The new GC, now known as Google Voice is starting to become available. It is absolutely killer. Think Gmail for Voice.

Watch your inbox at GC for a notification that you are ready to update. Here is a pretty good review of the new version:\

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/11...ery-very-good/

coooool

Here's the official "about" page for Google Voice:

https://www.google.com/voice/about

I'm concerned about the privacy implications of some of these features.

dualsub,
I LOVE your avatar!
LOL

Same here

More info.

I've been using it for about a day now. It doesn't use your GrandCentral address book unless you manually import it, rather, it will use your gmail contacts which is better for me. Unfortunately, for hosted accounts there seems to be a problem getting the address book access in GV.

Usually I get about 10-15 voicemails a day and Friday, none! So, I couldn't checkout the transcription feature except for a couple of test calls. It worked very well.

You can SMS right from GV and if someone sends a SMS to your GV account, it will forward to your mobile. You can also SMS from your mobile using the GV number so your cell number is completely transparent. I haven't been able to get the forwarding to work yet.

The web site is nicely updated but the mobile site on my BB doesn't look as streamlined as the old site. I guess I'll have to wait and see as I actually use the service.

You can still pull up the old GC web site to listen to old voicemail.

You can make and receive calls on it and use the Gizmo sip client as a gui on your PC. You can make calls on it using your BB by dialing your GC number then dialing the number you want to call. Nice if you don't want to distribute your cell phone number. As bad as that sounds (I don't remember anyone's number anymore), I'm guessing you can use one of the calling card third party apps to deal with the dialing. Nice if you have this as a myfav or circle number, basically all the unlimited calling you want (provided the service sound quality is good).

If they added fax and the ability to call your number and dial from your online phonebook, I'd say they'd have the perfect service.

Regards-Michael G.

Still waiting to be upgraded..

Looks like the SMS forwarding may just be an issue with AT&T.

My account is not ready to upgrade yet either. I will wait patiently I suppose.

I would also love a fax feature built in.

Also - thanks to dualsub2006 for bringing this to my attention. I had no idea about the changeover.

I'm still a bit hesitant in upgrading to Google Voice. Not sure why though, I just am.

I'm excited by it. Maybe i won't have to paid Simulscribe 20 bucks a month

While I wait for my grandcentral account to be available for Google Voice .. does anyone know if you can edit or add to the transcribed text? It would be cool to be able to add notes next to a voicemail.

I'm still figuring this out but I'm with you on this. I guess it is just one more consolidation of OUR data into one account - easier to keep track of everything we do/call/visit/search etc being combined in one nice tidy account eventually. BIG GOOGLE, ahem, Brother.

Anyone know time frame on when current users will be converted

You cannot edit the transcript. You can add a note. It can be a lengthy note. It shows with a little note icon just below the transcript. Notes can be added to messages with or without a transcript, and you can even add a note to an SMS conversation.

Notes can be edited.

EDIT: Oh yeah, notes can also be deleted.

Sorry, I don't. Their Twitter feed at one point said that upgrades had gone out to all GC users. Then yesterday it said that they were sorry and that it would all finish in the next few days.

I keep telling myself that I must embrace change. I'm trying to fight the temptation of Google Voice but I am fighting a loosing battle. I've already imported my contacts from GC to my gmail account.

How user friendly is the mobile site. www.google.com/voice/m

All of this data about you already exists out there. Whomever you are using for email has that data. Your ISP knows EVERYTHING that you do and some have in the past even allowed 3rd parties to place servers inside their data centers to inject ads based on your activities. RIM has your data. Your carrier has all of your call logs, voicemail recordings, server logs from data access AND GPS information about where you were, when you were there and where you went next.

Mail, calendar, call logs, documents, RSS feeds, voicemail. It's out there already. The recent urban legend about Verizon sharing all call, voicemail, browsing and location information with third parties brought this to the minds of a lot of people who had never thought of it before.

