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Rumor: Official Google Voice App Incoming

J.R. Bookwalter — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 13:23:16 +0000

It’s been a wild ride for native Google Voice apps on the iPhone: After getting booted out of the App Store more than a year ago for reportedly “duplicating existing functionality,” they’re back with a vengeance this month -- and if the rumors ...

Wi-Fi Edition: Can An iPad Replace Your iPhone?

J.R. Bookwalter — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 21:52:06 +0000

A recent survey of new iPad owners sounding off on Twitter revealed that a whopping 26 percent were unhappy about the fact that the device couldn’t replace their iPhone. That got us thinking: What would it be like to spend a day with only the iPad?

With that challenge in mind, we (mostly) stuck our trusty iPhone 3GS away for a full day and “made do” with only the Wi-Fi model of iPad. As it turns out, it’s not as difficult as you might expect. We have yet to find any iPhone apps that don’t also run on the iPad -- even seemingly more complex ones such as SlingPlayer Mobile or Skype work just fine -- so most of the iPhone functionality can already be duplicated just by installing the same apps you already use.

It’s Not a Phone, Silly

The biggest trick was replicating the cell phone part of the equation -- you know, the thing that makes the iPhone a phone to begin with. This would be a particular challenge for an iPad that only offers Wi-Fi wireless connectivity. (For comparison, we’ll be returning to this project later in the month when our 3G-equipped model arrives, to compare experiences on both.)

For the phone part of the experiment, we installed four apps: Skype, Fring, Truphone for iPad and VoiceCentral Black Swan, the Google Voice “weblication” that we first examined back in January, while it was still in beta. (It’s since available to all in both free and paid versions.) Since our testing place has ditched the landline, we had to do a little bit of cheating, using Black Swan to initiate outgoing calls and then pick up the iPhone to actually carry out the conversation.

Of course, outgoing calls are not really the problem -- any one of the above apps can rise to that challenge, and in the case of Skype, fring and Truphone, you can actually hold a conversation on the iPad itself, both using the built-in mic & speakers as well as through a set of earbuds plugged into the device. Incoming calls are only possible on Skype while the app is open, so that’s no good unless you’re expecting a call at a certain time, although Fring at least adds push notifications of incoming calls via Skype (but truthfully, they don’t work all that well). Truphone is the only app of the bunch to be iPad native at this writing, and it worked as well as the iPhone version does.

We didn’t have a Skype In number to test with, otherwise we could have routed incoming calls to the iPhone to that number and made things work a little more efficiently. However, the fact that the current iPad only works under Wi-Fi means that the minute you leave home (or a coffee shop, McDonald’s, et al), it won’t matter anyway. So as far as the iPad replacing your iPhone for actual calls, it’s a mixed bag: Just fine for outgoing in the right conditions, mostly stinks for incoming.

Message in an iPad

Next we turned our focus to instant messaging. Thankfully, AOL was front & center at launch with AIM for iPad, and since that’s our primary IM service to begin with, we signed off from our iPhone’s standard IM client, BeejiveIM, rather than cheat and install it on both devices. The day we tested was not a particularly busy one for IM’ing to begin with, but AIM for iPad did the job just fine -- again, while we were within a Wi-Fi signal. We were able to access and use other IM services through Fring and Truphone, including Yahoo! and Google Talk, so those experiences were mostly unchanged from the iPhone, other than having always-on connectivity.

Text messaging is another area where the iPhone is quite capable, and not only because of AT&T’s own SMS and MMS services -- there are literally tons of apps that provide cheap (or even free) SMS capabilities. Thankfully, the iPad can replicate some of that, thanks to the free, universal textPlus app. textPlus even allows you to receive push notifications while the app is closed, and you have the option of having those messages routed to your iPhone.

VoiceCentral Black Swan can also be commissioned for both incoming & outgoing SMS messages using Google Voice, but there’s no way to know if you’ve received a new SMS without actually opening the app or setting up Google Voice to forward an e-mail notification. Because Black Swan isn’t a true app created in the iPhone OS SDK, it sadly can’t access push notifications. You’re limited to only receiving such text messages while the device is within range of Wi-Fi anyway, so the iPhone keeps the advantage in this department unless you go with the e-mail notification option.

E-Mail Me Happy

Outside of phone calls and messaging, the iPad quite successfully replaced our iPhone 3GS over the course of a full day. Thanks to Apple’s MobileMe service, our e-mail was pushed to the iPad in the same way -- and for whatever reason, it was actually faster at doing so! (The iPad push would chime first, followed by the iPhone a few seconds later.) Ditto for calendars, contacts and bookmarks.

