Using Google Voice with Outlook’s Dialer
Microsoft Outlook has this very nifty feature where you can connect your computer to the phone line and use your Outlook Contact List to instantly dial someone’s number. Of course, when they created this they needed to add support for using a calling card, as long distance in the same country hadn’t even begun to be free.
Now if you use Google Voice, you can use this to your advantage with the simple addition of just a few seconds to the call.
Continue Reading for Instructions on how to Outlook up to dial through Google Voice
Oh Apple, You Amuse Me
Apple iPhone Game Center Icon vs. Microsoft Store Logo:
Oh Apple, has anyone told you lately that you’re CRAZY?
Google Voice is still Lacking
I’ve been a religious Google Voice user for awhile now, so it really bothers me that it is still lacking feature wise. Of course, I’ve been helping with some of these missing features (re: Google Voice for Outlook) but there are still plenty more missing as well as some minor issues I have with the service.
Multimedia Messaging (MMS)
For some reason, Google Voice still lacks this functionality. It can’t be THAT difficult, can it? I mean, the iPhone managed to add it before Google Voice, and if you really want to compete in the mobile business, its kind of necessary to have MMS, as SMS is pretty much irrelevant now.
Not only that, but any MMS that is sent to a Google Voice number is just lost. Couldn’t they at least be forwarded to my email address? I don’t like the fact that I could be losing incoming messages to /dev/null, and its even more annoying having to give out two different phone numbers (one for MMS and one for SMS).
Shortcodes
It is all well and good that Google’s own shortcodes work through Google Voice, but not so fantastic that nobody else’s does. I don’t want to be passing around two sets of phone numbers, and I’d love the ability to just set to spam a shortcode that is getting out of hand and won’t let me unsubscribe (if that ever happens). Developers pay tons of money to set up shortcodes, so why doesn’t Google Voice support them?
API
Google Voice is a Service. I use it with my cell, with my home phone, and with my computer. But in order to make desktop apps or things like Google Voice for Outlook possible, an API is almost necessary. I’ve managed to do it without one, but it still pretty much sucks.
Outlook Mobile Service
Companies charge tons of money for people to have the ability to send text messages through Microsoft Outlook. Adding the very simplistic SOAP server to the Google Voice backend would allow anyone with Microsoft Office to send text messages, forward emails, and receive reminders and notifications for FREE, something that is usually charged 10 cents or more per message. (Combine this with MMS as mentioned above, and it gets EVEN BETTER!)
Internet Fax Service
Google Voice already has “Receive Faxes” as a “Suggest a Feature.” Adding this and providing users on computers a way to send faxes would increase productivity and make the service even more useful to small companies and freelancers.
Keep in mind, these are just a few ways that Google could improve Google Voice, there are tons more.
What do you want to see added?
Facebook Chat launches XMPP Support
In a move that has me saying “Well its about freakin’ time!” – Facebook has launched XMPP Support for their popular Chat Service.
Now, normally I don’t take the time to write out about this kind of thing – except that no other blog post has detailed what your connection credentials are – so I’ll go ahead and write those for you.
Login: USERNAME@chat.facebook.com
Password: Your freakin’ Password
If you do not yet have a username (What the heck is wrong with you? Why not?!) then you can create one at http://facebook.com/username/. (By the way, that’ll also be an email address soon, just so ya know).
How Google Could Change The Industry (And Take Over Your Life)
So, the one thing that you’ll find on any and all news websites who are of any quality at all would be the brand new Google Phone, the Nexus One – the one device that’s making me cringe and go “WHY DIDNT I CREATE A YOUTUBE SHOW BEFORE NOW?” Since, you know, just about every single YouTube partner has gotten a free Nexus One. FEEL MY ENVY, YOUTUBERS.
But, there is definitely one thing that could be different. One thing that they could change the entire industry with. And all they’d have to do is partner up with cell phone providers, and convince them to let you get an account without a phone number.
What? What’s that Navarr? You’re absolutely INSANE! You can’t get a cell phone without a cell phone number? Why would you want to? What possible use could that be? What would you do??
Well, if you really are asking all those questions, than shut the hell up and think for a moment. What two things does Google own that would allow them to do something so spectacularly crazy?
Google Voice, and Gizmo5. Gizmo5 would only be necessary if they decided to do Voice over Data, which I personally am not sure the cell phone backend is ready for – but could you imagine purchasing a Nexus One, signing in with your Google (apps?) Account, and then if you already have Google Voice it simply works? And if you don’t it gets you started on creating an account, including choosing your own phone number (for life, although changeable).
Google would store your basic account numbers and information, and if you ever wanted a new android phone, you would simply log in. It’d automatically use your phone number and all your other details, too.
Maybe though, just maybe Google could do this – and make actual cellular calling free, with the only thing you’re paying for being data.
5 Top Publishers Plan Rival to Kindle Format, Ignore Existence of PDF
Five of the nation's largest publishers of newspapers and magazines are teaming up to challenge Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle electronic-book reader with their own technology that would display in color and work on a variety of devices.
- Ryan Nakashima, The Washington Post.
As I’m sure you all know by now; I am a coder above all else. With this one piece of data, you should know there are two things I despise in this entire world:
- Flash and
Why? Because they’re closed off, proprietary, and quite frankly a bitch to deal with on computers. However, that doesn’t stop me from advocating their use for WHAT THEIR ACTUAL PURPOSE is (or, in the case of flash – should be).
So, it should come as only a slight surprise that I’m incredibly agitated over these new formats. You’re creating “book” file formats that will “display in color” and “work on a variety of devices.” Huh, isn’t there already a format specifically for publications, made to work on any multitude of devices? Let’s see, oh, right Portable Document Format – A file format made SPECIFICALLY to render the same way on any device.
Kudos, Publishers – You’ve just re-invented the wheel.
Google Voice in Outlook
If you’re a regular reader to my blog, I’m sure you read yesterday’s post about how Google Voice could gain a head in the business world. At that time, my dream of connecting Google Voice and Outlook via OMS was far from completion, with the only work I’d managed to accomplish being a simple reading over of the related technologies.
Well, late last night a certain gear clicked in my brain, and I spent the entire night awake and coding PHP on a local XAMPP server. But my end result was fruitful – I finished successfully coding an Outlook Mobile Service that allows the delivery of SMS through the Google Voice system.
Here is a video showing it off:
I’m not yet prepared to release the source code for this, though. (Messy, Messy, Mess! as Double D would say). There’s a lot in my mind about it, it took a lot of work and I’m not ready to see forks and duplicate services pop up. (Sorry guys =S). Be on the look out for follow up posts that describe some of the technologies I had to learn to make this possible.
Oh, also – If you’d like; Help sponsor this project (I can’t afford to make it public ATM) with either Free (VERIFIED) SSL Hosting for a subdomain of a domain I own [contact me], or the money to make it public using my current host ($62.40/yr) [donate through my host]. I would be most appreciative if you could offer either of these to get this thing up and running!