Google Voice has a ton of great features, and in a lot of ways fundamentally changes the way you’ll use your phone. A lot of things suddenly become easier with Google Voice – checking your voicemail, sending text messages, and more – and they’re all best dealt with through your computer.

But, as of now, Google Voice doesn’t inherently let you make calls from your computer. I mean, I’ve got a microphone and speakers on my computer, as well as a fast Internet connection – why shouldn’t I be able to make calls, ideally for free?

Well, as it turns out, I can – with a little legwork. Here’s how to set it up (I did this on a Mac, so PC directions might be slightly different – the same rules will apply, though).

Disclaimer: This is all assuming you’ve already got a Google Voice account. They’re sending out invites at lightning-speed, so if you don’t have one, go get on the list!

1. Download and Install Gizmo5 (create a free account, with no call credits – you won’t need them!).
2. Open Gizmo. In the “Home” tab of the application, click “Edit My Profile.”
3. In the tab that pops up, you’ll see, filled in, a number for “SIP number.” Copy that number (everything before the @ sign).
4. In Google Voice, click “Settings”, and then “Phones.”
5. Click “Add Another phone” and paste the SIP number from Gizmo (again, only what’s before the @ Sign) into the box.
6. Name the number “Gizmo” or whatever you want, and then Save it.

Now, to make calls:

1. Open Google Voice, and click “Call”
2. Enter the number you want to call
3. Make sure the Gizmo phone (whatever you called it) is selected as the “Phone to Ring”
4. Click “Connect”
5. You’ll get a pop-up from Gizmo, with your Google Voice number on the caller ID. Answer it!
6. Google Voice will automatically dial and connect the other person, and you’ll be chatting from your computer!

The whole process only takes about five minutes, and doesn’t cost a nickel. Because you’re using a SIP number, all the data is transmitted over your cable connection rather than your phone network. That means you’ll need fast Internet to really make this work, but also means it doesn’t cost a thing!

I’m not sure how long this will be around (I’m sure carriers won’t be fans), but for now it’s a fantastic solution for making calls directly from your computer.

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1. Enabling bluetooth

The first thing you need to do is enable bluetooth on both devices. You should find bluetooth under connection settings on your phone, or some similar place. I use a Sony w880i, I have it under Settings, Connectivity, Bluetooth. Make sure to set your phone to visible, although this should be the default setting.

On your computer you should have a bluetooth icon in the tray. If you do, right click it, and select “show devices”. If you don’t see the icon there, go into your control panel and double click on “Bluetooth Devices”. This should take you to the same screen. If you don’t see bluetooth settings here, you might not have bluetooth capability, or you might need to install drivers.

2. Adding your device

On the Bluetooth Devices screen you might already see your phone, or you will need to click on “Add Wireless Devices” in the top menu. All devices which can be discovered should be listed after a few moments of searching, if you wait a few more moments, their names, brands, or types should also be visible.

Double click on the device you want to add, and you will be taken through a very simple procedure to add the device to your list. You will need to enter a code into a dialog on your computer, the code for it will be shown on the phone. Once done, your device will be listed on the Bluetooth Devices page.

3. Importing contacts

Double click on your newly listed device and you should see a screen similar to the one below. Select “Backup Contacts and Calendar Information from your Phone”. This will quickly copy all your contacts to the contacts folder in your user directory. You can now sync your contacts between your computer and phone. If supported you might be able to do the same with calendar items, emails and notes.

4. Using your computer as a phone

On the same page, you can see that at the top, you can enter a phone number and call the number. Doing this will work, but it will all be initiated only on the phone. Simply click connect next to the headset option “Use this computer as a headset or speakerphone for calls on your phone”. This will make your computer act like any other wireless headset, so any calls your receive or initiate can be conducted by just talking at your computer. I have a good speaker and a built in mic, so I don’t even have to stop working to talk to people.

The great thing is that you can also initiate a call by right clicking a contact, going to “actions” and clicking on “call this contact”. The call will be initiated from your phone, but since your laptop is your headset, there will be no need to touch your phone, or for it to be anywhere near you.

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Apologies for the cynicism, I don’t hate the iPhone, or any Apple product. I think they’re great, but just not the brilliant works of art slash genius slash infallibility slash technology breakthroughs so often proclaimed. They are incredibly good for browsing the Internet and watching media on, but as far as using it as an mobile phone every day would drive me crazy.

One of the commenter’s over at ReadWriteWeb provided the following entertaining rant which got a few people going, however I do agree with a lot of what he said:

I’d like to voice an opinion that is likely to make me look like I’m an old dinosaur that is just bitterly jealous over Apple’s success.

