Official Google Voice App Approved For iOS 147
silverpig writes "Apple has finally approved the official Google Voice app for iOS. After 16 months of being in app-review limbo, the app is finally here, but only for users in the US, and not for iPod Touch users. An interesting use for the app would be to use it as a dialing front end on an iPod touch in concert with a VOIP service, but it seems like this isn't an option for now. It seems like non-US users can get the app if they have a US iTunes account. You can create a US iTunes account without a credit card by following this Apple article."
First time for everything (Score:5, Informative)
I mean, we can ignore Apple and Google playing nicely with each other on:
webkit
html5
iOS maps
search provider for safari
up-to-date mac versions of most google stuff
etc...
Re:Now, if only iPod Touch support... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Now, if only iPod Touch support... (Score:4, Informative)
I'm wondering why they restrict it to iPhone only...
The summary had the muddled statement:
An interesting use for the app would be to use it as a dialing front end on an iPod touch in concert with a VOIP service, but it seems like this isn't an option for now.
... which leads you to believe that Google Voice could be used on an ipod touch as a dialer for voip.
But GV still uses your Cell minutes to make and receive calls, it does not use Voip, it does not let you talk over wifi.
I suspect that GV could become a full fledged voip service at the flip of the switch but Google does not want to piss off the carriers just yet. So you would still need the carriers unless you had wifi, and that leaves out the ability to use it on an ipod.
However if you have an old iphone laying around after you upgraded to something newer, you can download and install it on that phone, (I tested this with a 3G) even if that iPhone does not have a sim card installed. BUT ONLY for SMS, and checking your Google Voicemail Not Voice calls.
Re:Now, if only iPod Touch support... (Score:2, Informative)
Google Voice will not replace a phone - it needs a phone to work.
However, iPod (3 or 4) work fine as a cell phone when used with a Mifi, the only limitation I have found is that you can not pair a bluetooth head set with the iPod and must either use the built-in microphone (gen 4) or a cable ear bud/microphone combo. Line2 App is an excellent method of using an iPod in place of a cell phone.
Re:Now, if only iPod Touch support... (Score:3, Informative)
Google Voice is NOT a VoIP service (at least not the part you interact with), so using it from anything other than the iPhone would be rather difficult. Unless you wanted to use your iPod Touch/iPad as a remote control of sorts to have GV dial out through your home landline. It's akin to asking why there's no phone app on the iPod Touch. Or any other internet-connected, non-phone device out there for that matter.
Re:I can't believe people take this kind of abuse. (Score:4, Informative)
Excuse me, but last time I checked the android market did NOT require me to enter my private information, much less my CREDIT CARD info just for going into the market or downloading free apps.
Moreover, you can install apps from third parties whenever you like on all android devices, which simply is not the case for apple devices.
Thirdly, you can purchase developer phones with google's propietary stuff and unlocked bootloaders if you want to. Do you really expect google to force all manufacturers to have their device unlocked and still have them feel comfortable putting android in all of their high end devices? Android is overtaking all other mobile OSs for a reason.
Sure. even if the OS is open and available to download from a git repository, not all hardware running android is open. No big news there. But Apple is clearly much more on the "dictatorship"(yes I know you can chose not to buy an iphone, thats what I do) side with their much stronger policies for total control.
To sum up, no they are clearly not nearly as "bad" as Apple, like I have shown
Re:I can't believe people take this kind of abuse. (Score:1, Informative)
Explain to me how this is different on the Droid X or G2?
WIth android you can buy a different phone. If you don't want to fuck around with anti-tampers and locked boot loaders, buy a Nexus One (or soon a Nexus S). If you want to use iOS but are not happy with the restrictions on the iPhone, what other choices do you have? Zilch. Thanks but no thanks, I'll take Google's approach any day.
Re:I can't believe people take this kind of abuse. (Score:3, Informative)
Not only is that idea absolutely ridiculous, and technically impossible given the current state (and hardware requirements) of voice recognition, but also it shows you don't understand shit about VoIP.
Audio is re-invited, meaning that Google's servers only setup the call, then RTP is established directly between the endpoints.
Re:Now, if only iPod Touch support... (Score:3, Informative)
It doesn't work on iPad either, since the iPad can't place calls. Google's app has no VoIP support
Re:I can't believe people take this kind of abuse. (Score:3, Informative)
RTFS
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2534 [apple.com]
Re:Now, if only iPod Touch support... (Score:2, Informative)
I have been using Google Voice for nearly a year without a phone, it's called Gizmo5. Check out SIP and you will understand the real benefit to Google Voice and why you don't actually need a real phone or any minutes to make and receiver unlimited calls.
Re:First time for everything (Score:3, Informative)
Where do they "brag" about "writing google maps" on the iPhone? From all the talk about how it was "obvious" that Youtube wouldn't work on an iPhone (because it doesn't have Flash), it seems that the general situation that many people are ignorant of just what apps the phone comes with, let alone who wrote them. Apple's entire stance on apps has been the promotion of third party developers rather than itself.
What is really missing from the iPhone that Android has (at least some Android handsets I have seen) is the single swipe trail typing method, where you trace over the letters you want in a single hand gesture and the phone picks the most likely spelling of the word, discarding junk letters you happened to touch while joining up your actual chosen word. I thought that was really cool.
Re:First time for everything (Score:3, Informative)
What I mean is that to spell "Hello" you trace the word "Hello" on the screen by touching each letter in order without lifting your finger off the screen. You can do this quite quickly.
I'm not sure if you've ever looked at a QWERTY key layout, but these letters have other letters of the alphabet between them (ie, ['that is', it's Latin] you cannot *just* touch the letters H, E, L and O when you want the word "Hello"). The phone works out what word you were writing in a predictive manner by the order of the letters you have touched, throwing out any that don't fit words in its dictionary.
It works better if you can spell, since you have to hit the letters *in the right order* so the phone knows what fucking word you are going for in the first place, and it is at least as fast as typing by hand on a non-feedback screen and having the phone correct for your mostly-accurate hits (at speed, you are going to miss a couple).
Given that I never use txt spk 4 wrtng sms mssgs and actually write out sentences and words in full, it allowed me to write messages quickly and accurately at least as quickly as manual typing on my iPhone - and this was only with a brief exposure to my friend's Android phone. I expect I could get much faster with more practice.