Newman Zone

I admit, Google Voice is a bit geeky. Most people think it’s a replacement for Skype. It’s not.

Skype enables you to place calls from a computer using Voice over IP (VoIP). When you initiate a Google Voice call from a web page, GV calls your phone and connects you to the number you dialed. (You can also place a call by phoning your Google number and pressing 2 at the prompt.) The confusion results because Google Voice also lets you make international calls at rates that are competitive with Skype’s.

One feature my wife just discovered is that Google Voice also lets you make free long distance calls within the continental United States. For example, let’s say you don’t have long distance on your land line. You can use Google Voice to make long distance calls and you’re only charged for calling a local number (assuming your Google number is a local call).

So why is AT&T afraid of Google Voice on the iPhone? You don’t save any cell phone minutes by placing long distance calls with Google Voice. Some have speculated that it’s because GV offers free SMS, which cuts into AT&T’s bottom line. But there are plenty of other iPhone applications that offer free text messaging.

Is it because Google Voice lets you make cheap international calls? Skype does this too - without using any cell phone minutes.

The only possible conclusion is that AT&T is simply afraid of Google Voice’s potential. It’s a preemptive strike against Google, and it will fail for the same reason the RIAA’s lawsuits failed to stop music piracy. You can’t stop progress.

If you want to know more about placing calls with Google Voice, check out the following video:

Browsing a UPnP share in Boxee

I finally got my two favorite apps working together: Boxee and Simplify Media. Last night, I installed Simplify 2.0 on my Mac Mini and iPhone 3G. In Simplify’s announcement of 2.0, they list “Broadcast to UPnP devices” among the new features. Since UPnP works with XBMC, I figured it might work with Boxee, although it’s really aimed at external hardware like Sonos and Roku.

After enabling UPnP sharing in the Simplify Media Preferences, I fired up Boxee and started poking around. Turns out, you can locate the Simplify share by choosing Settings > Media Sources > Network Sources > Add New Source. Boxee scans your network for available devices. If it doesn’t find anything, click Rescan Sources. For me, at least, Simplify showed up as a source called Music. Next, drill down, select a folder to monitor, and click Add Source. I selected All Playlists. Boxee prompts you to name the new source. I replaced the suggested name and clicked Add.

The only hitch is that, once you enable the Simplify source, it doesn’t appear with cover art like the Music > Artists section of Boxee. Instead, you’ll find it in Music > Browse. Still, if you absolutely have to have your iTunes playlists in Boxee, this is a pretty good workaround.

UPDATE (4/26/07): GV Mobile was approved by Apple and is now available on the App Store.

One of the iPhone apps I’m eagerly awaiting is GV Mobile. If it lives up to its promise, and Apple deigns to approve it, I will soon be able to use GV Mobile to make and receive calls using Google Voice.

If you haven’t heard about Google Voice, it’s a rebranded (i.e., Googlified) version of Grand Central, which Google purchased in 2007. As a former Grand Central user, I was able to upgrade my account to Google Voice last week. Since then, I’ve been slogging through the documentation and trying out its features.

At first I was skeptical — why do I need another phone number? — but I’m becoming a convert. The premise behind Google Voice is simple: One phone number and one phone number only. When you sign up, Google Voice generates a local phone number for you. Since I live in New York City, my Google Voice number starts with the 646 area code. Whenever someone calls this number, Google Voice automatically forwards the call. Based on rules I create, using individual contacts or groups,  Google Voice rings either my work, home, or mobile phone — or all three.

If this were the only service Google Voice provided, its appeal would be limited. (Frankly, this is about as far as I got with Grand Central before losing interest.) But Google Voice offers several other features that are quite compelling:

• Google Contacts —  Google Voice shares your Gmail contacts, adding the ability to edit Google Voice settings for each contact. You can even create custom voicemail greetings for different groups or contacts.
• Call Presentation — When someone calls your Google Voice number, Google Voice calls you. If Call Presentation is enabled (it is by default), Google Voice gives you four options. You can take the call, send it to voicemail, listen to the caller record a voicemail message, or accept the call and record it. The ListenIn feature is nice: while you listen to the caller recording a voicemail message, you can press * at any time to pick up. (Remember answering machines?)
• Call Screening — To some extent, this is the telephonic equivalent of Captcha. The first time an unknown person calls your Google Voice number, that caller is prompted to record his or her name. This filters out automated telemarketing and junk fax calls.
• Visual Voicemail — You tell Google Voice how to notify you when a caller leaves a voicemail message (text, email, or both). To listen to voicemail, you can phone your Google Voice number or use the web site. Google Voice even transcribes your voicemail messages for you, although this feature still needs some work.
• International Calls — This is the feature that should give Skype a run for the money. Unfortunately, it’s not possible to place these calls on the web site, but I’m hoping that VoIP or Gmail voice and video chat support will be added in the future. Until then, you have to call your Google Voice number, then press * followed by your four-digit PIN number. You’ll need to add credit to your account with Google Checkout, but the international rates appear to be similar to Skype’s.

