phone posts

Get Google Voice speed dial on your iPhone

by Jay Hathaway Aug 5th 2009

Google Voice may have been rejected as an iPhone app, but you can still make Google Voice calls less of a pain. Try the Google Voice Speed Dial Bookmarklet Generator from Ironic Sans to speed up the process of calling your contacts from Google Voice. Once you've used to it save speed dial URLs for your contacts, you can save them in a bookmarks folder or assign them to contacts in your iPhone's Contacts app.

A couple of important notes from David Friedman of Ironic Sans: the first bookmark you set up takes a bit more time than the other ones, and the "submit" button doesn't mean you're submitting any contact data to his servers. The bookmark is created locally using Javascript. Someday Google may implement its own speed dial solution, but for right now, this generator is a lot better than nothing.

Tags: bookmark, google-voice, ironic-sans, phone, speed-dial

Filed under: Business, Utilities, VoIP

Will a lawsuit spell the end of Skype?

by Jay Hathaway Aug 1st 2009

A disagreement about the licensing terms for a key part of Skype's VoIP software has brought a legal battle that's threatening to shut the online phone service down. Don't panic yet if you're one of Skype's nearly 500 million users, though. The trial between Skype's parent company, eBay, and the company that produced the technology, Joltid, is not set for trial until June 2010.

Skype is working to develop its own version of the technology, so the Joltid license won't be necessary anymore. This is expensive and time-consuming, and eBay warns that it might not be successful. However, "Skype is confident of its legal position," so the sky isn't falling just yet. Interestingly, the reporting on this battle doesn't mention what part of Skype runs on the Joltid-licensed software, only quoting eBay as saying that Skype could not exist as is without the technology.

[via CNN]

Tags: ebay, joltid, lawsuit, phone, shutdown, skype, voip

Filed under: Utilities, Office, Productivity

3jam: Google Voice may have some competition

by Jay Hathaway Jul 30th 2009

3jam offers a bundle of phone-related services, all connected to a virtual number. It's like Google Voice, but it does a few neat tricks that Google Voice doesn't. Incoming calls can ring simultaneously on your phone, IM or Skype. If you don't use your landline, you can even port that number to 3jam. 3jam also handles text messages, visual voicemail (with transcription), and SMS-to-Email conversations.

3jam is also working an enterprise angle by offering numbers for groups, which is kind of handy if you're a small business or a community organization. 3jam's services will cost you a monthly fee, but the idea is that it will be cheaper and offer more services than your existing phone service. The rates are reasonable, with 5-cent texts in the US, and international rates that seem competitive. Call forwarding rates from the most expensive countries top out around 35 cents, but most are much lower, and it beats paying your cell carrier's long distance rates.

Tags: 3jam, google voice, GoogleVoice, IM, phone, skype, texting, voice, voicemail

Filed under: Audio, Video, Macintosh, VoIP

Skype 2.8 Gold for Mac adds screen sharing and more

by Jay Hathaway Jul 22nd 2009

Skype 2.8 Gold, the final version of Skype 2.8, is now available for Mac users to download. The list of impressive new features for the popular phone app includes screen sharing, improved audio and video quality, and Skype Access, which is a way to pay for wifi hotspot access with your Skype credit. There are a few cosmetic changes to the UI as well, which

Screen sharing has been in Skype Beta for a while, and it works pretty well. The ability to share just part of your screen is a nice touch, and could especially come in handy for presentations. Skype Access - which is currently only available for Mac users - gets you past the annoying signup process for many paid wifi hotspots. Instead of entering your information and your credit card number, you can just pay with your previously purchased Skype credit. Even better, you only pay for what you use, which means an end to paying for a full hour when you only need a 20-minute session.

Tags: audio, phone, screen-sharing, skype, video, voip

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Macintosh, Palm

Salling Media Sync replaces missing Palm Pre iTunes sync and more

by Jay Hathaway Jul 16th 2009

When Apple updated iTunes to block the much-anticipated iTunes syncing feature of the Palm Pre, some of us at assumed it was just a matter of time until a third-party developer added it back. Salling Media Sync, an app that already had quite a few useful features, now does Pre-to-iTunes syncing, too. Salling Software admits the update was specifically designed to appeal to Pre users who feel burned by Apple's update.

