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Comments: 106 +-   Google Voice Apps Arrive For Android and Blackberry on Wednesday July 15, @11:35AM

Posted by Soulskill on Wednesday July 15, @11:35AM
from the giving-voice-to-your-phone dept.
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Mark Mathson writes "Two Google Voice apps have been released for Blackberry and Android phones. The Android app is the most complete, and it takes over the native dialer, address book and call log. Users won't be bothered with accidentally dialing numbers through the device phone number. The Blackberry app is less integrated, accessing only the native address book, and uses its own dialer. Users can't simply go into the call log and return missed calls. They need to go back to the address book and select Google Voice to make the call. Still, it solves a big problem. The apps also allow users to access the core features of Google Voice. You can listen to or read voicemails and text messages (all voicemails are automatically transcribed), access call history, send SMS messages and place international calls at low rates."
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Submission: Google Voice Apps For Android And Blackberry Here! by Anonymous Coward
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  • Just imagine what things like this will mean for Chrome OS too! I have Android running on a quad-core Core 2 Duo system and performance is amazing--GO LINUX!!!

    • Re:This is great. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by binarylarry (1338699) on Wednesday July 15, @11:41AM (#28704753)

      How exactly is the performance "amazing"?

      The heart of Android's application layer, Dalvik, runs purely in interpreted mode. This is what most Python, Ruby implementations do and what Java did a decade ago. The performance is slow and irritating.

      I have a G1 and love the phone. But I wouldn't call it a speed demon. Maybe the Core 2 helps out, but I'd still rather have native code or a JIT, so I can get performance close to what the hardware is capable of.

      • Well, that's the point of the parent post. Android is designed for G1-like system resources and the parent is running it on the latest quad-core CPU. Of course it is going to have out-of-this-world performance. It is just very lightweight and lacks most of the features that a standard distribution provide by default.

        • I have a feeling we're all missing a very bad joke by the parent.

            • Oh man, you got me.

              What a "classic troll?"

              Or is this some kind of recursive troll? Like GNU/Troll? Oh my god, are you me? Am I Tyler Durden? NO CARRIER

        • Not really.

          Because the applications are all interpreted, it's going to run poorly on the Core 2 as well.

          Just slightly less so.

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Ilgaz (86384)

        There is no access to device hardware? For example, my Nokia E65 with a 133 mhz processor doesn`t really "play" h264 video, the app calls some framework whatever and that framework tells some chip to decode h264. It is same deal both on Symbian and J2ME apps.

        If it can`t do it, why did Google go with their "android" thing instead of J2ME which can be extended via JSR?

          • Oh it is more like Symbian Signed scheme where "root access" and things like "startup at device boot" will need a certificate from independent signers but regular stuff will run fine. It is solved via open signed which application is freely (and manually, by interaction on purpose) signed but tied to single IMEI hardware.

          • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

            by Rich0 (548339)

            It might not hurt to clarify that the API for native code was only opened up about a week ago. Until then, all applications that used the supported SDK were completely emulated. The SDK did provide APIs for playing video/etc, of course, and the SDK itself would have been natively implemented and would make use if embedded hardware where possible.

            Note also that per the request of the phone manufacturers, Google has tried to make it hard to design apps that might encode/compress audio in realtime for networ

      • Android now allows native code execution.

        • Android has always allowed native code execution. The only difference now is Google has officially published a supported SDK (NDK) to facilitate the process.

    • What apps are you using or running? Any pics/videos...Heck we have Youtube, right? Any issues you'd like Google to address? Just curious!

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by ickleberry (864871)
      you do realise that Chrome/Android are just pushing platforms for Google's Web services (and therefore AdWords) and the fact that they use the Linux kernel is just a minor technical detail since most of these devices will be too locked down to even get a bash session running without a day's worth of jailbreaking and (in the case of Android) unlocking.

  • I have a G1 through T-Mobile in the UK. My terms and conditions say that I'm not allowed to use VoIP services (well, the wording's a little more complicated than that, but that's the gist of it).

