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Google Phone – Nexus One (HTC) Released to Employees

Matt Bellezza — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 18:50:04 +0000

image by engadget

Rumors of a “Google Phone” have been flying around for several years. Especially after the Apple iPhone came out. These rumors have been increasing of recent with their release of Google Voice.

At an all-hands meeting on Friday, Google started to hand out phones with the newest version of Android on it to their employees. The hardware of the phone appears to be eerily similar to the HTC Passion, but it is speculated that the UI and OS are altered and designed by Google.

There has been absolutely no official statement from Google yet about the actual development of such a phone, but there have been an awful lot of photos surfacing about the potential Google Phone, along with a couple of potential code names: Nexus One and Phone 88.

Judging by what we’ve seen, it will probably sport the 3.7 inch AMOLED display that’s making an appearance on HTC’s other Android device the Bravo. With that said, I feel it’s safe to assume that much of the hardware behind the pictured sexy exterior will be the same as the Bravo as well. Including the Snapdragon 1GHz processor.

What we do know, is according to a variety of sites, the Nexus One has made its way into the hands of the FCC and reports are showing that the phone tote some features that were rumored, such as the ever-so-common, Micro SD expansion, WiFi (802.11 b/g), Bluetooth 2.1 and it will most likely be 3G and unlocked for various frequency bands.

For more info we highly recommend checking out these links:

Mashable | Engadget

Update: AT&T Contacts Me On Twitter!

Will Kievit — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 01:33:57 +0000

A couple of nights ago, an AT&T Wireless manager contacted me on twitter. Apparently, AT&T caught wind of my blog post where I talked about the issue I was having, and using their new social media initiative be proactive and reach out to me. When @ATTJason contacted me on twitter this evening, I was completely skeptical of this random twitter handle, and on defense, but I went to AT&T’s website and determined @ATTCustomerCare was a legitimate handle, which then references @ATTJason as legitimate. This seems to be one thing that AT&T needs to be careful with, and one of Twitter’s “Verified Account” badges would probably help out. With all of the phishing schemes out there it is important that AT&T presents itself well.

Long story short, AT&T followed up with me finally, saying that the issue seemed to have been resolved on the network end and wanted to make sure that the issue was indeed fixed on my end. I confirmed it had. One more satisfied customer. Love that brands are taking such a proactive approach. Well I guess they have to though, the power of social networking is such that a sour customer could do a lot of damage to a company, but reaching out and trying to fix their issue instead helps.

Have any of you had an experience like this with AT&T or any other companies? Disagree with my praise of the carrier? Let us know. Voice your opinion in a comment below!

AT&T Connecting Callers to Wrong Person

Will Kievit — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:30:54 +0000

For the past two days I have been having some serious issues with my AT&T wireless connections for my iPhone. There appears to be a routing problem with the phone system’s network (potentially AT&T) that causes the wrong parties to be connected. The scenario is this: when I select Person A from my contacts and call them, I get connected with Person X.

On Sunday, I had an even better experience: I called my girlfriend, the phone rang and then I was connected to a random party who couldn’t hear me. Then the phone started to ring again and I was connected to a different random party whom did not speak English… this cycle continued on until I was connected to a total of 5 different people, all without me needing to redial. On the other end, my intended party’s phone rang and my caller id showed up on screen. When she picked up she was connected to another random woman. See the diagram below for my theory on how the problem works (I apologize for the poor quality).

Some details on my problem: I am located in the Stamford area of Connecticut. I own an iPhone 3G with all the latest upgrades and carrier settings. I called AT&T and they said it was most likely a network issue, but it was not a known issue and confirmed it was most likely not my phone.

Anyone else having this problem? Tell us about it.

Voicemail or YouMail?

Will Kievit — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 23:03:45 +0000

There are all types of people in the world. My girlfriend happens to be one of those people that does not check her voicemail. No matter how important the message may be, she will never hear it because she just doesn’t check it. Eventually, a month later she will call in and delete the messages, but until then… nothing. Of course, most people would rather receive a text message instead of having to listen to a message (except on occasion when you want to hear someone’s voice), its silent, quick, and can be done in circumstances such as a meeting.

Improvements in technology, such as Visual Voicemail, made prominent by AT&T Wireless (formerly Cingular Wireless) and Apple, have made it easy to see what messages you have and by whom, and then listen to that specific message, without actually needing to call the voicemail service. However, not all phones, or carriers, are providing this. Solution: YouMail.

YouMail offers a form of Visual Voicemail by receiving all voicemails in its system, instead of your carrier’s, and then texting you when you receive a message, and letting you know who its from. You can then check this message by calling in, or checking your email, or logging in to youmail.com.

An Example of a YouMail Voicemail Notification (Notice the transcription).

YouMail goes even further then just Visual Voicemail though; it offers voice-to-text transcription of your voicemail and custom greetings for different callers. For example set up a “ditchmail” for callers you don’t like, a special greeting for your “sweetie”, or set a group greeting for your friends but maintain a professional appearance for non-contacts.

This service is a great alternative but they still have to work out a few things. I enjoy the fact that companies are working on alternatives that will work with the equipment and service you already have without many changes to be made on your lifestyle or equipment.

Sound Interesting? Check them out here: http://youmail.com/