Google just opened up apps for the blackberry and android operating system using one of their latest toys Google Voice. I'm astounded by this news by the mere fact that two weeks ago I turned off the blackberry and have picked up a windows mobile device for a while. So, I can't really comment about that application for the blackberry, but I have been a long time user of Google Voice, previously known as GrandCentral. I had read an article in NetworkWorld by Brad Reed, "FAQ: How Google Voice could change the wireless industry" and I felt compelled to write further about Google Voice. I signed up for GrandCentral before Google bought the service when I heard about it from David Poague of the NY Times' techology podcast, sometime in late 2006 I think. (I miss that podcast, so David please pick the mic back up - you're awesome man.) After David's commentary I quickly signed up and was just amazed at the services that were free, call blasting, forwarding, recording, etc. etc. Google bought them a couple of months later and I patiently awaited for them to hook it in with Google Talk. It took 3 years and they never did that, but they did integrate with Gmail's contacts. This was a great step since Google has been in the wireless market because they have introduced Google Sync so you can sync your contacts with your phone as well as your gmail and calendar. As mentioned earlier, I've recently switched to a Windows Mobile device and now connect to Google Sync through Activesync just as if it were a company Exchange Server. Google Voice to be clear does not replace any phone that you have. It's more like an overlay service that has a phone number tied to it. You can add as many phone numbers as you like. For instance I have an office phone, cell phone, home phone on weekends, and laptop all ring at the same time. I can then answer any of the phones and the call is routed directly to the phone I answered. If I want to switch from say my home phone number to my cell phone I can hit * and all the phones I have subscribed to the service will ring and I can pick up the cell phone and remain on the same call. If you wish to record a call you just dial 4 during the call and an announcement will come on stating the the call is now being recorded. Incoming calls - A first time caller to your Google Voice number is asked to record their name during a call screening process. Every time you receive a call on that number the person's name is announced from the screening process - after that sender has recorded once it forever uses that recording as the announcement when they call. That can be odd when you have some friends like mine who have announcments when they call that say "What *&*$ is this?!?" and it says that everytime they call. They have long since forgotten they were messing around when they made the recording and I laugh everytime I answer their call no matter how serious the call is expected to be...awkward. When you answer an incoming call you have options to answer the call, listen in on the caller as they leave a voicmail, record the call, block, etc. Voicemail - Since the GrandCentral days, you could designate the voicemail recordings to go to an email address. Since Google Voice they have added a transcription that gets sent with the email. The transcription can be sent via SMS to your cell phone as well. This is a great service as you can check and judge an important voicemail during a meeting without ever calling to listen to the voicemail itself. Outbound Calling - You can't just dial a number with this service and call from your Google Voice number. As I mentioned before this is an overlay of your existing phones. If someone is in your gmail contacts they are automatically in your Google Voice contacts. You just hit the CALL button. When you do, a popup window will appear and you chose which phone you are calling from and the choice to make it a default calling phone to that number. Google Voice will call you on your phone, once you answer, it then calls the number you requested. This works very well and for me is a huge timesaver. Anyone that has called you, you can return the call by just hitting reply just like an email. Laptop talk - I've seen in the Network World article whether or not this was a concern to Skype. On the surface it is not, Google Voice presently does not utilize SIP protocols to connect. However, they offer the choice to use a Gizmo number. This is the Gizmo5 project, a cross platform SIP service that also gives you a free inbound telephone number. Google Voice integrates well with that service and allows you to accept calls on that. Gizmo5 is a definite contender and upcoming rival to Skype. I have not tried to connect Google Voice to a Skype inbound number but it should work with no issue. As mentioned before, Gizmo5 is free for inbound as Skype has a low fee for that service. Mobile - As I mentioned before due to bad luck and timing, I don't have the apps for my mobile device. However, I have used the mobile web page with GrandCentral and now with Google Voice. It works flawlessly and makes calling fairly simple. Maybe not as simple as just dialing a number if you know it already, but if you have to look up a number, it works great. Checking voicemail is very simple. When you call your Google Voice number it detects that you are calling from one of your phones and sends you straight to voicemail. It will tell you how many messages you have before you are prompted to go through the passcode security which is optional. You can return a call straight from a voicemail to any caller that has called you. So the gist of the article I mentioned earlier from Network World was that Google Voice and any services like it will leave Phone companies providing "dumb pipes" as opposed to bundled services. I think that is true in essence. I think that Google Voice will change a few things in how you use your phones by using the Internet as it's companion. Although, I'm sure the phone companies are not eager to get rid of bundled services as they are extremely profitable and certainly add flavors of competition on what is offered. I think what may be missed is phone companies have really little issue of offering dumb pipes. They are cheap and low maintenance for the phone company so the potential margins may be higher. In any case I think what we will see is a change in the offerings from wireless and traditional phone companies. I think less nickel and dimes for features and more feature rich bundles is what we'll see in the future. I might add that there are very recently features being developed. I just added a firefox add-on that allows me to right click on any telephone number on a webpage and Google Voice will call it. So far it has worked great. This is a fantastic web app and I can't wait for it to hit the world of users and development community to start writing great apps to interface it.