Use Google Voice for free phone calls

Google Voice, formerly Grand Central, is slowly opening to the public. What does that mean for you? A cheaper phone bill.  Once you sign up for Google Voice,  select a local phone number for free.  Most cellular phone companies offer either free incoming plans or unlimited calls from a specific set of numbers, such as MyFavs from T-Mobile, Friends and Family from Verizon, My Circle from Alltel, and Pick 3 or Mobile to Home from Sprint. After you’ve selected your phone number, add it to the list with your cell phone provider for unlimited calls.  Now go into your Google Voice settings and add your cell phone or other phone line you would like to use.
 

 When someone calls your Google Voice number, each of the lines you select will receive the call.  You will not be charged because it is either an incoming call or on your list of numbers for unlimited calls. The hardest part is notifying your contacts of your new phone number, and telling them to call your new Google Voice number now.

How about outgoing calls? They are a bit trickier, but not too complicated either.  You have two options. The first is to call your Google Voice number directly from a line you added in your settings from the previous steps above.  A greeting will prompt you with the option to listen to voicemails or make a call.  Select “make a call” and dail the number you wish to call.  The cell phone company thinks you are calling your Google Voice number, which is a free call. Your second options is through the web interface of Google Voice. 
 

In the top left corner of the Google Voice interface is a button labeled “Call”.  Click the Call button and a drop-down box will appear.  Enter the phone number you wish to call and Google Voice will call your phone and connect you to the number you entered. A second way to call from the web is to select the person’s name you would like to call from your contacts page and click the “call” link to connect the two of you.

Some other useful features of Google Voice are:

• Call screening - Announce and screen callers
• Listen in - Listen before taking a call
• Block calls - Keep unwanted callers at bay
• SMS - Send, receive, and store SMS
• Place calls - Call US numbers for free
• Taking calls - Answer on any of your phones
• Phone routing - Phones ring based on who calls
• Forwarding phones - Add phones and decide which ring
• Voicemail transcripts - Read what your voicemail says
• Listen to voicemail - Check online or from your phone
• Notifications - Receive voicemails via email or SMS
• Personalize greeting - Vary greetings by caller
• Share voicemail - Forward or download voicemails
• Conference calling - Join people into a single call
• Call record - Record calls and store them online
• Call switch - Switch phones during a call
• Mobile site - View your inbox from your mobile
• GOOG-411 - Check directory assistance
• Manage groups - Set preferences by group

I hope this is helpful. Please post any other tricks you’ve learned with Google Voice in the comments section.

The Credit Crisis Visualized

I found a  good video that visualizes the current credit crisis very well, minus one major change. The video claims the insurgence of sub-prime loans began after September 11th. However, according to a 1999 New York Times article

Fannie Mae, the nation’s biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people
Fannie Mae Eases Credit To Aid Mortgage Lending

Therefore, at minimum, sub-prime mortgage loans were forced to be lent with pressure from the Clinton Administration years before September 11th, but it’s affect on the economy didn’t help. Other than that issue, it puts the crisis into understandable pictures for everyone’s understanding.

The winning bracket

You only have a couple more hours to get your brackets set, so I decided to help you.  Here is the winning bracket.  If you really want to win your bracket challenge this year, just copy my bracket.  Don’t try to read this small version; it will hurt your eyes.  Click on the image to bring up a full version.  However, if you end up losing your bracket challenge by using this bracket I cannot be held liable.  Just because I’ve never won a bracket challenge, in any pool I’ve entered, doesn’t mean I’m not a valuable source. It means I’m due for a win, and since I’m due for a win, you’ll be a winner too.

Twitter gearing up for ads?

Today while checking twitter updates, I noticed a new “feature” on my homepage.  As you can see from the screenshot on the left, Twitter has implemented a new text box directly below the user’s statistics. 

I first noticed the text box this afternoon, and it was a link to Twitter’s search site. The second version I saw was for the Twitter widget which I have installed on the sidebar of this blog. It’s also the version I have shown in the screenshot.

We have been waiting to see what Twitter’s business model would be for making money. My prediction is that these text boxes will transform in the near future to real advertisements and not just links to features within Twitter. I also believe we will see other forms of advertisements within Twitter, and this is only the beginning. I understand they need to make money. As long as these ads stay small and simple text, they get my vote. How about you?

Tar Heels Win the ACC.
I’m Final Four Bound.

At the beginning of the basketball season this year, everyone  had the Tarheels as the favorite to win the National Championship. Of course I was on the bandwagon. As a graduate of UNC and big Tarheel basketball fan, my mind was set on the Final Four in Detroit. I began to search Ebay for tickets back in November, but couldn’t gather the courage to place a bid.  It’s a good thing I didn’t. As shown by the graph below, I would have been devastated in January. Honestly, my desire to spend hundreds of dollars on Final Four tickets dropped like a rock after the losses on January 4th to Boston College and January 11th to Wake Forest.  Not that I lost faith in my Tarheels, but spending the money on tickets when they looked so beatable wasn’t a smart idea.

I had pushed the idea to the back of my mind through February and even into the early days of March. That all changed on March 8th. Being at the Dook game in the Dean Dome brought back the desire and took it to new heights. Seeing the Tarheels take down the Blue Devils on senior night and win the ACC Regular Season Championship sent me right back to Ebay. The game that day was at 4pm and by 9pm that evening, I had purchased my tickets.  My wife and I are extremely excited at the prospect of traveling to Detroit in April. The tickets ended up being cheaper than what I would have spent back in November and much closer seats. There’s not a much better way to spend my birthday (April 4th) than watching the Tarheels get a victory in the Final Four.  I do have one request for Coach Roy and the boys in Carolina Blue. PLEASE MAKE IT TO THE FINAL FOUR! and winning the Championship would be great.

So close yet so far

As I blogged about in “I’m a winner! almost“, I was selected as one of the finalist for 99.9fm The Fan and Grand Slam U.S.A.’s Fast Break to the Games contest. Eighteen people competed in a free throw contest to determine who would win round trip airfare to Atlanta, hotel accommodations, and 2 tickets to the ACC Tournament. Each person shot 10 free throws to cut the field of contestants down to ten. The same from ten to five, and from the five, one winner. 

No, I didn’t win as you can tell from the title of this post, but neither did I leave empty handed. The usual marketing souvenirs were everywhere from 99.9FM The Fan, Vitamin Water, and Grand Slam U.S.A., and my favorite was the free Hooters wings (even though it was 10 in the morning, they were great).  Don’t be jealous, but I also walked away with some great Hooters coupons, 2 free appetizers (x2), 50 free wings (x2), 20% off food and merchandise (x2), and a free boneless wing party which consists of 150 free wings for up to 10 people.  To make a long story short, I won’t be traveling to Atlanta, but I will be eating lots of buffalo wings.