Notices

I just went and commented on their blog entry saying that the proper response is not for people to complain to Google. The problem isn't Google, the problem is them.

It's the same kind of entitlement that got Grand Central invites turned off. People were selling them as an "Unlimited Calling Plan" on ebay and then just giving them a GC invite and directions.

On my N810, Google Voice messages (unlike old GC ones) sound like they're playing at double speed -- sounds like a chipmunk, and a 32-second message plays in 12 seconds. Anyone else have this problem? Any fix?

A workaround is to save the message (in Google Voice, next to the message itself, click the More tab and select Download), and play it with Media Player, but this is clumsy. By default the saved message plays with XMMS, which gives the chipmunks. Via another machine, it appears to be a 16kbps 16000Hz mono mp3.

As others have reported, DialCentral still works (I'm using an old version), but of course Google may disable GC calls at some point. However, making calls on Voice seems to be just as good, and perfectly feasible on the tablet.

Re privacy, Google indicates that they'll store voice messages and transcripts until you delete them (obviously) and for a while afterwards, but it doesn't appear that they're storing calls. Indeed, I would think they'd run afoul of privacy laws if they did: I recall that for phone calls (but not for emails) you have a "reasonable expectation of privacy". But I'm not a lawyer and I don't know any of this for fact.

Off topic but thematically related to my post above, a different voice-messaging service I use saves messages in an unusual GSM 6.10 13kbps 8000Hz mono wav format. That is, the filetype is wav, but it's not the usual PCM wav format I'm used to. I cannot find any way to play such files on my tablet. Anyone?

Does anyone know how google is providing the sms portion of this service, I mean technically?

I know how most of voip works, but I have no idea how they are doing the sms part.

I assume they have their own big switch somewhere that takes them in off of phone network and routes them over ip and vice versa?

I guess this is some type of carrier software switch?

never mind I see stuff here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_m...-peer_protocol

and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_m...service_center

and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sms_home_routing

You may find more of your answer in that 2nd link...

Google provides a gateway between their own call center and their TCP/IP server I believe.

I'm thinkin' all you really need to know is Google's SMS Service Center Address.

... or for around $600 Euros you could set up your own >> http://www.ozekisms.com/index.php?ol...Product_Manual

SPAM artists may have also been one of Google's concerns

cool, thanks for the further info.

so, who 'owns' those numbers that google uses? or can one just buy a block of phone numbers like ip addresses?

so does google actually have gsm modems or is their gateway purely over IP?

if these questions sound ignorant, i guess i am of thia subject

Same problem on my n800. Just finally got upgraded and seems to work well. Transcribed test VM arrived in minutes and was translated decently. A few words off; I could see how it mistook my speech. I really like that the email has link straight (no extra login) to very simple playback page... of course playback doesn't work.

The real problem is sms notifications. How do you know when an sms has been sent to you w/o having to check the site?