Feed aggregator

Note: Created on 4/24/12

After a lot of trial and error and after trying serval systems combinations; I finally found a free and paid mashup that is cheap and simple small business and people to use. I hope this post will be a shortcut for helping you find a usable system to make phone calls from your Mac.

This mashup includes Google Voice, GrowlVoice and Skype. Why? All of this is due to no Google Talk client that can support Google Voice for Mac, and Skype current policies. There is no client for Google Voice on a Mac. Google has seemed to have forgot to make a GTalk Google Voice client for the Mac. If you want to use a Google Voice client for the mac you have to go through your browser. This is cumbersome, and I don’t want to keep a tab open all the time so I can receive calls live.

So why Google Voice?

Google Voice enters the picture because I first wanted to group all my communication services behind one phone, and one voice mailbox. Having a transcription service to convert voice calls into text was also a major plus in providing flexibility to work this system. But most of all since it was free, I never had to worry that I will lose voice service by not paying a bill. Finally, having a free SMS client to receive and send message in the US was a God send with so many systems wanting to change me for that service. These are hard times. I needed peace-of-mind that my customers could contact me by voice or SMS no matter what financial situation was in.

Why GrowlVoice?

Well, since Google does not have a Google Talk client that can support Google Voice on a Mac other than a browser. This left a big user interface gap for a method to access my Voice and SMS on a Mac. So far, I found GrowlVoice as the best UI that can handle Google Voice and SMS information. Having shortcut integration is nice, I have not used it yet but I believe will help with the browser integration. It is also cheap. It is currently only $4.99.

Why Skype Online Number?

Skype has the best service for turning you computer into a phone. Some stuff are free, while other stuff you have to pay for like SMS. But the stuff you have to pay for is cheap like the Online Number service.

It is currently it is:

$18 for 3 months or a whole year for just $60.

Which is good price for any person or small company. They have business solutions which I will talk about only if I try it. I purchased the Online Number to integrated it with my Google Voice bank. Now if I want to make a call I can choose Skype to call from my computer instead of opening a browser for Google Voice to choose Google Talk to communicate. The other reason I purchase the service so I can receive calls live rather than having my browser open all the time to do the same thing. I am guessing if I had a PC I could just use the Google Talk client to receive incoming calls. But for now, with the Skype service all I need is my computer open and hooked to the Internet. If I don’t, then the voice mailbox of my Google Voice number will catch it. Since I can get a text message of what someone said for free is also nice. Yes, Skype has a voice mailbox with there Online Number service, but since they do not have a transcription service I would need to log into Skype to hear my messages. With the combination of Google Voice and Growl Voice I get a transcribed text version of any message on my desktop. Also since Skype again is a paid service, I do not want a moment where someone cannot leave me a message or a SMS if I do not pay a bill.

In conclusion….

None of these services would recommend something like this. Because they all want to be your one-all solution. You can just use Skype, but you would have to pay for your SMS messages and would need to login to hear any message. You could just use Google Voice, but on a Mac you would have to do everything through your browser. You can use Growl Voice and Google Voice, but you would have to open your browser to receive calls live and to call out to someone. None of these solutions worked for me. After months of testing and retesting, this system is the easiest and cheapest way I found to get a cheap computer phone service.