    Be interesting to see what happens as and when Google Voice gets rolled out to the UK. In the meantime, can somebody invite me to join the US trial and provide the necessary details of harbour?

    Nick.

    • Google voice doesn't take the place of your phone service, it uses it. What you do is call the number Google gives you, then it places the call. So as far as your phone company is concerned, you spend the entire call connected to Google.

  • Unlimited Calling (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Just add your Google Voice # to your Fav5 plan or whatever and use these apps w/Google Voice to route all your outbound calls, the cellular company only thinks your calling the same number and google is routing it for you. If you willing to ditch caller-id you can configure google voice so all inbound calls have your Google # as caller ID.

    • First part is great.

      As for the second part, why would I want to ditch caller ID?

      • So you know when the call is coming in via Google Voice. Otherwise, you can't tell if the call is straight to your cell # or through your Google Voice #.
          • for the few people I dial internationally fairly frequently I added them as GV - Bob for example then put the number as my GV number followed by a p for pause then my pin and another p then 2, then another p then the number and pound sign.
            like this:
            555-555-5555p1111p2p011445555555555#
            It dials the whole thing automatically

    • Just add your Google Voice # to your Fav5 plan or whatever and use these apps w/Google Voice to route all your outbound calls, the cellular company only thinks your calling the same number and google is routing it for you. If you willing to ditch caller-id you can configure google voice so all inbound calls have your Google # as caller ID.

      This is clever, but I doubt it will work. First of all, Google will call you back when you make your calls, and you don't know what number Google will call from. (wait for it)

      the cellular company only thinks your calling the same number

      Secondly, even if Google is spoofing a caller ID# that is on your favorites list, its not really calling from that number... Do you really think Google's CallerID spoofing is going to fool your phone company? Really? If true, then all anyone would ever need to do to get free phone calls is be able to spoof caller ID. I doubt it can w

  • This is the second time I've come across issues with GAFYD and google services. I'm using GAFYD on my g1 and I have a google Voice account with the same account, yet when I try to run the android voice app it says I have no GV account associated with a different google account I have (one that isn't setup on the phone, not sure how it knew it was associated to me at all). Anyone get it working successfully with a nonstandard google account?

  • I bet Symbian and even high end J2ME client will follow soon and if people choose an officially shipped, supported application instead of 3rd party clones, Skype will be really hit big time.

    It has been YEARS that Symbian S60 client of Skype, the one you can click and download to any S60 device was promised but never shipped. It comes with some phone in UK I heard. That is it. They also spread some real FUD about J2ME in the process when people were naive enough to ask them.

    Skype and eBay suits running it re

    • Skype has officially sucked ass for about a year now- the Linux client only half works on Pulse and is way behind the MS window version in features. The S60 "lite" version is useless as it still uses airtime. Come on- Fring enables (in a sort of functional way) the skype functionality so why can't Skype get it's act together.

      I'm a Skypeout and Skype number paying customer but I'm searching for something more responsive to my needs and I'll gladly say to hell with them when I find it.

      Google voice I'm sure ev

      • Oh Fring has become such a standard in Symbian so they shouldn`t even bother with coding it after this stage and help/support Fring instead.

        I mean they can code World`s best VOIP client ever and Symbian community may ignore them since people are really sick of the never ending story.

  • It'd be nice... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by mdm-adph (1030332) <<mdmadph> <at> <gmail.com>> on Wednesday July 15, @12:16PM (#28705289) Homepage

    ...if they released a few more invites to Google Voice to go along with this so people could test -- I mean, I'm sitting here with a G1 and I can't even use it. :P

  • Sure, they say it can make "cheap international calls", but can it understand if I ask it to call someone in my native language (which, for the record, is not English)?

    Can it transcript voicemails that are in another language than English? Because very few of my voicemails are in English. Very few of my contacts on my phone has an English clinging name.