Non-push e-mail accounts such as a few IMAP accounts set up on both devices were a different story. Those were fetched whenever the Mail app was actually opened, which was a little bit nerve-wracking after being used to having the PushMail app installed on our iPhone. As the name implies, PushMail uses push notifications to notify you the moment that new e-mail arrives in your inbox (it actually forwards messages from your IMAP account, which then triggers the push notification).

We cheated a bit and left the iPhone powered on in our pocket for part of the day so we could hear when PushMail was doing its job; of course, we could just as easily have installed the app on the iPad as well. But truthfully, when the iPhone was completely off, it was a refreshing change of pace not to hear the PushMail notifications going off so frequently from several different e-mail accounts.

Everybody’s Goin’ Surfin’

When it came to web browsing, there was simply no comparison: The iPad is a more pleasant experience in almost every way. It’s not just about the bigger screen, either: Having the ability to turn on the bookmarks bar so the Mobile Safari emulates its desktop counterpart is a dream come true. You also get the full website rather than switching to a mobile version by default, since the iPad’s Mobile Safari identifies itself to a website differently than the iPhone’s does -- although it might be nice to have the option of accessing the mobile version by default in some cases.

Our only real quibble with the iPad’s version of Safari: It takes some getting used to going to the top of the screen in order to go forward or back a page, open a new window or add a bookmark after almost three years of having those functions at the bottom of the screen on the iPhone. Note to Apple, it might be nice to make that a little more uniform now that so many of us have both devices, don’tcha think?

One big downer is the lack of a camera on the iPad. Come on, Apple, it’s a total bummer. Once or twice during the day, we wanted to snap a quick picture or video of something, but had to remember that oops, we couldn’t -- we were supposed to be living a whole day iPhone-free. While we’re sure that a camera will be implemented in the next iteration of the device, for now the iPad is an epic fail on this front. (Yeah, we know there’s even an app for that now, but it still requires an iPhone to be the eyes for it.)

Yes, Virginia, the iPad Might Replace an iPhone

In almost every other way, the iPad more than replaced the iPhone for a day. The bigger screen made watching videos, listening to music and almost every other task a complete joy, plus we had the extra incentive of watching free streaming video from the likes of ABC TV and Netflix, neither of which the iPhone does just yet. Browsing news using the iPad USA Today or New York Times Editor’s Choice apps was also a dream, as well as websites we saved later to read with the universal Instapaper Pro app. Even checking the weather was an enhanced experience, thanks to both The Weather Channel Max and Weatherbug Elite apps, both of which take advantage of the expanded real estate of the iPad to provide more impressive results.

For all of the iPad’s groovy goodness, we found ourselves missing a few of the iPhone niceties we’ve enjoyed for so long: Yes, Apple, we miss our Stocks, Clock and Calculator apps (not so much the Weather app, for the reasons noted above). Sure, there’s already several calculator apps for the iPad (most of them charging for the privilege), and even a few alarm clock or stock apps (Reuters News Pro for iPad is a free app which provides both stock quotes as well as news), but it’s just not the same experience. For instance, Apple’s Clock app can truly run in the background for alarms or the timer, where third-party apps cannot.

Aside from incoming phone calls, we only cheated once -- during a trip to The UPS Store to drop off an overnight package. Since we didn’t have the excellent Trip Cubby installed on the iPad, we had to actually pull out the iPhone and log that mileage using the handset. Yeah, we could have just logged the mileage on a piece of paper to enter later, or even installed Trip Cubby on the iPad (especially since you can sync the data between devices quite easily) -- but it was just easier to pull out the iPhone and get that job done on the spot. So sue us.

For all intents and purposes, it is indeed possible to replace an iPhone with an iPad, particularly if you don’t receive many phone calls (or have another way to receive calls, such as a landline or an old cell phone). The biggest dilemma for now is that the Wi-Fi dampens how much you can roam about with the iPad, a limitation we expect to see lifted when our 3G-equipped model arrives later this month and we revisit this subject again. Be sure to check back with MacLife.com when the 3G iPad ships to see how this saga plays out!

In Case You Missed It: Jan. 17 – Jan. 23

J Keirn-Swanson — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 16:54:34 +0000

This is the week, folks. Just as time can be neatly divided into BI and AI (Before iPhone and After iPhone), it's quite possible that after this coming week, the world will fall into pre-tablet time and post-tablet time. Whatever that tablet may be called. Join us, won't you, in this last installment of the best Mac|Life articles from those innocent days before we all went gaga for a real, actual tablet.

