this is like the libertines all over for you again, huh?

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/08/09/ho ... gle-voice/

arrington was allowed to port his own phone number into google voice. i can't wait for this!

can you explain this saint?

yah... right now, if you want to use google voice, you have to take a google number. your cell number will no longer appear on caller IDs. you'll make calls from your google number. at some point this year, you can choose to have your current cell number be integrated into google voice, so people will still call your current number, and caller ID will show your current number. that's when i will start using google voice. i don't want to have the hassle of a new number for it.

I thought the whole point was to have a new number that you can give out to people who you may or may not want to be able to contact you.

that may be one of the points, but i think the thrust of it is extensive management of all of your numbers (who can contact you, etc; consolidation of multiple numbers) , voicemail transcription and free outgoing text messages.

I've been using mine for a bit and find it to be somewhat useful. The voice mail transcription works pretty well.

very interesting article. thanks, stu.

that was an excellent read. I agree with everything except where he says we pay too much for milk. I think we pay too much for bottled water and coffee.

thankfully i stayed with TMobile (whom aren't perfect i might add). AT&T is a joke at this point. Apple & AT&T have suckered the sheep into shitty service for a device that was once innovative, but is now lacking many features that other phones have. they're in the dark ages.

but hey, they've got thousands of useless apps! YAY! oh, they've got dropped calls too!

I just signed up for my Google Voice account, oddly that article convinced me to do it. Has any one been using it regularly? I'm a little afraid to dive in.

here is my question-
if someone texts me to the google voice number. And I text back from my phone, do they see my cell number or the google number?

Anyone have invites for this?

Google assigns you an arbitrary number, right? I need a number right now for a specific state. (CO)

I was under the impression you got to pick your number.

You do I was able to get one with my name in it, pretty sweet.

Does anyone use this frequently? Is it really worth it or just sort of a hassle? I love the concept but just can't bring myself to use it.

Andy,

Hook up an invite, dude!

I tried to figure out how but I don't think I can send them out. I think the only way to get invited is here: http://www.google.com/googlevoice/about.html

i've been using it a bit. usually when making calls to anyone not in my family/friends.

downsides? privacy issues?

im sure there are privacy issues if google is involved i just dont know what they are