Google has released a new application for Mac users called "Vocito" that puts GrandCentral calling right on your desktop. It integrates with OS X's address book, Automater app, and third-party applications like Blacktree's QuickSilver to let you start a GrandCentral-powered call no matter what you're doing on your machine.
Similar to JaJah and Jaxtr, Vocito's system for setting up calls involves you first picking who you want to call, then choosing which one of your GrandCentral-connected phones you want it to be connected from. You then hit dial and GrandCentral does the rest. It's basically the same exact thing you've been able to do with GrandCentral's Web interface for years, but now you can have a deeper level of integration across your entire system.
This deeper integration centers around a slick and simple Mac taskbar drop-down application that's directly integrated with the Address Book app. It lets you start a call almost as fast as doing a Spotlight search. This is made a little easier if you're a Quicksilver user, since you can search for contacts and call them via Vocito with the included plug-in. In most cases, this worked for me with about six keyboard strokes, which I found faster than picking up my phone to dial a contact.
Vocito's simple taskbar application lets you hunt through your address book and make a call no matter what you're doing on your computer.
(Credit: CNET Networks)If you don't have time for six keystrokes, the application lets you save a customized phone call preset as an AppleScript command. Clicking it begins the call immediately. You can leave these laying around your desktop, or put them into a folder to keep in a stack on your dock for handy "speed dialing" later on.
Vocito is free to use and will run on both PPC and Intel Macs. You will, however, need a GrandCentral account, which Google continues to keep in a highly limited beta--that is, unless you're homeless.
If you're already bored of getting English translated to Mandarin through JaJah, TwitterFone, another mobile service with voice recognition savvy, has put out a neat update that's sure to burn through your mobile phone minutes. You can now listen to the last 10 tweets from your Twitter pals and respond to any of them that you'd like using the same speech-to-text system in place for publishing tweets of your own.
It's certainly not as fast or easy to parse voice messages as the mobile version of Twitter (m.twitter.com), but if you're on an older handset and don't have a data plan, this is about as easy as it gets to stay in touch with Twitter without buying new hardware. It's also nice enough to list the full names of Twitter users, not just their user name, which could be a good or bad thing depending on how well you know the people you're following.
One thing that was slightly off for me was the time stamping, with tweets from just a few minutes ago being listed as a full hour behind, at least according to TwitterFone's automated system. I'm assuming this is a kink that will be worked out in the future. Otherwise, if you're a big fan of sitting back and enjoying some blurbs from your friends while on the go (spoken like sweet nothings by a female robot), then TwitterFone is right up your alley.
TwitterFone is still in private beta.
Related: Dial2Do: Speak your Twitters, e-mails, SMS messages and more
This is either creepy or annoying.
Pudding Media, a San Jose, California, start-up launching at DemoFall 2007 on Monday, is offering free Web-based phone calls, if you let them monitor phone calls and show you onscreen advertisements based on the topic of your conversation.
To use the service, users go to ThePudding.com and enter the phone number to call. The call quality is fine, and my call was connected right away, but what about the idea of the company monitoring your private conversations? Plus, most people are looking for ways to avoid ads these days (pop-up blockers, TiVo) but Pudding founders are sure that in exchange for free calls, users will made the trade-off. For now, Pudding uses a third-party to place the ads, but the company is working on developing its own custom ad network.
Perhaps the ads will be more targeted in the future. A quick testing of the software included a phone call about flying to San Diego, buying postage stamps, and eating Mexican food. Every ad served up gave me information about hockey and ice skating. Huh?
I've been using the GotVoice (review) voicemail retrieval service for almost a year, and for the most part I've been happy with it. The free system retrieves voicemails that go to my home phone's message box and sends me e-mail links to them. Handy. On Monday, the company is releasing a major update to the service that fixes a few usability snags and adds outbound message utilities.
GotVoice now sends messages in addition to receiving them.
(Credit: CNET Networks)Current users should like the new interface. It's easier to use, and there's finally a "delete" button on each individual message.
The real action is on the outbound side. Now you can record messages on GotVoice and have them sent to any other phone, either as a regular phone call or a "stealth message" (my term for a voice message that goes straight to voicemail without making the phone ring). You can send messages to multiple users at once, even if they're on different phone networks--GotVoice understands how different networks operate. (See also: Pinger.)
Additionally, GotVoice has a nice interface for creating the greeting for your voicemail in-box. You can record a message from your computer's microphone or upload an MP3, or for a fee, construct a "celebrity greeting" from impersonated phrases. The technology is from Veritalk and is not new, but GotVoice's capability to interface with your voicemail systems and install greetings for you is pretty neat.
The company also is building a "visual voicemail" service that will let users manage all their messages from a WAP interface on a mobile phone; in other words, a poor man's iPhone. Carriers (other than Cingular, Apple's reseller for its phone) are interested in this, GotVoice CEO Curt Blake told me.
And now a message from the American president.
(Credit: CNET Networks)I like GotVoice because setting it up and using it requires very little work and no reconfiguring of phones. You just give it your phone numbers and PINs; and it gets to work for you. If you can stand putting in a small effort, though, I highly recommend CallWave (review) as a replacement voicemail system. I'm using it, instead of GotVoice, on my mobile phone and find it to be a better and more complete experience.
If you want to go to the next step and really get your voicemail and e-mail working together, and tie all your phones into one integrated system, then check out Grand Central (CNET.com's review; The New York Times review). It gives you a new phone number that you then have to give to all your contacts, but its capabilities are amazing.
P.S. to CallWave users: GotVoice and CallWave do not play well together. When GotVoice sends a direct message to a cellular phone that's signed up for CallWave, it goes directly to the phone's old voicemail service, not the CallWave message store.
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