With all the hoopla about Google Wave, another set of invitations coming out of Google seems to have been overlooked. After months of waiting, certain Twitterers are reporting that they’ve finally received invites to Google Voice, which I wrote about back in June. I’ve had GV myself since it was GrandCentral, but I got another invitation last night. The folks selling Voice invites on eBay may lose their customers soon! If you haven’t received an invite yet, you can request one here.
The concept behind Google Voice is simple: You’re given one phone number that can be configured to ring in multiple places — office, home, on your cell phone or even on an account on the VoIP service Gizmo5. We’ve looked at a number of virtual phone systems, including 3jam and Grasshopper, and while they have many nice features, it’s hard to beat Google Voice’s price — free except for international calls.
Have you received your Google Voice invitation?
Gizmo5, a service of VoIP service provider, SIPphone is offering free conference calling to its customers. I have been a big Gizmo user for a long time, but my usage has gone down mostly because their voice quality isn’t up to par. In fact, for all my VoIP calling, I had almost exclusively switched to using Skype. Over the weekend, however, I was reintroduced to the service when Gizmo5 emailed a free conference call offer. I wanted to talk to a few buddies and normally, I would call them on my cellular phone and then join the calls to create a conference call. However, I decided to try out the new offer.
I went to their website and got a conference room number. Those who wanted to join call in 1-605-475-8515 and punch the room number and join the conversation. It worked surprisingly smoothly and phone conversation with a couple of my buddies went without a hitch. Each conference room can handle between 2-to-10 people. Gizmo5 subscribers can call into the conference room and that doesn’t count a dime.
The whole thing went without a hitch, though given Gizmo5’s quality-record, I am going to try it out a couple of times before making a final decision. However, I can see the potential. I can use this service to interview folks and tape the conversation for easy archiving. If you are looking for an easy conference call option, you should try it out.
For mobile workers, it’s hard to beat the freedom and flexibility Internet telephony provides us. One of our favorite web services, GrandCentral, gives you the ability to have one phone number that can ring an assortment of phones including your mobile, landline, office phone, and any other place you’d like to be reached.
Additionally, there are those who embrace the utility of a soft phone. A soft phone is an application that runs on your computer and allows you to send or receive phone calls, normally through a microphone headset. Skype is probably the most well known soft phone, but a competitor of theirs called Gizmo5 (formerly known as Gizmo Project) can be combined with GrandCentral to give you soft phone capabilities.
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With all the hoopla about Google Wave, another set of invitations coming out of Google seems to have been overlooked. After months of waiting, certain Twitterers are reporting that they’ve finally received invites to Google Voice, which I wrote about back in June. I’ve had GV myself since it was GrandCentral, but I got another invitation last night. The folks selling Voice invites on eBay may lose their customers soon! If you haven’t received an invite yet, you can request one here.
Google Voice
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