Welcome Google Voice, Goodbye Grandcentral [Review]

Google is getting ready to recreate its magic with its new service Google Voice. Google wants to change the way you use your telephone, much as it revolutionized email usage with Gmail. Google Voice is the new version of Grandcentral, which Google acquired in July 2007. Read on to find out what to expect from Google Voice.

The basic philosophy behind Grandcentral remains unchanged in its new avatar. Like Grandcentral, Google Voice lets users centralize and control their telephone services, screen callers, make calls, transfer calls to multiple phones, etc. But Google has made significant changes to the Grandcentral, laying to rest all the complaints about ignoring Grandcentral.

• Look and feel: If you already have used Grandcentral, the first change you will notice is that the new site is very similar to the other Google sites, especially Gmail. All your Gmail contacts and groups are available in Google Voice.
  
• SMS: Google Voice has added the much needed SMS support. Now you can send, receive and store text messages, like you do on your mobile phone. This is interesting!! On one hand Google disabled third-party text messages on Google Talk citing financial constraints, on the other hand the company has allowed free text messaging on Google Voice.
  
• International Calling: This is probably the most important feature of Google Voice (at least for me). Google Voice now allows you to make cheap international calls. Calls to USA numbers are free, while those to other countries are charged. The international calling rates are not the cheapest, e.g. call to India is 7 cents per minute, Pakistan is 9 cents, China is 2 cents, etc. But given the (expected) reliability and the brand name, lot of users would start using the service. Google Voice also provides a $1 free calling credit to test their service.
  
• Conference calls: Google Voice also has added another useful feature, free conference calls. Now you can easily add multiple parties to your current call to create free conference calls.
• Voicemail transcription: Transcription is one of the most talked about feature of Google Voice. Google uses advanced speech to text technology to convert voicemails to voice emails, that you can read quickly and decide whether you need to respond or not. Although the speech to text technology is not perfect, it is good enough to give you a context of the message. To be fair, Google Voice uses bold text for part of the message that it's more certain of.
• Call Widgets: Google Voice also provides you with call widgets that can be put on any web page, allowing people to call directly from the web page.
  
• Other features: Other features include, call recording, mobile interface, group handling, personalization, etc.

You can also have a look at the video demonstration of these features. While these are some great features, there are some obvious missing elements:

• Gmail integration: Google voice is not perfectly integrated with Gmail. There are no filters, rules, etc. Also, when you upgrade to Google Voice, all your Grandcentral contacts are replaced with your Gmail contacts. So, if you have important numbers in your Grandcentral contacts, please back them up to ensure you do not loose them. Given that both the services are geared towards simplifying communication, a closer integration is inevitable. Mind you, the service is still in beta, so this may come up in the future.
• SIP support: This is something, I would sincerely hope from Google Voice. We do not want another Skype.
  

In summary, Google Voice is nice service and would greatly benefit users. It would be interesting to see how it evolves and how the other providers react to this. Google Voice is currently available to GrandCentral users, however, Google assures that the service will be ready for new users in "few weeks". Meanwhile you can put your name on the beta request.

Technorati Tags: free text messages, voip voicemail, google voice, grandcentral, free calling credit, free conference calls, voicemail, call widgets, sip support, grandcentral update, free text message, free sms

30 minutes free calls to India!!! [Deals]

Here's another great deal to make free calls to India. Dialsimple is another new VoIP provider seeking to get some share of the VoIP market. And what better way than to offer free talk time to let users evaluate their service. Dialsimple is currently offering 30 minutes free calling to India. Here's what you need to do:

• Create a new account by signing up.
• Enter the gift code "g-call-ind" (without the quotes).
  
• Click the Sign Up button and you would see 30 free minutes in your account.
• You can signup using all the numbers you own to get more free minutes. So dig out your Grandcentral numbers, if you have them.
• In addition you get recharge bonus when you recharge your account. For example, you get $5 bonus when you recharge with $10.
  

Dialsimple offers multiple ways of making calls, regular dial, direct dial, and speed dial like most other services. It also offers other standard features like PIN less dialing, access number, auto recharge, call recording, voice recording, etc. Dialsimple is currently available only in the US.

Dialsimple charges 3.3 cents to India, but with the recharge bonus the effective rate is only 2.2 cents which is one of the better rates to India (even better than lot of Betamax rates). I would encourage you to give Dialsimple a try and see if it suits your requirements.

Technorati Tags: Dialsimple, Voucher, Save Money, Grandcentral, Free international calls, Free Calls, Deals, Coupon Code, Cheap international calls, Cheap calls, Call India, Betamax, Access number

Get over 100 minutes of free calls [Deals]

I wrote about 28TEL's mobile 2 Skype offering yesterday. If you have still not tried it, here is one more reason to give them a try.

