Wave wasn’t the only Google service to be opened up to the public this week, as Google has now lifted its invite only restriction on its popular Google Voice service. It’s still only available to residents of the United States, but now the only thing standing between you and: free calls, free SMS messages (to anywhere in the U.S. and Canada), voice mail transcripts, and having one number for all of your phones is logging into voice.google.com with your Google account and picking out a number. (mor...

It’s a scientific fact that Google Voice is all of that and a bag of potato chips, but now it’s gotten even better thanks in part to Google’s willingness to tick off every carrier in the nation. In the past, users who wished to take advantage of the features of Google Voice would have to use the number provided to them by Google, but now users are free to integrate some Google Voice features into their carrier-issued number. These features include:Online, searchable voicemailFree automated v...

What better way to celebrate Labor Day weekend than to help all of our Canadian brothers and sisters pull a fast one over on Google? We here at BGR know that a lot of Canadians are worried about the upcoming non-confidence vote that could topple the current government in the midst of an economic crisis, so we thought we’d take advantage of a rather slow Sunday to give you something to smile about: a way to get Google Voice to work in Canada. It does require you to snag a MagicJack, but that’s lite...

It looks like the FCC’s bravado move to lay some smack down on both Apple and AT&T has pretty much unearthed a whole heap of nothing. AT&T and Apple have just released their responses to those now infamous letters the FCC sent to Apple, AT&T and Google over the whole Google Voice debacle. AT&T’s position is best summed when it said that it had “no role in any decision by Apple to not accept the Google Voice application”, while Apple’s response is pretty damn class...

Google Voice users with friends and relatives living north or the border, rejoice. Not that calls to Canada are overly expensive in the first place, but the Google Voice team has decided to eat that marginal expense — just as they did when they were GrandCentral — and make calling to Canada free once again. That’s right Google Voice users, the next time you need to call and taunt your Canadian friends when your team is playing the Blue Jays it won’t cost you a dime. Now if only you cou...

Google’s mobile site for Google Voice is a nice gateway solution while Google’s team works on a more integrated mobile offering, but it leaves plenty to be desired. Having to click or poke your way through your browser each time you want to make a call can be a pain to say the least. As such, it was only a matter of time before a third-party developer answered the call, so to speak, and worked out a better way to use Google’s service on mobile phones. We’re sure you see where we’...

Google Voice is a service that has tremendous potential and as such, we’ll be watching it closely over the months to come. Last week, we showed you the service’s current mobile capabilities and posed a few ideas in terms of where Google could potentially take Google Voice. Interpret this however you wish, but further details were discovered this week that could certainly support some big plans:We’re excited to count you among our users, and we want to continue to earn your business every day...

In all of the hubbub surrounding Google’s recent revival and transformation of GrandCentral, one of the greatest aspects of the service was lost in the fray by most — mobile access to google.com/voice. Along with a new web-based UI and a handful of awesome new features such as free SMS and voicemail transcriptions, Google introduced new mobile sites that provide on-device access to all of Google Voice’s core functions. Users now have access to inboxes (voicemail transcriptions and SMS, each ...

It has taken what seemed like an eternity for those who weren’t quick enough to snag an account while the service was open, but Google has finally shown the world what it plans to do with GrandCentral — and it’s looking pretty awesome. GrandCentral users have been sitting in limbo for almost two years now, waiting for Google to either announce its plans for the service it acquired in July 2007 or shut it down as has been the case with several other acquisitions. Thankfully, the former is the...

After what seemed like an eternity of silence, Google has finally released something new associated with GrandCentral. No, you still can’t get in on the action if you don’t already have an account and no, this is hardly huge news. It is however, hopefully a sign of things to come as Google further enhances the GrandCentral offering and maybe, just maybe, opens it up for public consumption once again. So, on to the news. Vocito, a word meaning “call” in Latin, is a small application for...