Salling Media Sync can transfer photos, podcasts, playlists and music to a variety of phones. Along with the Pre, it supports a ton of Nokia, Sony, and HTC devices, as well as the Blackberry Bold and Blackberry Storm. There are Mac and Windows versions, and they both requireiTunes 7.6 or newer. Salling Media Sync is free, with faster syncing if you buy a license for $22.

Tags: itunes, music, palm-pre, phone, sailing-media-sync, sync

Filed under: Productivity, Google, Search

Goog-411 now provides intersection info

by Jay Hathaway May 30th 2009

Goog-411 isn't the most glamorous of Google's services, but the ability to call and get Google's directory service for free is indispensable if you don't have a phone with a browser. The service seems to be getting better all the time, and the latest feature will tell you the cross streets of the business you're looking for. That's a useful service in areas where building numbers are scarce, or all the roads have names instead of numbers.

To use this new feature, do a Goog-411 search like normal, giving your city or ZIP and saying your search terms. When the list of business comes up, and you choose one, say "details." It's not exactly a revolution, but it's the kind of basic, useful feature you'd assume Goog-411 would have had since the beginning.

[via TechCrunch]

Tags: 411, directory, goog-411, map, phone

Filed under: Audio, Business, Podcasting, Productivity, Web services

Phone.io: free conference calls, voicemail and podcasting from Drop.io

by Jay Hathaway Apr 1st 2009

Phony-o? It sounds like an April Fools' Day joke, but it's not. The drop.io team is actually releasing new services at an amazing rate, and the latest is a conference calling, voicemail recording, podcast ready app called Phone.io. It works like any other Drop.io drop, in that you can set it up in a couple of clicks by just naming it and giving it a password.

Your phone.io drop has phone numbers you can use for voicemails or conference calls, and you can save the records as mp3s. Where phone.io really gets cool is in the number of ways you can share your stuff in very few steps. You can embed your audio in other sites, download it, or push it out to RSS or iTunes. If you're into social networks, you can also share it via Facebook or Twitter, and of course, you can share the Drop.io drop itself. Phone.io scores points for both features and ease of use, and it's definitely worth a look if you need to deal with over-the-phone audio.

Tags: audio, conference-call, drop.io, phone, phone.io, podcast, recording, voicemail

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Mobile

BitPim: Bluetooth syncing for CDMA phones

by Jay Hathaway Nov 24th 2008

BitPim isn't a new app, but I've been using it for quite a while, and I thought I'd share. We write a fair amount about the iPhone here at Download Squad, but some of us are stuck with less-than-smart phones that are over a year old, on CDMA networks. Not that I'm bitter, or anything, but how are you supposed to get data like contacts and ringtones onto (and off of) these things? BitPim!

Bitpim is an an open source app that lets you access your phone's data via Bluetooth. I use it to get custom mp3 ringtones onto my junky Samsung dumbphone, and it works phenomenally well. There's a list of compatible phones on the Bitpim site, but chances are that yours will work. Be aware that Bitpim could potentially mess up your phone, although I haven't any issues with it personally.

Tags: bluetooth, CDMA, open-source, phone, ringtone, sync

Filed under: Web services, Social Software

rmbrME: share social network info via SMS

by Jay Hathaway May 7th 2008

Remember making new friends without the help of the Internet? Thanks to a new service called rmbrMe, you can convert those messy real life acquaintances into easily manageable social networking formats! rmbrMe lets you send a code via text message that will link people you just met to your profiles on Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIn, or whatever other networks you choose.

There is a bit of a missing link between having someone's phone number and having their URLs. Not everyone has an iPhone, so it's not always easy to send a hyperlink that won't have to be retyped into a browser later. RmbrMe is a clever concept, but it makes us wish for something even easier. Instead of going to a browser and typing in a five-digit code to get to a profile that aggregates all of your other profiles, it would be nice to see a service that generated friend requests straight from the text message.

