GrandCentral –> Google Voice
Last February I got into the GrandCentral beta program. Initially I was quite excited but, over time, I eventually backed away from adopting GrandCentral. With no information about future directions or plans, I just didn’t see enough activity to want to get too entangled.
That changed today with some definite signs of life: Google Voice has been announced at the Google blog. At first glance it looks like all the “old” GC features and a bunch of new ones as well. Slick new SMS features, voicemail transcription, etc. Good stuff and the features page is worth a look for even more. For instance, Call Switching looks really sweet – is that new or had I just never noticed it with GC?
Now I look forward to using this service. This looks worth the effort of new business cards! Hopefully will be switched over in the next few days. If beta invites are part of the new deal I’ll be handing ‘em out here, no worries. 
Here’s a teaser video on the Voicemail transcription bits:
GrandCentral & Gizmo
Say… Any GrandCentral users having issues when sending calls to Gizmo? I think I have it setup right. In fact, the call shows up in Gizmo and I can answer it. But on the originating line it just keeps ringing…
Either something’s broke or I’m missing an important piece of config!
GrandCentral Beta — and Invites
I’m in the GrandCentral beta and have been poking around a bit this past week trying to get my head around how best to use this thing. Which is funny since I couldn’t wait to get started when I first heard of it last year. Now that I finally have it, I have this odd sort of stage fright. My contrarian nature I suppose.
What is GrandCentral?
GrandCentral doesn’t replace your phones; we just link them together and help them do more. How do we do that? We give people One Number…for LifeTM – a number that’s not tied to a phone or a location – but tied to you.
With GrandCentral, you can be reached with a single number, answer a call at any phone you want, seamlessly switch phones in the middle of a call, and even know whether a call is important before you take it.
You control where that One Number rings — or you can have it ring to all your phones. Or have some people get routed to one phone, other people to your cell and yet another group always get voicemail. Or maybe just update it as you move throughout the day (there’s a mobile interface too).
There is a ton of options and flexibility to this thing and that might explain why I’m taking this one a bit slower than normal. Want to make sure I know what I’m getting into before I start handing out this number or update my business cards.
I expect to have more on GC after I’ve had a chance to use it a bit.
In the meantime, I have ten beta invites to give away. Just drop a comment below — put your proper email address in the comment form please. It isn’t shown (only I can see it) and won’t be abused beyond sending your invite.
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