    When Apple released their Voice Control for the iPhone 3G S, they never came around this issue, yet speaking of it in the same keynote as they talked about

    • Sure, they say it can make "cheap international calls", but can it understand if I ask it to call someone in my native language (which, for the record, is not English)?

      I'm not sure what you're asking here.....you dial the number, and the call is placed like any other phone. What difference does it make what language the actual conversation is in?

      Can it transcript voicemails that are in another language than English? Because very few of my voicemails are in English. Very few of my contacts on my phone has a

  • Outbound SMS worked and appeared to come from my Google Voice number. My friend replied, and the SMS I recieved did not have his cell number as a sender. It did have my contact entry prefixing his message, though.

    Example SMS Body: -John Smith: Hey, I got your text.

    Outbound calls using the Blackberry app looked like they were trying to connect but never went through. Maybe the load from the app release is a bit more than they planned on.

  • It would be great if someone wrote a voice app that allowed you to dicate text messages to your friends, since typing on those little keypads can be a pain.

    And it would be even cooler if your friends' phones had a voice app that could then dictate the text message back through the phone's speaker.

    That would be a great set of apps for a phone, I hope someone comes up with it :p
    (Yuk Yuk)

  • I was using the app on my G1 when it was still called grand central.

    It's an excellent app. Now you can place calls direct with GV.

    The SMS portion is useless since I use the googletalk app.

    The voicemail is great. I just wish they included GV configuration in the app and the ringshare service.

  • Is there a way to configure the phone to direct all calls through a wireless router, when the router is in range? I would like to make internet-based calls rather than cell-based calls when I am at home.

    The reason for this is that I make very few calls away from home. This sort of setup would allow me to pay under $10 per month for all my phone calls, and yet have only a single number.

    Currently I use a pay-as-you-go cell phone for when I am out, and Skype for when I am at home, but this is not ideal. I have

    • Soft Drink.

      • Don't you mean Kool-Ade?

        Actually, those of us with Crackberries AND gVoice are even more addicted than your normal Crackaddict. This is HUGE boost for us.

    • They say "do no evil" or something, we gotta trust them :)

      These people are actually running Google coded kernel, on a device advertised as "Google powered". It must be a bit late to convince them about the privacy risks.

      I am actually surprised that Google doesn`t go more evil considering how ignorant people have become about their privacy and rights. Well, Google powered netbook will be probably free to grab and you will probably get shocked at people asking for "invitation codes".

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Bigby (659157)

      It will be quite useful for us consultants that have our personal cell phone, Consulting company phone, and usually even a client phone (for long term projects). It is like having 3 email addresses and checking them all at once through an email client.

      In addition to that, you can treat your voice mail like email and listen the voice mail only if necessary. This is much quicker for those of us with Blackberries and the like.

      • It would be even better if they had number porting. This is the only thing keeping me from making heavy use of GV.

    • I barely use it, but the voicemail transcription and text-messaging "conversation" history is cool.

      • Voicemail transcription is awesome. I've got it setup to replace my cell phone's voicemail completely. I liked having email on my cell phone, but getting voicemail in your computer's email is just damn cool.

    • But I suppose that's because I'm usually on the phone less than an hour a month.

      I don't see why time on the phone is meaningful in evaluating Google Voice (and frankly, I'm shocked to hear that there's "hysteria", given that everyone I talk to has never heard of it.

      Google Voice provides a number of useful features: portable phone numbers that can be directed at multiple devices simultaneously; Web-accessible voice mail; voice main transcription and so on. They're useful features. That's really all there is to it.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Evan Charlton (1498823)

      Since you mentioned it, I'm not sure what this development means for the future of my GV application [evancharlton.com]. You can read more about my thoughts on the matter in my blog post [evancharlton.com]

      For those slashdotters who are GV users--what are your thoughts on the matter? Is the official app sufficiently crippled that I should continue? Should I aim for a peaceful coexistence?

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