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 …
It was an exciting weekend for Google Voice fans who use the iPhone, with not one but two native apps back in the App Store after being unceremoniously outlawed by Apple more than a year ago.TechCrunch is reporting that developer Sean Kovacs has made a…
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!
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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.