Features:

- How You'll Get Google Voice-like Features on Your iPhone - Google Voice users were naturally bummed when the App Store not only denied the GV app but pulled a couple apps that made use of this Google feature. Explanations were given, but they never rang true. Demonstrating that no matter how tall you build your walls, someone will find a way over, under, or around them, Riverturn, one of the app developers burned by Apple's odd decision, has set up this tidy little workaround. With Black Swan, a so-called "weblication," Riverturn has created an app that works with HTML 5 and JavaScript in Safari to deliver something that's a pretty impressive alternative to jailbreaking your phone for Google Voice goodness.

- 10 Best Alternatives to the iTunes Store - Sure, the Store is basically built into your Mac through iTunes, but it's not the only fish in the sea. While Apple may have finally decided to get rid of the dread DRM recently, a proliferation of alternate mp3 stores exist online, ranging from the confusingly designed to the chock full o' tracks. We've looked at the best and the only so-so, the cheapest price to the highest bitrate, and we've got it all spelled out for you. So whether you kick it old school with Napster or pinch your pennies at the WalMart mp3 joint, we run the choices down for you.

Reviews:

- Call of Duty: World at War: Zombies - So much promised with Nazi zombies needing headshots, so little delivered in this mobile version for the iPhone. Pricey at $10 and limited to a single map, this FPS app has impressively rendered visuals but suffers from constant frame freeze and slow response time. Only for the diehard fans who live to kill the Undead Third Reich.

- Machinarium - Remember the joys of point-and-click gaming? Well, Amanita Design clearly recalls those fun days, and this game, a grungy scrap yard backdrop beautifully rendered for the adventures of a tin robot, delivers with 35 levels of brainteaser and puzzles to solve before you win. At $20 bucks, this is a solid contender that'll keep you clicking for quite a while.

- Bose Quiet Comfort 15 - Bose often delivers nice quality sound, but at a price. These 300 buck headphones work nicely to cancel out ambient sounds around you if you're on the train or plane, but the noise cancellation sound wave technology can be nausea inducing for more sensitive listeners. While they deliver a nice range of sounds, if a little bright on the treble side, and can make a long trip a piece of cake, you'll definitely want to find a try-before-you-buy option at this price tag.

- PacSafe InfoSafe - We hope and pray you never have to experience the heartbreak of a snatched laptop, but to make your life a little safer, PacSafe has put out this $75 dollar bag that delivers some decent security. The ubiquitous locking cable helps keep the case from "wandering" but what's under the nylon skin case is what makes the difference. A steel mesh under layer stopped us short after hacking through the outside with a box cutter. Sure, a dedicated thief could get to your beloved MacBook eventually, but as most crimes are ones of opportunity and time, hopefully this number puts a criminal off the scent.

News:

If you want to be king of the app sales, it helps if you have the best App Store out there, which is why Apple walked away with an astonishing 99.4% of 2009's app sales....something sure to be a big seller among the Sonic fans, Sega is looking to bring an official Genesis emulator to the app store; turns out Apple's not at all shy of emulators with the manufacturer's seal of approval....so you've got a great app idea, but like most of us, you've got crap programming skills; well, make your dreams come true, non-geeks, with iSites' app creator and you too could be the next Tapulous millionaire...Amazon's decided, rather late, to get into the app game by releasing an app developer kit so software designers can get in on the joys of making gray on gray graphics...and finally, reason number eight million why you should keep your iPhone with you at all time, this dude saved his own life in Haiti with some wise choices at the App Store.

Apple and Microsoft might be the bitterest of enemies, but both sides are now viewing Google as the giant that must be stopped; they say politics makes for strange bedfellows, but supposedly talks are under way to bring Bing into the default search for the iPhone...speaking of cut-throat competition, sources say that this is the year that the iPhone will at long last make its way to the Verizon mobile network....according to Boy Genius Report, iPhone OS 4.0 is on its way and it's supposed to bring a host of sweet new qualities with it that have everyone at Apple super-excited...it won't be long before this dongle gets broken off with part of it still inside the iPhone, but this credit card swiper is pretty sweet, we have to admit...and the road to Flash on the iPhone is open now, but only if websites add a bit of coding to their pages. Alas.

