is relatively unimportant in revenue terms.

CNET: IBM wants my phone data. I’ll happily give it more

Matt Asay offers lots of his personal data to help IBM Research tie together his IM, e-mail, phone, movement and purchasing histories to improve offerings to him and make his interactions easier. Asay points out that Tim O’Reilly has been discussing this for years.

My take: Google is not the only player trying to create a “personalized cloud” in which your data is used to do things for you and/or to you. Google Voice is of course a big new step in this direction. The effort by IBM may take some pressure off Google.

Washington Post: The iPhone Gets Easier to Dislike

Staff writer Rob Pegoraro – not a blogger drafted in by WashPo – takes the iPhone, AT&T and the App Store to task. Pegoraro cites Android and Pre as compelling alternatives. This is somewhat of a roundup article but a good one, including some analysis, and worth reading. He finishes by inviting readers to share their opinions, which may well lead to follow-on articles.

My take: It’s significant that the Post is taking this on directly. Press, public and government pressure on a company often go together, so Apple is getting into more trouble. Which means more pressure to reverse themselves on Google Voice and more running room for Android, even after a possible reversal by Apple.

eWeek: Network Neutrality: Game On for Open Networks

Roy Mark ties the FCC letters to the recent introduction of a network neutrality bill in Congress. He foresees a battle royal over the whole direction of US technology policy which will directly affect the mobile telephony world.

My take: Even the introduction of the bill is part of a changing environment. The industry will be under pressure to clean up its act, from Washington’s point of view, or face harsh legislation that will compel it to do so.

Quick Takes:

• WMExperts reports that Microsoft has offered a developers’ guide for porting iPhone apps to Windows Mobile. Maybe that will help bring a Google or third party Google Voice app to the platform.
• Blorge and others report on the banning of an App Store spammer with 900+ apps, engaged in dubious practices, as overdue and evidence that Apple was incompetent to approve all those apps before noticing anything was wrong. (My take: A bit of sympathy for Apple here. Even when they do the right thing, they’re wrong!)
• MacNewsWorld has a good and somewhat sympathetic explanation of “Why Apple Hates Jailbroken iPhones”, focusing on security problems that can emerge if more and more iPhones are jailbroken.

May you be in Heaven half an hour before the Devil knows you’re dead – Irish toast

You may be wondering whether to make the move from GrandCentral to Google Voice.  The simple answer is, do it!

The #1 thing you’ll get is cheap international calls from your cell phone – with Google standing behind it. And you’ll get SMS support, voicemail message transcripts and conference calls.

But before you make the change, there’s a few things you should be ready for:

• Your Contacts won’t automatically come over into Google Voice;
• You can export your Contacts into Google Voice;
• You can’t export customized greetings, phone settings and group settings.
• Your Messages won’t come over into Google Voice;
• You can’t export your Messages into Google Voice.

So before you move over, do the following:

• Save or delete all your GrandCentral messages. (Access to them may stop suddenly someday, so dealing with them fully now is the only safe approach.)
• Export your GrandCentral address book. Sign into GrandCentral; click the Address Book tab and click Export - choose CSV file; save the file to your desktop, or someplace else appropriate.

That’s it! You’re prepared. In the next post, I’ll describe how to get Google Voice set up quickly and easily.

Voice over IP – VoIP, as it’s properly abbreviated, though you’ll see VOIP a lot – is the future of phones.

Basically, VoIP means using the Internet – based on Internet Protocol, or IP – to carry phone calls.

Traditional phone networks use special circuits to protect voice traffic and maintain voice quality and reliability. They have, of course, evolved over the years – there are no more switchboard operators plugging wires into and out of sockets to connect calls, as there used to be! (As often seen in movies, most recently in Changeling with Angelina Jolie as an operator and supervisor; her free long-distance phone access plays a minor role in the plot.)

Internet Protocol is a simple set of rules for sending data over possibly unreliable connections – such as the phone network, which is unreliable for non-voice data as it wasn’t designed for it! In IP, data is divided up into chunks – “packetized” – sent over the line (or carrier pigeons or whatever), then re-assembled at the other end.

You can see that this takes time and would tend to introduce lags to digitize, send and re-assemble the packets. But, with use increasing and investments in infrastructure growing, the Internet is getting so much better and more reliable that it can reasonably be used to carry voice calls – thus, VoIP.

However – and we are still researching this – Google Voice is apparently a call redirection service rather than “true” VoIP. It uses phone lines to send analog voice signals, rather than IP packets, from one point to the next.

This is a bit disappointing to VoIP zealots but welcome to the rest of us, who should get better call quality as a result.

However, we’re still awaiting a detailed explanation of just how Google Voice works – and waiting for it to be available beyond the GrandCentral community and a few reviewers, as well!

An editorial in the VOIP News this week postulated that Google Voice might be in the position to eliminate overseas cell phone calling once the service is launched this spring. Why? Because GV does two things that neither Skype nor mobile phones can do by themselves: with a Google Voice dialer on your smartphone, you can dial out of the country cheaply, and you can do it without a computer.

The article describes how the smartphone-based GV dialers work:

Users typically choose a name from the built-in address book, or dial manually. The dialer first instructs the handset to dial a VoIP gateway, then tells the gateway what number to call. It makes VoIP dialing as easy as regular cellular calling. Users pay for cellular airtime plus the cheap VoIP rates if the call is international.

In other words, Google Voice will be able to “spoof” the people you call into thinking that your mobile phone is using your Google Voice phone number. That means that when they call you back, they won’t try to use your real mobile number–that’d cause confusion. The whole process will stay within GV service, which like Skype will charge pennies on the dollar for overseas calls. All you’ll need is your 3G data connection or WiFi.

Of course, there’s a complication: the only dialers available right now, GVMobile and VoiceCentral, are for iPhone only. But more are coming, and for other platforms as well. (Some kind of baked-in functionality for Google Android phones seems like a logical next step, too.)

And with new radio spectrum opening up for all kinds of uses–including mobile broadband–there’s no telling where the service could go from there. If Google executes its Voice strategy to its logical end, they could end up with both a smartphone and a service that don’t rely on the big four domestic carriers at all. That would mean no more 2-year cell contracts or $100-a-month service plans.

And wouldn’t that be nice?