For now, rmbrMe is a fairly elegant solution to the problem of helping people, well, remember you. The catch, and the reason we probably won't become frequent users of the service, is that it charges 49 cents a message, on top of whatever your carrier charges. Asking for an e-mail address might be a little bit dorkier, but it's also cheaper.

Tags: facebook, linkedin, mobile, myspace, phone, rmbrMe, sms, text messaging, texting, TextMessaging

Filed under: Utilities, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry

Trapster: mobile utility locates speed traps

by Jay Hathaway Apr 4th 2008

If you've ever been caught in a speed trap and thought, "I wish someone had warned me!" then we have just the service for you. Trapster lets users report speed traps as they find them, using their mobile devices. There's even support for Jott, a voice-to-text service, so that you can make a report and still keep your hands on the wheel. The coolest part, though, is that Trapster will warn you through your mobile phone if you're approaching any of the speed traps it knows about.

The front page of the site features an informative Google Map, visualizing Trapster's whole database. This is cool, but it doesn't do a whole lot of good while you're actually on the road. That's why there's a Trapster app for Nokia Smartphones, BlackBerries, and phones with Windows Mobile 5 or 6. If you don't want to keep Trapster running all the time, you can just turn on SMS alerts to be informed when a new trap is reported in your area.

The Trapster team has taken into account that people might feel uncomfortable attaching a name to the info they send in, so anonymous reporting via email is also an option. Don't be too worried about Trapster getting shut down by the cops anyway. What's the harm in encouraging people to slow down?

Tags: driving, mobile, phone, sms, trapster

Filed under: Fun, Internet, Web services, Mobile Minute

Download unlimited music to your phone via MusicStation Max handsets

by Danny Mendez Feb 12th 2008

The UK's Omnifone will be the "first" company to offer unlimited, free music to all mobile handsets branded with the "MusicStation" name. LG will be the first to release a MusicStation Max phone, which will become available in the first half of 2008 to European and Asian-Pacific regions.

The new phone, announced at the World Mobile Congress, will likely include a touchscreen plus a pull-out keyboard (to hopefully compliment a decent amount of flash memory). What's unlimited music worth if you can't actually download it?

Omnifone's music selection includes about 1.6 million songs from the four major labels and other countless smaller record companies. Also, if you happen to snag one of these but happen to drop it in a pool, don't worry! Omnifone keeps a list of all the music you downloaded if you happen to damage your handset.

[via Engadget]

Tags: download, max, mobile, mobile phone, MobilePhone, music, musicstation, omnifone, phone, unlimited

Filed under: Fun, Internet, Text, Features, Windows Mobile, Symbian, Palm, Productivity, Web services, Google, Commercial, Freeware, Open Source, BlackBerry, Mobile Minute, iPhone, Search, web 2.0

5 things missing from your mobile life in 2008: Google Mobile and more

by Danny Mendez Jan 8th 2008

Life's getting mobile, and it seems that's the way it's always going to be. Humans don't come off as the traveling type, yet we do. From horse carriages to cell phones, we're always looking for ways to do more on the move, so what's missing from your mobile life in 2008 and how can you fix it? The following list may help.

1. Full access to YouTube in Windows Mobile: Everyone's got a solution for playing YouTube Mobile videos on a Windows Mobile phone, but it seems no one's giving Windows Mobile users a way to access YouTube.com's full, flash video library. Oh wait, there is a solution. It only requires users to install a specific version of TCPMP and the Flash Video Bundle, an add-on to TCPMP to give it the ability to play flash video. Use Pocket IE to navigate to YouTube (a few other flash video sites are also supported). Clicking on a video will open TCPMP to play it. Easy, right?

You could also install Orb on your PC and use the Orb mobile client to find YouTube videos on the go, but that solution requires you to leave your home PC on all the time.