And finally, yes, it's Tablet time, babies! Firstly, Apple officially announced the January 27th event, promising to show off their "latest creation" and we can only wonder what that might be....so who do you think will be attending this show? Our bets are on the New York Times, naturally, and Disney, but there's got to be more than that....well, HarperCollins might just be there, if they are negotiating to bring enhanced books to the Tablet...and since content is king, but books aren't everything, look for game maker Electronic Arts to put in an appearance of some kind...but what are they calling this thing? Is it the iSlate, iTablet, iPad, or something none of us have even thought of yet? Only Steve Jobs knows for sure...but let's hope they're paying attention to the news, because an analyst is predicting that the price has got to hit that sweet spot and there's got to be options for no monthly plans or customers might just not bite in this economy....and is this what we'll be seeing on Wednesday? I guess we'll just have to be patient a tiny bit longer. Arrrrrggghhhh!

How You’ll Get Google Voice-like Features on Your iPhone

J.R. Bookwalter — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 02:56:58 +0000

digg_url = 'http://www.maclife.com/article/feature/first_look_voicecentral_black_swan_beta';

If you're an iPhone-loving Google Voice user, you're probably lamenting the absence of any native apps available to use the service with your device. Maybe you're even glancing jealously upon your Android-touting bretheren, all with their own native Google Voice application.

Well, covet your brothers no more, for your prayers have been answered! There's an app that acts just like that! But, don't go looking in Apple's App Store, because Riverturn's VoiceCentral Black Swan (currently in beta) is a new kind of "weblication" that taps into the power of Google Voice in a whole unique way. We were able to get in on the beta process and give MacLife.com readers a first look at the innovative new software, which basically brings Google Voice's coveted features to your iPhone without any gimmicks. Read on to find out more.

So, What is Black Swan?

VoiceCentral Black Swan is the next generation of Riverturn's former VoiceCentral app, which was removed by Apple from the App Store (along with a couple of competing apps) following a controversial rejection of Google's own Voice app submission (more on that in a moment). Black Swan is unique because it totally bypasses the App Store, as well as the need to jailbreak your device (which is currently the only way to run competitor Sean Kovacs' GV Mobile). Riverturn has taken the HTML5, JavaScript and client-side database abilities of Mobile Safari and mixed in their own “middleware” layer powered by the Google App Engine. The result is an extremely streamlined Google Voice app that looks and acts almost exactly like the real thing, yet allows immediate upgrades without having to use iTunes or Apple's proprietary App Store.

What Does it Do?

Almost everything that the Google Voice website allows, including placing calls through Voice, browsing your recent call history, listening to your voicemail, read & send free SMS messages and review your billing & transaction history. You can even use the service offline to browse your contacts, call history, voicemail and SMS messages (although listening to voicemails still requires a data connection).

How Do I Install it Without the App Store?

Installing Black Swan is a snap: You simply go to an installer website, add the resulting “weblication” to your home screen and then click to open it like any other app. Enter your Google Voice login & password information, select your desired callback number from the ones already set up in your account, and you’re ready to go.

How Does it Work?

The app will automatically refresh your recent calls, SMS messages and voicemail. You’re given the option in the app’s settings to auto-refresh this information every 15, 30, 45, 60 or 120 minutes, or never. The settings page also gives you easy access to helpful instructions and an FAQ from Riverturn, how many history items to fetch from the server (up to 50, in increments of 10) and it also shows a running tally of your Google Voice billing credit.

In order to play your voicemails, click the arrow to the left of the caller’s name and Black Swan opens the audio in a standard Quicktime player on your device. Click the blue arrow on the right and you’re taken to details of the call (date, time & length) as well as the option to call or SMS the contact back via the iPhone or Voice. You even have the option to display your own Notes about the call as well as the Transcript, although neither of those are editable from the device itself. Recent calls show the same details, sans the Transcript option, of course.

Click on an SMS from within the app and you’re taken to a familiar iChat-style bubble of your conversation, just like the stock iPhone Messages app. Click on the button in the upper left to create a new SMS message, then click the “+” button to add your contact (or type one in yourself).

It’s here where Black Swan faces its biggest obstacle: Because the app is really a souped-up bookmarklet and not a true app created with the SDK, it can’t access your device contacts. Thankfully, the folks at Riverturn have addressed this shortcoming as best they can, by using the Voice service itself to import your Google address book. If you happen to use Mac software such as Spanning Sync, you can easily sync (and automatically update) your Mac Address Book with your Google contacts and vice versa. You can also use iTunes 7.7 or later to sync in a similar way, although it’s not quite as streamlined.

