Google Voice: One Number to Rule Them All - Part1

Since the full launch of Google Voice in the US, I have been very jealous of our American cousins.

All attempts at registering for the service failed - using Hotspot Shield I blocked my IP address and managed to logon to the service but I was then stopped in my tracks when Google asked for an American number (overseas numbers don't work) which you need to verify - "Google Voice will call your phone and prompt you to enter the following (two digit) code".

However my trip to the US helped to resolve this. A quick trip to Bestbuy to buy their cheapest prepaid mobile/cell phone -$25 for an LG 300G on Net10 with 300 free minutes.

I quickly registered the mobile with Net10 - really simple and I got to select my own number and area code from the comfort of my own home and the mobile registered with the network in a couple of minutes.

Back to Google Voice - completed the registration process process by entering my newly acquired mobile number and left a personalised message on my Google Voice number.

Interestingly I have discovered that with my newly acquired (prepaid?) mobile - received calls (and SMS) use up my minute tariff - as well as calls/SMS made. Bizarre.

In part two, I will quickly outline the key features I have used since set-up.

UPDATE: I have just noticed that you can use a Gizmo number - this didn't seem to be available when I first signed on. This might be useful for non Americans to register for the service.

Radio: American Style

I knew I had arrived in America when I switched on the car radio.


My standard Ford Focus rental car has a Sirius satellite radio. Just like FM but better (except underpasses where it cuts out). As with all good American radio channels it seems to be stuck in a time between 1976 and 1987 playing tracks from The Kinks, Heart, Def Leppard, AC/DC and Genesis.

Oh yes and don't forget about the balmy 72F!!

Hullomail & The Joy of Travel

For those of you who know me, I have been using Hullomail since the late of 2008 and was rather upset that TMobile felt the need to charge me for using an alternative voicemail provider whilst other mobile telcos embraced the technology. In fairness TMobile eventually removed the charges after alot of effort by Andy Munarriz over at Hullomail.

In short, Hullomail is a voicemail system with a difference. It does everything your current voicemail does and more – and all for FREE. It records your voicemails and emails these to your inbox – which opens a lot of opportunity for abuse. Have you ever left a voicemail that you subsequently regretted!! Now you can post it on the web or email it to all your friends.

If you chose to listen to a voicemail and delete it in your inbox, it also deletes it in your voicemail and vica versa (through the magic of IMAP). The biggest upside for me is my messages are in my inbox – and they aren’t deleted until I have addressed them.

But when overseas Hullomail is even better.

I set all my calls to divert and my voicemails are delivered to my inbox. Hullomail sends me a text when I have received a voicemail and in a world where internet access costs substantially less (or is free) I can pick up voicemails for nothing. And typically I email back a response to the person leaving the call – bang goes all of those overseas charges.

If you haven’t tried Hullomail yet, please do – hopefully, one day, all telcos will supply this type of service as standard – but I’m guessing they would feel a need to charge for it.

Netbooks and Wifi at 30,000 feet

Once you have had wifi, you will never go back.

What became clear very quickly is whilst a lot is made of the interactive screens and VOD on the back of airplane seats - it is best described as having a television with your own remote control at your seat. At the end of the day it is still just a passive experience.

Whilst there is no overwhelming difference between internet access on an airplane or at home/work - I did clock 200kb/sec on a download - you are physically restricted to your seat and it allows you to be somewhere completely difference. This could be twittering with your friends in a different time zone, going through your outstanding emails which you haven't got to or just catching up with news. It makes a six hour flight a valuable experience and all for the princely sum of $6.95.

In a similar manner, my trusty Asus 901 netbook was fantastic - when the person in front decided to have a sleep and put his seat down the small screen remain completely vertical. And what's more Virigin America also have power supplies under the seats, so when my battery gave up after 4 hours (on a 6 hour flight) I just plugged it in.

Fantastic, incredible - thank-you Mr Branson for showing the world how it should be done.

The Magic of TripIt

I was recently introduced to TripIt by Tara Hunt at the recent "Thinking Digital" conference in Newcastle - who described at the service as just "magic".

In essence it creates your itinery from your travel confirmations which you email to plans@tripit.com and it does the rest and much much more. To put this into context, the last time I was overwhelmed like this was when I first installed an early beta of Skype (when it was less than 3Mb) - it just worked. No more 3 page printouts of flight confirmations - just the key information that you need at check-in.

But it does so much more, it provides you with links for online check-in, weather forecasts for your destinations, directions between airports and hotels - and this is the free version. I cannot do the service enough justice but if you do any travelling I would thoroughly recommend it.

Trams and Wifi at 30,000 feet

My first post of my personal blog and my first blog post at 30,000 feet whilst online (just passing over Kansas City); thanks to Virigin America.

I am around 21 hours into a flight from Newcastle, via London and New York to San Francisco. Yes I know I could have flown directly to SFO but it was prohibitively expensive by the time I booked it and it matters because I am the one picking up the tab.

Why? To try and learn how Yanks nurture start-ups better than us Brits. I tried to explain to my three year old son why I was going away - "because I need to get on an airplane to talk to some people much smarter than daddy".

Over the next week, I will be speaking to incubators, accelerators, start-ups and VCs in Silicon Valley. And I might just also have a rant about Hullomail, TripIt, Google Voice and Wifi at 30,000 feet if all goes according to plan.