Making Calls On Google Voice Just Got Snappier
Google Voice is great, especially if you’re on a mobile platform that offers a native Voice application (namely Android or BlackBerry). But if you’ve been using the service on a regular basis, you may have run into an odd issue: sometimes when you go to actually call someone there’s a lag, as if the phone isn’t altogether sure what it’s supposed to do when you tap on the ‘Call’ button next to a contact’s name. Today, Google is getting rid of that lag in its native applications.
As Google details in its blog post, that pause was due to Google Voice making a small data request to Google’s servers whenever you initiated a call, which would return the number the application was supposed to dial. That works well enough when you have a decent 3G or EDGE connection, but it can also lead to annoying timeouts and pauses when you don’t. The new version of the Voice applications fixes this by assigning a unique phone number to your contacts, bypassing the need to initiate a data connection. In other words, your outbound calls should be faster now.
Disclosure: The Google Voice team has ported my cell number over to the service, as they did with Michael’s number.
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Making Calls On Google Voice Just Got Snappier
Barnes and Noble plays ball with Amazon, releases Android app
Look, the world of e-book readers isn’t slowing down, and with the Amazon Kindle, Barnes and Noble Nook, and even the Apple iPad (somewhat) vying for market share, companies are pulling out all the punches. Amazon successfully made their Kindle service and library available on almost every computer and mobile platform, and Barnes and Noble seems to have the same strategy. Their Android app just hit the Android Marketplace, it’s available for Android OS 1.6 + devices, and is available immediately. Barnes and Noble also offers a PC client in addition to an iPhone app.
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Barnes and Noble plays ball with Amazon, releases Android app