A Few Caveats

The biggest downside to Black Swan’s use of Google contacts is actually a fault with Google -- rather than the option to sort your contacts by last name as the Mac Address Book and iPhone Contacts allow, everything is sort by first name only, which will produce a few frustrating moments for iPhone users used to having them the other way around. Also, because this not a true SDK-developed app, the earpiece of your device is off-limits, so voicemails can only be played back through the speaker or headphone jack. (Calls are not a problem, since Google Voice is actually a callback service and not VoIP.)

Besides those two caveats, VoiceCentral Black Swan -- even in its present beta form -- works great and delivers as promised. It installed quickly and easily on both our first-gen iPhone as well as our iPhone 3GS, and in most cases seemed even a bit faster at pulling data from Google’s servers than the competing GV Mobile + jailbreak-only app.

A Controversial Beginning

Google Voice was born in 2006 as a free, web-based service called GrandCentral, giving users a new telephone number capable of ringing multiple phone numbers at once -- home, cell, work, you name it -- and even lets you take a call at one number, then shift it seamlessly over to another (for instance, from home phone to cell phone) so you can continue the call on the go, uninterrupted. The service promised “one number for life,” including a unified voicemail box, call screening and much more.

Google purchased GrandCentral in July, 2007 and it seemed for some time that nothing would be done with it -- until 21 months later, when the service relaunched as Google Voice (free, but currently available by invitation only). Among the many new features added to the Voice service were voicemail transcription, free calls in the U.S. & Canada and cheap international calls.

However, like GrandCentral before it, the Google Voice service itself was still tied to a website, and despite a respectable attempt at a mobile version of the site, it was clear that a dedicated iPhone app would make the service even more worthwhile.

That’s where third-party App Store developers came in. For whatever reason, Apple allowed a handful of third-party Google Voice apps in the App Store for months prior to Google attempting to release their own version, which was promptly rejected. But after rejecting Google Voice from the App store, Apple began pulling all the third-party apps, resulting in a veritable firestorm of controversy -- as well as a pending FCC investigation -- that’s been well documented in the media.

Thankfully, independant developers have since managed to figure out a way to bypass Apple's stringent App Store approval process by writing an application that could be used through the iPhone's native web browser. Finally, a way to put that Google Voice invitation to good use. Our only hope is that Black Swan is here to stay, though it's obviously a temporary solution to a bigger issue.

Well, this all sounds pretty awesome. When will Black Swan be available?

Riverturn’s beta program for Black Swan is currently limited, but promises to open up to more users throughout January and February. If you’re a Google Voice user who doesn’t want to jailbreak your device and is tired of waiting for Apple to get its act together, head over to the Riverturn website and sign up for beta access. While there’s no word yet on what the service may eventually cost, for now the beta is an excellent peek into the future of how developers may get around some of the App Store approval nightmares, and an extremely capable Google Voice app to boot.

Google Voice Returns To The iPhone — Kind Of

J.R. Bookwalter — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 21:20:42 +0000

The iPhone’s most elusive app to date is about to sweep back onto the scene -- but don’t look for it in the App Store, and you won’t even have to jailbreak your device to get it.

Google Voice remains one of the most controversial apps for the iPhone. While Google themselves had Apple slam the door in their face before they even got to the App Store, a couple of small developers did manage to bring Google Voice to the iPhone, albeit briefly.

In addition to Sean Kovacs’ excellent GV Mobile (which is still available for jailbroken devices), developer Riverturn was also there early on with VoiceCentral. Both apps were pulled from the App Store on the heels of Google’s own denial, and the resulting firestorm even set off an FCC investigation that is still ongoing.

None of this sat too well with Riverturn (check out that full story here), so they’ve set out to change the rules by coming up with VoiceCentral Black Swan. They call it “the next revolution in iPhone applications,” meaning it’s not tied to the App Store nor is it a website optimized for the iPhone (which Google has been rumored to do for Voice since they were shut out). Riverturn calls Black Swan a feature-rich “weblication” that enables you to view and manage your Google Voice data just like a native iPhone application, combining the device’s easy-to-use interface with the convenience of an always-up-to-date web application.

Among the features promised for Black Swan are a native iPhone look & feel, the ability to sync Google Voice data (including importing Google Contacts), offline access to Voice data, the ability to listen to Voice messages and read transcriptions and even swiping to delete calls, voicemails or SMS conversations.

Black Swan is currently in a very limited beta, but if you already have a Google Voice account you can sign up to be part of the beta program or just to be notified when Riverturn begins accepting new users. Of course, an existing GV account is required, as well as an iPhone or iPod touch running iPhone OS 3.0 or higher. We’ve already registered for beta access, so stay tuned to this channel for more on Black Swan.