[Chinese]-[介紹] Google Voice

好久沒有文章了,一晃眼就是半年過去了. OMG真是時光冉冉歲月如梭阿!

最近用了一下Google Voice,覺得運營商再不長進的話那真的是會變成只是一條大水管了!!

Google Voice的簡介,最近新聞多有著墨有興趣的讀者可以善用Goole大神,相信都寫的比我詳實. 題外話,當然也可以試試微軟最新的Bing嘞(中文叫做"必應"). :)

Google本身對於Google Voice的說明,可以參考下面的網址

http://www.google.com/googlevoice/about.html

好了,不多說廢話,有圖有真相,來看一下畫面吧.

1. 這是大家熟悉的登入畫面,用你的google帳號即可登入. 不要問我要Invite阿,我是從GrandCentral轉換來的,當初轉換的時候忘了截圖了. :P

2. 登入以後,左邊的功能畫面.

3. 預設會給你美金10美分的call out credit打國際電話.

你可以使用Google CheckOut來買call out credit.

國際電話的call out rate,可以參考下面的網頁. 跟本地運營商的費率來比較,我要說還真是蠻有競爭力的. 例如:

美國本土 0USD (FREE免錢)

加拿大 0.01USD

台灣(市話) 0.02USD

台灣(行動) 0.09USD

中國(市話) 0.02USD

中國(行動) 0.19USD

馬來西亞(市話) 0.03USD

馬來西亞(行動) 0.04USD

香港 0.02USD

新加坡 0.02USD

詳細費率,可以參考下面網頁.

http://www.google.com/support/voice/bin/answer.py?answer=141925

4. 你可以打電話. 目前打美國本土電話是不用錢. 嗯,殺很大的樣子.

5. 也可以發簡訊 (不限美國的門號),筆者測試過中文被過濾掉了,看來目前僅支援英文文字簡訊.

6. 這個是主畫面,您所有的通訊明細 (語音以及簡訊)都會被儲存在這裡. 以後就不用備份簡訊了. 他另外提供一個語音轉成文字的功能,可以把你的語音留言轉成文字寄給你,很方便.

7. 設定的畫面,你可以依據來電的caller id設定call forward到哪個電話去(不限一個門號哦). 酷!

8. 手機端的程式目前支援Android手機以及RIM的黑莓機. 筆者猜測應該初期還是會先從美國本土開始.

對於到底運營商會不會變成一條大水管,很多人有評論,有興趣的人可以看一下GigaOM或是TechCrunch上的相關文章. 我個人覺得下面這一篇文章不錯.

http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/google-voice-calling-will-wireless-carriers-answer/2009-07-16?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal

運營商真的是要加油,以Google在全球的用戶數跟今年下半年以後Android手機大幅出貨,Google Telecom就在你我身邊了.

英文版,過幾天再寫嘞.

One NUMBER ID for life

Personally I believe that the "one number" concept is very important and it's only a matter of time when will the concept become a reality. I wrote an email to explain the concept to my colleagues in 2007.

Thinking of the scenario that consumers have a broadband access at home and/or HSPA/3G on the road. Have used Fring for more than one year (I have my virtual PSTN number bind to my Fring account), it turns out very useful and help me save my international phone bills (using VoIP call out credit). In fact, I should say "two numbers". One is a real no. for domestic/home use and another one (virtual) for international incoming calls/outbound calling use. You can use it when you're roaming abroad. Carriers should keep an eye on Mobile VoIP and prepare a very good IP data billings strategy.

Thomas F. Anglero wrote an article talked about the same concept on 22 July 2007. In his theory, I quote
"GoogleTel = Ubiquisys (Femtocells)+ Bandwidth (Dark Fiber and 700MHz Spectrum) + Grand Central (One Number ID)
It seems very obvious at this moment what Google is doing. They are building a US nationwide Telecom operator but without the Telecom legacy. Look at the following Google equation:"
For those of you who are interested in his post, please follow the link below to read his original post there.
http://anglero.blogspot.com/2007/07/googletel-ubiquisys-femtocells.html

You may be wondering why I posted an article to talk about an one-year old article. Well, it's related to my next post to discuss the newly approved +883 location independent "country" code. With all the excited development and technology advancement, we are not far away from the reality of this "ONE NUMBER" for life concept.

Stay tuned.

Mobile VoIP and IM : Fring

The next thing I am going to discuss is VoIP. Apparently there are lots of options available to you. Skype is very popular. Unfortunately it’s mainly to be used on your PC. On your mobile phone, I recommend to use Fring. One single client can connect to Skype, MSN, Yahoo, AOL and even SIP. You can chat with your friends no matter what kind of IM they use. And the best part is, you can even buy a dial in number for either your Skype and or SIP account, then the Fring software can be used as a 2-way communication tool.
I have found that its voice call quality is very good most of time providing both parties in call conversation are not traveling in high speed both under 3G mobile network's coverage.

Features highlight of the Fring software are

• A mobile client to do IM and VoIP
• Support Skype, MSN, Yahoo, AOL and SIP
• Can do traditional pstn/mobile call out via either Skype or SIP
• Native client is compatible to Nokia Symbian, Window Mobiles
• Fring Lite (Java client) was introduced recently to support mass market feature phones

This is the second software I will recommend you to be on your mobile device.