28TEL is offering USD 1.5 credit for every new sign-up. You can use this credit to make free international calls. Although their regular rates are not very exciting, you can get free calls of over 100 minutes to certain destinations. Assuming you are calling from US/Canada, you can get around 20 minutes to India, 12 minutes free calls to Pakistan, 80 minutes free calls to Singapore, etc. Remember, calling your online Skype contacts is FREE. You can find the rates from other countries here. Should you decide to recharge your account, they are offering 10% extra on recharge as well (if you recharge before 15 Decmeber).

If you are in one of the 9 countries (Brazil, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Philippines, Taiwan, USA and Canada) where 28TEL is offering local numbers, you must not miss this. Register multiple numbers or even your Grandcentral numbers for more free international calls. If you are not in one of the 9 countries, you can try using the method detailed here. I have not tried it myself, but I guess it should work.

Technorati Tags: 28TEL, Free Calls, Free calls to Skype, Free international calls, Grandcentral, Save Money, Skype

Double your money on Rebtel [Deals]

The carnage at Wall Street has affected each one of us in some ways. Saving money is the flavor of the season. Our good old friend, Rebtel, has come out with a great offer to help you save money this festive season.

So here is the deal, Rebtel will double the amount of money that you put in your account. Sounds too good to be true, so here are the restrictions:

• The offer is limited to only your first payment. Please note that it is first payment and not new customer. Even if you have an account at Rebtel, you can still avail this offer if you have never put money in your account.
• The offer is limited to the first $10 deposit. So, if you deposit $10, your balance would be $20.
  
• The campaign lasts till November 1.
  

This deal makes calling even cheaper. You could effectively call India for $0.028, Pakistan (landline) for $0.0595, Bangladesh (landline) for $0.023, etc. per minute. These are great rates and compare favorably against even Betamax rates.

I could not try, but may be you can use some of the voucher codes we mentioned earlier (here or here) with this offer to sweeten the deal. If you have Grandcentral number, you could use that as well. Click here to signup.

So hurry up and grab the offer while it is good!!!

Technorati Tags: Rebtel, Voucher, Deal, Save Money, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, VoIP, Cheap Calls, Grandcentral, Betamax

Use Grandcentral smartly [Tips]

I had huge expectations from Grandcentral, especially after Google took it over. Unfortunately, Google has not cast its spell over Grandcentral. There has been no major changes in Grandcentral since ages. Although Grandcentral is very powerful under the hood, the user has not been able to exploit this. Today, I highlight some third party applications that enhance your Grandcentral experience.

GrandCentral Dialer - This application greatly reduces the hassles of using Grandcentral. With this application you do not have to enter all the contacts in your contact book to make a call. Further, you are not restricted to using only the number you entered in your settings to receive calls. Basically, the application allows you to enter the number you would like to call and the number from where you would like to make this call. It will then use your Grandcentral account to connect the call. I used it myself and it works as explained. You would not be disappointed with this.

Granddialer - If you are a proud owner of iPhone, then you could use your Grandcentral account on your iPhone. You can install Granddialer from here. Please note, however, that Granddialer will just use your incoming calls to your iPhone number so you would still use your minutes. But if you are a privacy freak, it could be a nice application to prevent your number from being circulated.

Dialcentral - If you have a tablet, you could use Dialcentral. Dialcentral is optimized for tablets and allows you to initiate Click2Call sessions, view and call from your Google address book, see your call log, and change your preferred callback number.

If you have a GC account, go ahead and try one of these (depending on your needs). If you have already used any of them leave comment about your experience.

If you like these dialers, you would also like the dukaBar.

Technorati Tags: Dialcentral, Dialer, dukaBar, Google, Grandcentral, Granddialer, iPhone, VOIP

Receive calls anonymously using Letscall.me [Tutorial]

While all of us would like to be in touch with people around us, few would be bold enough to put their real numbers on the internet. LetsCall.me provides an excellent solution for all you privacy fanatics.

How it works?
First you need to create your page on Letscall.me. Your webpage will have a unique URL which looks like letscall.me/xxxxxx (where xxxxxx is your username). Now, if you want to let people call you, you just have to give out a link to your page instead of your actual number. The caller then enter his/her number and presses the call button. Letscall.me then first dials the caller and then connects you to complete the call. The service does not block caller id, so you always know who is calling you and you can block unwanted callers. The service is currently available only in US and Canada :(

Benefits
You can use this service on your website to let your visitors contact you. You could use it on online forums, craigslist, ebay, etc. The possibilites are only limited by your imagination. As the website describes, you can use it any situation when you want to talk, but do not want to reveal your number.

The other use of the service, which is not advertised, is to use it to make free calls within US and Canada. You can go to your page and enter the number you want to dial. Letscall.me will connect the call and then you can call for free within the US and Canada. Even if you are not in the US or Canada, you can use this service using the steps listed here.

Conclusion
The service is not entirely revolutionary. You could use services like Grandcentral, which provides a US number and allows a great control over it. You could also your inumbr, which provides you with a disposable online number that you can use online. Letscall.me provides another option in the form of a URL.

So go ahead and give it a try!!!

Technorati Tags: Caller id, Free Calls, Grandcentral, inumbr, Letscall.me, Privacy, Spam, Unlimited free calls, US, VOIP