Posts Tagged ‘iPhone’

Google Voice vs. Apple iPhone

July 27th, 2009

Apple is making new enemies apparently by banning the new Google Voice app from the iPhone. Pity.

I was lucky and got an invite to Google Voice back when it was GrandCentral. It’s a free service that gives you a phone number that you can forward to your cellphone or home number. (I guess the plan to make money off of this by charging a low fee for outbound international calls. Otherwise, the service is free.) Your voice mails are emailed or available via a web interface. The best part was you could have the GrandCentral (now Google Voice) number forward to a few phones at a time, which made it a nice number to have instead of handing out separate home and cellphone numbers.

Google took it over and has made some improvements, but in the process has taken away some other features that I liked, such as the fun custom ring chimes that you could attach to your ringer. Bummer. The interface has also gone all “Google,” which is that very scrunched up minimalistic Google email look that I’m not totally keen on.

On the positive, they’ve added voice transcripts, which are pretty buggy but still somewhat useful. Generally speaking, you can get a gist of the message from the transcript, even though the names don’t come through well. On one of my messages, Google translated the name of my friend Craig to Chris Dodd. I was wondering what Senator Dodd might be doing calling me!

You can also send SMS messages through the web interface, which is handy to have if you have text-happy friends and a phone without a keypad. (Wish I had this before I got my Blackberry!) Inbound calls can also be recorded, but I haven’t tried this feature yet.

If there’s one thing blatantly missing it’s fax capability…I would love to have that…I got rid of my JFax number last year because with all the new technology, it was a waste to pay $15/month for a voice mail and fax number that had no forwarding or email capabilities.

I have been using my Google Voice number now for business calls, so I don’t have to worry about people getting my cellphone (if I don’t want them to have it) or changing landline numbers when I move. Once in a while, when Google Voice was still Grand Central, I had a few problems with dropped calls but it was few and far between.

I was excited to install the new Blackberry app for Google Voice, which allows me to view and hear messages directly from my cellphone. Now I might just give out my Google number instead of my cell number.

So why is Apple doing this bone-headed thing of blocking the Google Voice app? I don’t know if they’ve figured this out yet, but the Google Voice number does not replace a cellphone! You still need some sort of outside cellphone or landline to use it when away from the computer.

Apple…starting to act like Microsoft…stupid stupid stupid…meanwhile, Google is out taking over the world.

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BlackBerry Curve vs. Hipster PDA

January 3rd, 2009

BlackBerry Curve

I’ve actually been using a Hipster PDA (or hPDA) for my organizing needs for some time now. As much as I love computers, I have never been able to deal with electronic to-do lists. My Hipster PDA fits into my purse and I use it to write random notes, to-dos, and ideas for my business. It also has a calendar, which I make manually by printing out a template onto cards that I cut to index size. (I still don’t know why some smart person hasn’t started selling pre-printed Hipster PDA index cards…on recycled paper, of course!)

I’ve thus avoided the smartphone mania for some time. I did used to have a Palm device – actually, a Handspring Visor – and actually, I still own it. I can’t sync it anymore (serial connection) but I do have a backup module in case it needs a reset. Since it takes batteries I sometimes like to play solitaire on it, or the extremely addictive Dope Wars.

But alas, I needed a way to get email instantly and have a more robust calendar for the yoga classes I am teaching. I got a BlackBerry Curve for Christmas, and it’s fabulous. It has:

A 2.0 megapixel camera with flash
A video camera
An MP3 player (with an iPod-like interface)
Push email
Calendar/contacts
GPS system with voice navigation
Full keyboard
Games (I even found a free version of Dope Wars for BlackBerry!)

The default browser isn’t so hot, but if you download Opera Mini, you will get a fantastic mobile browsing experience, complete with easy zoom functionality.

Screw the iPhone – I love having a real, full keyboard. Touchscreen does not do it for me, never mind that it’s probably easier to break. (By the way, what was wrong with the Palm stylus system anyway? I actually got good at Graffiti and miss using it!)

The downside to the BlackBerry is that if you don’t have Microsoft Outlook, your option for syncing your calendar and contacts is Google. Google is starting to scare me – are they going to turn out to be the younger, trendier version of Microsoft? I hate having to put all my info online like that but I’m not buying Outlook. (And it does work pretty well.)

Problem is – there is no way to sync your to-do lists in Google. Once again, I am back to my Hipster PDA as the best, most convenient solution for my to-do lists and brainstorming sessions.

Is it environmentally bad to be using up paper like that? Should I just be typing it all in? If someone would come up with PDA that used a stylus with handwriting recognition, maybe I would. Well, I guess I could get a tablet PC one of these days…though buying a very resource-intensive computer just to save a few trees does not seem to be a good trade, environmentally speaking.

I guess I’ll be sporting both the Curve and the hPDA…at least we women get to carry purses around so it’s no big deal at any rate.

tags: , , , , , | categories: Consumerism, Eco-Conundrums, Green Computing | one comment »