Of course, Google Voice still has a few drawbacks:

• Contacts — You can add and remove contacts from groups, but you can’t move contacts from one group to another. Nor can you add or remove more than one contact at a time. Since I created a new group for my Outlook imports, I cannot easily move them to my Friends, Family, or Coworkers groups. Fortunately, Google does provide a way to suggest features if something doesn’t work as expected.
• Internet Calling — Because you have to call your Google Voice number to place an international call, you cannot rely on Google Voice as a cheap alternative to roaming while traveling. In other words, you cannot make calls over the Internet with Google Voice.

Since Apple, to the surprise of many, approved the Skype app for the iPhone, one can only hope they will also approve GV Mobile. I’d like to see Google offer its own, free iPhone app for Google Voice, but since Google is also behind Android, I’m not holding my breath.

I bought an HDTV and a Mac Mini last year for two reasons: to watch high-definition cable TV, and to view services like Netflix, Vongo, and Joost on a big screen. Since then, Vongo disappeared (Starz made a deal with Netflix instead), Joost discontinued its stand-alone application, and Hulu emerged as one of the most popular video sites. Suddenly, full-length movies and TV episodes were everywhere. Even the big three networks got involved: you could watch every episode of “Lost” on abc.com in streaming HD video, and it looked amazingly good on a high-definition television.

Then there was a flurry of set-top boxes: Apple TV, Roku Netflix, Blockbuster OnDemand, SlingCatcher - you name it.

But the promise of TV/Internet convergence seemed no closer to reality. After all, who wants to buy a different set-top box for every service? And who wants to visit a dozen different web sites to find the movie or television show you want to watch?

Enter Boxee. Finally, a company that gets it.

What’s the big deal about Boxee?

• Ease of use - You can navigate using a keyboard, a mouse, an Apple Remote, and (soon) even an iPhone app.
• Content aggregation - You can watch video from ABC, CBS, Netflix, YouTube, CNN, Comedy Central, Joost, and many other web sites without using a browser.
• Downloadable content - Boxee includes a built-in BitTorrent client (rTorrent) and a torrent RSS reader.
• Podcasts - You can stream audio and video podcasts, although you cannot yet subscribe to them.
• Internet radio - You can listen to SHOUTcast and Last.fm (no Pandora yet).
• Captioning - You can enable subtitles from OpenSubtitles.org and lyrics from LyricWiki.org.
• Social networking - You can see what your friends are watching, rate movies, TV shows, and music, and recommend content to your friends.

You can do some of this in iTunes, Apple TV, Front Row, or XBMC, but to do it all in one place, you need Boxee (watch demo).

So is Boxee the next killer app?

The short answer is, not yet. But Boxee is still an alpha product, and it’s arguably better than the competition, including iTunes 8 and XBMC, upon which Boxee is based.

And because Boxee is open-source, there’s a good chance it will get the features it needs to put it over the top. Here’s my wishlist:

1. Add true fast-forward, rewind, and scrubbing. Right now, you can only skip backward and forward 30 seconds at a time.
2. Add a resume feature for movies and TV shows, so you can pick up where you left off.
3. Fix the Music section. I’ve had Boxee for over a week and it’s still indexing my iTunes library.
4. Enable manual editing of media files (and expose file names and directories to power users). Boxee is pretty good, but it wasn’t able to find an Otis Redding documentary from 2007, and it misidentified half a dozen MP3 albums. Right now, Boxee thinks Frank Sinatra is Frankie Carl, and George Harrison is Mose Allison, and there’s no way to manually override media titles and box art.
5. Add search! I’m sure this is on Boxee’s roadmap, but when you have hundreds of artists, scrolling with a remote is tedious.
6. Add playlist support. Boxee has already said this is coming, but I hope they also include the ability to generate playlists on the fly.
7. Add a toggle fullscreen button. If you’re using a remote, you don’t want to fish out the keyboard just to press Cmd+F.
8. Get rid of the firewall nag every time Boxee starts up.
9. Add more screensaver options (e.g., box art, now playing, recommendations). The default screensaver is giving me the willies.
10. Add built-in support for CD and DVD ripping. Maybe a Handbrake plugin?

You can make your own feature requests by visiting the Boxee forum and support sites. Or send them a tweet.

I have high hopes for Boxee. As alpha software, it’s already simpler, stabler, and easier to use than other HTPC solutions. It can only get better.

Of course, there’s one problem Boxee will never solve: making it easy to connect to your TV. Unless they build a Boxee set-top box.

I just opened a tab that crashed IE7. This time, I chose to report the error. Once the error was reported, the dialog box prompted me to “Please follow the link below for information which may prevent this problem in the future.”

Clicking the “More Information” link reopened IE7 to a page on microsoft.com with this explanation:

Problem caused by Microsoft Internet Explorer

This problem occurred because Microsoft Internet Explorer, which was created by Microsoft Corporation, was slow or unresponsive.

This type of problem occurs when a program is slow or has stopped responding and you choose to shut it down. This is also referred to as an application hang. Most of the time, there’s nothing you could have done to prevent this type of error, but there are some troubleshooting steps you can try.

Now I remember why I never click “Report Error.” Serves me right for using IE instead of Chrome.