Wow, now that took time!

Google Voice has been in private beta for quite some time with those already in on it raving about it’s abilities.  Now, FINALLY, they are extending invitations to those who have been signed up for so long.  They are currently working their way through the list so be patient (Brett)!  If you’re not familiar with Google Voice or its predecessor, GrandCentral, check out this video:

I had signed up for a GrandCentral number way back before Google took over so I’ve been part of the private beta.

I am currently using my Google Voice number as my home number and I’m loving it!  I did a review on it (and am testing the transcription service so drop me a line) and I even found a way to save on my cell phone bill by using it.  I even figured out how to send voicemails to multiple email addresses (now it seems Google allows this in settings anyhow)!

One annoyance I had with GrandCentral, back in the day, was the lack of flexibility of the option to “choose to not have your GrandCentral number ring your home during the day.” Several things bugged me.  First, the option was only available for the number labeled “home.”  What if I carry my cell phone to work and want my calls to only go home and not the cell?  Then there was the rigidness of the times allowed.  I don’t remember the exact times but you only had like one choice (ie. block calls 9:00AM-5:00PM/working hours).  I’m happy to announce that Google has changed this!  You can now have a “ring schedule” for each phone!

As I said, the folks at Google are working their way through the invite list.

If you head to voice.google.com, there is a “get an invite” link to get on the list, but I haven’t heard any word about how long it will take to get an invite so patience is key!

Questions!

• Do you have a Google Voice number yet?
• What do you think of the idea of it?
• How do you like the service?
• What are some interesting ways you can use the service (ie. saving money on your cell phone)?
• Why haven’t you checked out my review and dropped me a line yet?
• What concerns do you have about a service like this?

I keep checking and it seems that Google Voice is still only available to the Grandcentral users from when they were open to Beta users way back when!  I wonder how long they’ll stay closed.  Well, for you lucky ones (and those planning on signing up is ever it is open), check out this trick to help save on your cell phone bill!

First off, you have to have one of those plans where you can add numbers you use often to your “friends and family” network or whatever your service calls it.  Then you add your Google Voice number on to your list. Now you can call your Google Voice number without using minutes up.   There are two reasons for this:

1. You can check Google Voice messages with your cell without using cell phone minutes
2. You can make calls out using Google Voice (so your Google Voice number shows up on caller ID) without using cell phone minutes

Right now, all calls within the United States are free through Google Voice.  All you have to do is call your Google Voice number from your cell (which is hopefully attached to your Google Voice account), punch in your four digit code and hit option two in oder to make a call out.  Every time you do this, the call will be free PLUS you won’t use up any cell phone minutes!

Neat, huh?  Claps for Google once again!

Awhile back I obtained a Grandcentral.com phone number and I’ve loved the service ever since!  My wife and I can receive phone calls on either our cell phone or our home phone or even both if need be!  We can listen to voicemails as they are being left!  We can forward calls from one phone to the other!  Plus much, much more!  One of the only issue we came accross is that even though the voice mails are so conveniently sent to our email box, we only had the option of having them sent to one email box.  Well, We each have our own email and would love to have them sent to both.  Well, we figured it out!

If you remember my last two posts about email filtering: My Email’s Being Filtered and More About Email Filtering, and were able to figure filtering out, you can have your voice mails sent to two emails!  Here’s how I did it:

1. First of all, I happened to have an email account in three different services: Hotmail, Yahoo, and Gmail.  I generally use my Hotmail account so I used that one for the final destination for the voice messages.  I chose to have Grandcentral send the vaoicemails to my Gmail account.
2. I then set up a filter to send all emails from “voicemail@grandcentral.com” to my Hotmail box
3. Then I set up a second filter to send all emails from “voicemail@grandcentral.com” to my wife’s Yahoo mail box

Now, whenever we miss a call and someone leaves us a message, Grandcentral sends the message to my Gmail account which takes care of forwarding it to the final two email boxes!  Cool, huh?

If you don’t have a Grandcentral number yet, I think you’d like it, but as far as I know it is still a “private beta service” and are closed to new testers!  I guess I was blessed and slipped in when they were still looking ofr testers