Well in fact, I’m not. But I am still looking for words to describe how pathetic Bubbleland looks like from a higher perspective, buzzing crazily around Apple, their conference, and the new iPhone.

Just look at that : an army of bloggers "liveblogging" what ? An event primarily addressed to people who write programs working on products of a (still) relatively small company that until now addresses only the 10% of the richer people in the world with their fancy gadgets.

And writing about what ? A BIG event : the second release of a phone that until now lacked what 80% of the phones sold in Europe and Japan have had for the last 2-3 years – 3G connectivity. And guess what : it also does portable music playing and GPS. Woaaah ! Excellent ! Nobody else does that on the market, do they ?

Now, don’t tell me guys that the iPhone was a revolutionary phone : it wasn’t, except maybe for its stylish look. And this release is anything but exceptional. It basically is a "survival release". Adjust the competition or die. And also adjust the competition’s pricing or die.

People are talking about this as the latest genius move from Apple’s Steve Jobs. It’s not a genius move. It’s the only strategy to avoid the short-term failure of the product. Except to Apple groupies (which are numerous in Bubbleland’s crowd), this phone had been bought until now for its stylish look. And that wouldn’t have gone much further than it was.

However one of the responses to this was equally valid in many ways as well.

Obviously Ralph cares more about quantity than quality. He just treats functionality as laundry items from a checklist as if the mere presence of those items is enough. It’s more important to look at the substance of each functionality. What mobile browser compete with Safari? Play music? hold on let me pop in this SD card first. Nice! What cell phone has capacitor-sensor that automatically shuts its screen off to conserve power when the user holds it near his ear then turn right back on if it’s far away? There are tiny little details that adds up to the whole simple and elegant user experience.

Yea, I used to own cell phones that make and receive phone calls too. But they also beeps like crazy at 3am in the morning because someone just sent me a text message or when it’s about to run out of power.

May be it’s not so wise to just look at the army of bloggers flocking to cover the release of the iPhone. What about the hundreds of thousands of developers, or the eBay price that people in Europe and Asia are willing to pay for the iPhone, or the knockoff release of countless handset makers following the first iPhone.

It’s good to deflate all the hype surrounding the iPhone, but it’s jealous, arrogant, and ignorant to call this phone a "survival release".

I’m interested at what you all think of this? I know there will be a lot of Apple supporters out there, and just as many haters as well, let me know your opinion on this one.

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The United States are leading the field with 30+ supported carriers followed by India, Russia, United Kingdom, Canada, Spain and Germany. It’s a bit problematic that you have to know the carrier of the person that you want to send the SMS to but it usually is not a problem to find out by analysing part of the phone number. That does not fall into weight when you send a SMS to your own phone to test the service though.

I ran into a problem when I tried to send messages using Firefox, the verification image was not readable at all. A switch to Internet Explorer solved that problem. I’m not sure if it was caused by my version of Firefox or if it is a general problem.

Other than that it was fairly easy to use. After selecting the country and entering the phone number I was able to enter the text of the message which was limited to 80 characters unfortunately and the verification code. It took only a few seconds before I received the SMS on my Nokia N73 mobile phone. It contained the text that I had entered and some advertisement for another Gizmo service.

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Record recording should be something build in Skype if you ask me. It’s a great way of keeping archives of phone conversations that can be useful in several situations. Unfortunately though there was not a completely free add-on that would record calls in Skype.

This has changed with the release of Call Graph. This Skype add-on records phone conversations as mp3 files. The recorded conversations can be tagged for better identification.

It looks pretty simple and that’s exactly what it is. Additional information about the calls are saved. The name of the user you have spoken to and the date and time. These information in combination with the tags make it easy to find calls of a specific user, date or tag.

I did not try it out but I suppose it is also possible to record Skype calls by using an audio software like Audacity. It’s a bit more complicated and not that automated but it should work fine as well.

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I would not say that Skype made a big step forward, can’t see many other changes yet. Sure there are some new emoticons and stuff like that but this is not that important I think. In case you do not know Skype I decided to list the main features of it.

• Support of Windows, Mac and Linux
• Talk or chat with your buddies using Skype and a microphone (for voice chat)
• Video chat
• Cheap calls to (mobile) phones worldwide
• Send files using Skype
• Conference Calls

I’m using Skype mainly to see when my buddies come online. I know that instant messengers do the same but I never got used to one of those.

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The code is * # 0 6 #

The fifteen-digit code is the unique serial number of your mobile phone. Write it down, it´s your IMEI Code. When someone steals your mobile you report the theft and your IMEI Code to your service provider. Most providers will ban that serial number making the phone useless.

via: snopes.com

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