Tags: browser, cell phone, CellPhone, email, flash, google, google mobile, google reader, GoogleMobile, GoogleReader, hack, helio, mobile, mobile life, mobile phone, MobileLife, MobilePhone, opera mini, OperaMini, phone, road warrior, RoadWarrior, rss, whisper, youtube, youtube mobile, YoutubeMobile

Filed under: Text, Windows Mobile, Symbian, Palm, Productivity, Web services, Freeware, BlackBerry, iPhone, web 2.0

RSS SMS for your cell phone: annoying or useful?

by Danny Mendez Dec 30th 2007

At first, it sounds like a texting nightmare from hell, but RSS via SMS has a place in our world through Web-Alerts, a small web experiment that may get lost in the vast internet desert that is web 2.0 failures. The service sends you a text message for every update to a chosen site's RSS feed.

The service is simple and easy to use. When you first visit the site, it'll ask your to enter a web address. If it finds an RSS feed for your chosen site, it'll ask you to enter your cell phone number. Should any updates happen to your chosen feed, a preview of the update will be forwarded to your phone. Removing a subscription is easy enough. "Just open the link in your text message and choose 'My Alerts' to remove any alert you are subscribed to." Furthermore, you can enter a keyword with your phone number so that you'll only be forwarded updates via SMS when they contain the keyword.

This could be extremely useful for someone closely watching a specific topic such as a stock broker. It could also become extremely annoying if you find yourself answering your phone every ten minutes to stop the latest SMS from incessantly vibrating in your pocket. Our advice: use wisely.

[via The Boy Genius]

Tags: cell phone, CellPhone, cellular phone, CellularPhone, feed, feeds, mobile phone, MobilePhone, phone, RSS, RSS feed, RssFeed, SMS, text messages, texting, TextMessages

Filed under: Business, Internet, Utilities, Web services, Apple, web 2.0

iPhone and iPod Touch SDK coming in February

by Chris Gilmer Oct 17th 2007

Get ready for iPhone and iPod Touch applications to roll out of the pipes early next year, an SDK is coming!

We heard a rumor yesterday, but our friends over at TUAW have let us in on some exciting news from the Apple front. Apple has said that the much anticipated iPhone SDK will be released to developers by February 2008. This Software Developer Kit will allow developers to create applications for the iPhone, as well as the iPod Touch. Of course, hackers have been developing iPhone apps pretty much since the day the device was released, but now we're talking about applications that won't be deleted every time Apple issues firmware updates.

So start that special savings account now, things are going to get really interesting with Apple devices. Its not like it wasn't heavily expected by Apple developers and loyal fans, but it sure has been long overdue and will unfortunately take some time for the release of the kit. This is mainly to ensure a proper advanced open platform is built that will not only protect iPhone's from viruses but from associated privacy attacks made on users.

This vital and dynamic third party community that is about to be created will be able to grab the SDK after MacWorld San Francisco in February 2008, something Apple and their stockholders are genuinely excited about.

Tags: apple, applications, developer, device, iphone, phone, sdk

Filed under: Internet, Google

Google phone will take on Microsoft, not Apple

by Brad Linder Oct 8th 2007

Rumors about a Google phone have been flying for months. And since they started around the time that Apple was releasing its game-changing iPhone, it should come as no surprise that we all started to get the idea that Google might get into the hardware game and release a gPhone handset featuring Google software.

But according to the New York Times, while Google has developed a few prototype handsets for internal testing, what the company is really working on is a mobile operating system. Or to put it another way, what the company is really working on is a way to serve up advertisements on your mobile device.

Google will offer up its OS to hardware manufacturers, so perhaps one day you'll be able to get a Treo running PalmOS, Windows Mobile, or a Google operating system. The OS will be Linux-based and will include Google applications including mail, directions, possibly a web browser, and probably some sort of mobile version of Google Docs & Spreadsheets.

Tags: cellphone, google-phone, gphone, mobile, OS, phone

Graveyard Shift - zombie-busting Time Waster

With Halloween fast approaching, it's a great time to get in some practice defending your territory against zombies. In Graveyard Shift, you take aim at zombies and other creepy-crawlies, blasting them into splatters of cartoony green guts. It's a casual first-person shooter, and it's very easy to get the hang of - use the mouse to aim, click to fire. Graveyard Shift has at least 15 levels, and it might even have some secret stages I haven't unlocked yet. They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...

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