No GV, then Ribbit-time

August 30, 2010 at 3:56 pm · Filed under Miscellaneous

I use Google Voice for incoming / outgoing calls all day.  Certainly I’ve had a few problems in the past, but it has worked flawlessly for me in the last several weeks – certainly since the GMail / Google Voice integration. 

Mike Arrington says Google Voice Is A Hot Mess Right Now:

About 30% of my inbound calls have the caller muted – they can hear me but I can’t hear them. And outbound calls are worse. In the last 24 hours at least 75% of them failed completely. Either it never starts ringing, or it rings a couple of times and then dies. In fact, I called Google PR to give them a heads up on this story and that call failed too. As did a second attempt.

He goes on to say that sources tell him there won’t be a quick fix to the problem.  Like I said, I’m not having any of these problems, but Google has sold me on the value of such a service – I would even pay for it!

So if this becomes a problem, I’ll probably jump over to Ribbit.  They actually are a telephone company.

Tags: Google, GV, Ribbit

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GMail as a Skype replacement? Nope . . .

August 27, 2010 at 8:57 am · Filed under Miscellaneous

Over the last couple of months I have started to rely on Google Voice (GV) and have been eagerly awaiting the integration of VOIP with Google Voice.  My current solution of using GV with Skype is almost perfect, but I am hoping that Google VOIP can eliminate the pesky “where’s my voicemail” problem with Skype.

Anyway, this new Google feature was enabled on my account yesterday.  While it holds some promise for me once GV is moved into GAFD, it has too many caveats today.  Why?

Because the in-browser VOIP phone is a flawed premise for receiving calls:

• Hunting for the incoming call dialog within a browser tab is a terrible user experience.  Perhaps they can fix this through an extension that allows a non-modal, “always on top” popup for notification of incoming calls. 
• What if your browser stops working, is restarted, etc?  You don’t get your phone call.  Of course, you can say the same thing for the Skype client (i.e., if it isn’t running you don’t get your call), but I restart my browsers several times a day.  And browsers crash a lot more than Skype (or Google Talk), for that matter. 

Google really should resuscitate the Google Talk client – or the Google Voice Desktop App – and enable the same functionality there.  In fact, I’ll go further and say that they will have to release a native Windows client if they want enterprise adoption of GV / VOIP.

Granted, the in-browser premise is great for the casual user, making outgoing calls, or as a backup when away from your actual work environment, but it just doesn’t work as a Skype replacement.

Does anyone know if the the GV Desktop App is actually dead?  The last reference I find to it is the Arrington post: Google Voice Desktop App Launch Delayed, May Be Scrapped.

Tags: GAFD, GMail, GV, skype, voip

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Going to PDC10?

August 21, 2010 at 5:31 pm · Filed under .NET, Grid Computing, Web 2.0

PDC10 is coming up in late October. I signed up for it knowing it was Azure-centric, but I am glad to see that there is also a .NET track.  I hope this will include non-Azure server side technologies (e.g., EF, AppFabric for Windows Server and the like). Of course these other pieces all have their place (or counterparts) in Azure, but I don’t think I’ll be using Azure directly over the next year.

PDC’s are quite valuable to attend (access to Microsoft product teams, exposure to their roadmap, opportunity for light-bulb” moments, etc).  That said, I may decide not to go after the session list is released – a simple balancing of priorities.

Anyway, I’ll likely keep my registration – I would actually love it if Microsoft could change my plans about Azure this October.

Are you going? Or not? If so, please share your reasons.

Tags: .NET, Microsoft, PDC, PDC10

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Thoughts on Jailbreaking

August 10, 2010 at 9:32 am · Filed under Miscellaneous

I finally jailbroke my iPhone.

I was never particularly interested in doing it.  Even though I have been frustrated with the unnecessary limitations of the iPhone imposed by Apple/Jobs.  I know this surprises people who know me – they’ve told me so.  Why haven’t I?  Because over time I have transformed form a gadget-happy tinkerer to someone who just wants these tools to work.

This is in-part due to my experiences with a particular kind of tool: the smart phone.  On Windows Mobile and BB smart phones, I would try 3rd-party software and then quickly delete after crashes and negative battery performance.  I’ve had few similar experiences like that with the iPhone.  The 3rd-party tools add significant utility to the phone but generally don’t break it.  This change in my thinking isn’t just for phones:  I’m shipping back my PopBox today.  Lots of promise, but it just doesn’t work for me with my video formats, and my NAS. 

But I digress.

There are a few things that have bothered me about the iPhone.  None of these are hardware problems, just things I think it should be possible to do with a non-jailbroken phone:

• I don’t want to unlock my phone to see if I have any email. 
• I want notification profile support like on the Blackberry.  I loved the feature where you can put your phone into the silent profile and have exceptions.  Travelling and don’t want your phone to wake you up, but want to accept calls from your family in case of emergency?  No problem.
• I don’t want to navigate around to change a simple setting (like turning off Bluetooth or WiFi).
• I want to use a Google Voice native app.  The mobile Web app is quite good, but it takes too many steps to make a call – and too much time waiting for the page to load. 

Long story short, I now can do all of these things and I am much happier about my phone. 

The full story, though is that I jailbroke before a week of vacation during which I had no way of restoring my phone.  As a result, I kind of screwed it up and didn’t feel like risking uninstalling some apps without a failsafe.  I got home and fixed it (without the failsafe).  All good, but it does leave me feeling that jailbreaking really isn’t for everyone.  As easy as the jailbreakme.com site is, it certainly makes the phone more complex.  I’m OK with the increased complexity – I’m still a gadget-happy tinkerer deep down – but I couldn’t imagine a non-techie dealing with it.

Tags: iPhone

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