Google Voice app blocked by Apple and ATT

Interesting short read on Apple, AT&T, the iPhone, and how people want to use Google Voice. Read before considering an iPhone purchase. I am becoming more and more a fan of the Palm Pre phone and phones that use the Google Android OS.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/31/AR2009073100971.html

Google Voice, A Definate Home Run!

OK, when I heard about Google Voice months ago I thought it was a really cool idea. I just got my number and set it up with other numbers. This product is revolutionary! It is totally awesome. Enrollment was painless and fast. All features tested out great. The web page is well done and easy to use. Google really hit a home run. I can't wait to share this with others. Here are some the features I thought were really cool.

• Calls to one number (my google number) are forwarded to all numbers registered simultaneously
• Voice mail collected at my google number is stored online and translated into text. You can also play it back.
• I can listen into voice mail being left, real-time (ok, that is kinda creepy)
• Text messages of a voice mail are sent to a forwarded phone and also translated to text
• And tons more.

Oh and check out the call widget on the left. Clicking on that will connect your phone and my forwarded phone. Right now I have it setup to only go to voice mail. Give it a try and leave me a message.

Economic Mega Trend Effects

I know this sounds like a boring topic, but bare with me I think it will turn out interesting. A few of us at work are researching and following some selected mega trends in an attempt to better understand product development plans. The Economy is not one of those being followed, but it hit me like a stack of bricks today in a meeting. See if this makes sense and tell me what you think.

Down swing of the economy leads to:

• the devaluation of assets and an increase in the unemployment rate, which lead to:
• Bad personal credit, which leads to:
• Failed credit checks for cell phone plans, forcing the carriers to:
• create new plans around Pre-pay and metered usage
• Carriers also have just reduced the price for unlimited plans below a pain threshold convincing people to drop their land lines to save more money.

I am wondering how the following two events will change these outcomes from the mega-trend.

• Another major power outage
• The launch of satellites designed to provide cellular communications

I think that a major power outage may remind people that still wan to have the land line, which would send them back to these companies to start the service back up. However, this time they will be asking for a "just in case" package.

The launch of the satellites, if they can get them to work , could change the arguments around who has the better coverage.

Let me know what you are thinking and sign up to a follower on the left side of this blog.

Contract free iPhone

I am reading on CNET about the speculation that AT&T will offer the iPhone free of the two year contract. This is good news, but the price of the phone is $599-$699! Without the two year contract could we take the iPhone to another carrier?

Apple iPhone OS 3.0 announcement

Yesterday at 1:00 Apple had a special meeting for the press to announce the new iPhone OS 3.0. I was reading the highlights live on blogs and twitter, which was really exciting. Here are some of the announcements they made.

· Available in June

· iPhone in 80 countries with 13.7 million sold in 2008 (projected 10 million units sold). I wonder if this will do anything for the stock?

· 800,000 downloads of the iPhone SDK

· 96% of apps built by 3^rd parties are approved. 98% are approved within 7 days.

· 100 new features and 1000 new APIs

· Maps app for iPhone done with Google (go figure). Provides public API for embedded maps in applications. TBT capable, but something goofy about bringing your own maps.

· Push notifications done all server side. Claims that when tested with processing all on phone the battery and cpu were drained.

· Social Media and Networking. New app with Meebo (social network aggregator)

· Touch pet: social pet simulator

· Lots of new games through EA.

· Global game playing

· Buying into games at $1 a piece.

· Mention of Oracle Mobile as a way to contact CRM backends from the phone. Not sure what the app was here.

· New app with Lifescan for simplified diabetes management and realtime communication of health data to doctors so as to alter dosage and med strategies on the fly. Also, used to keep others informed of the health of the diabetic. Interesting “notification” type app.

· Peer to Peer support by using Bonjour for discovery. Location based music. iTunes sharing with nearby iPhone users

· MMS messaging

· Calendaring

· Search multiple apps at once

· Stereo Bluetooth

· Cut, Paste, and undo by shaking the phone (how cool is that! Etch-a-sketch style)

That about covers it. Most bloggers and tweeters were impressed, a lot of them said there is much here that is simply expected with a smart phone.