There isn't a single company out there that NEEDS to value my privacy even more than I do. It's Google. I do trust that while they are using keywords in my email to serve me ads they are going to keep my email secure and not share my usage habits and interests with 3rd parties without my permission, per their TOS.

My previous bank had a data breach. I got my money back, but they lost my trust and I moved all of my accounts to another bank. A lot of people went with me. A lot. The same would happen with Google and that would kill their business.

Someone is going to collect all of this data. Be it one company or MANY, someone is collecting it. I trust Google to keep it secure.

I like the new site. It presents your messages with transcripts in threaded view and gives you reply options. The argument that the old site was more concise it a good one, but it didn't have transcripts.

You can initiate a call to someone that isn't in your address book, you can initiate an SMS that will appear from your GV number and you can change all of your settings from the new mobile site.

I really like it, but a mobile app for BlackBerry, iPhone and WinMo has to be coming. Doing all this through the browser is too time consuming IMHO.

It looks like a mobile app would just be a shortcut to the website.

It would be great if you Blackberry dudes could figure out if I could put something in my phones>options>smart dialing that would place my gVoice number and a 2 before all the numbers

Your indications of a shortcut being the app or speculative and incorrect.

Gotcha, I upgraded and I do like the new features. I especially like this new quick call or sms function. With that said, I can not edit a contact in GVmobile. I could very easily edit a contact in GCmobile.

That's true. The address book is shared with Gmail and you also cannot edit a contact with either the Gmail mobile website or with the Gmail app. I don't know what the deal is with that.

I edit my contacts on the go with the BB address book. Google Sync gets that back to my Gmail account (and now Google Voice) and then from there it makes it way to Outlook. I can force a sync if I need it in the Gmail mobile app right away, but I could count on one hand with fingers left over the number of times that I have needed to do it that quickly.

In GrandCentral mobile the edit that I made most was changing the phone number for a generic contact that I kept for placing calls. Now with the quick call I don't have to do that. I have learned to live with it like it is.

Your account is not yet ready to be upgraded. Please check back shortly. :(

Is that what you are seeing in your GrandCentral inbox? If so, did you see the upgrade notice in there and not do it right away? I have heard from a number of people that the upgrade notice was in their inbox, they passed at that time for whatever reason and then the upgrade notice changed to what you posted.

I can only assume, because I ca't get a confirmation, that during the first days of the transition that it was a now or wait a while proposition. I DO know that Google is ratcheting up the number of people that they are including in each wave and they want to have current GC users to be offered an upgrade invite this week.

That said, when they send the invite, I would hop on it if you are actually wanting to do the upgrade.

My notice has changed from the "not ready to be upgraded" to "will be upgraded soon".

Never saw it in my inbox havent used this thing in over a year. Just started back when i got my new job.

Just checked and thats what mine says now as well

They need to figure out how the folks at SlyDial do it. I can go into Contacts, click on the menu button, select Slydial, and it asks me which number to dial (Mobile/Home) if multiple exist. Once you select one, it connects your call.

It would be great if GV had an app that integrated like that.

Mine said the same

Woohoo! I just finished upgrading.

Now it's time to rummage around and break stuff...

Still waiting......

Not sure what's so cool about it. So far, I find it pretty underwhelming. No truly NEW functionality added to the game.

I don't know about you, but I find the SMS and transcription features to be truly new >>for this service<<. Also, the ability to initiate a call to a number not in your address book is really kind of a big deal for me.

ok mines changed but havent tried any of the features yet

Follow up: Just checked out CardCaller.com, and they have directions on their homepage for Google Voice users. It looks pretty straightforward, and I'll report back once I've given it a try.

I've tried it, and it's ok. It is not very well thought out in terms of layout or the steps that you have to take to use it. It is a memory hog and there seems to be a lot of network activity when it is running. The mobile Voice site might be slower, but I think I will just stick with that.