Tag Archive for 'video'

Google Voice: Use it with Your Existing Number


Watch “Voicemail, the Google Way” on YouTube

Google Voice is Google’s take on voicemail. It offers those of us without an iPhone or other fancy smart phone some pretty slick features for saving and organizing voice messages. But it does much more than archive messages. Google will give you a new phone number. You can then direct all your existing numbers to that one number. Indicate which line should ring when Person A calls. Block Person B entirely. Even listen in on Person C’s voicemail as they’re leaving it and, if it’s too important to wait, pick up the call mid-message just like back in the day when we all used our answering machines to screen our landline calls.

The feature set sounded awesome from day one, but I didn’t like the idea of needing to give out a new phone number to everyone just so I’d have a few more features on my phone. Google has hinted at allowing users to port their existing number to their service sometime in the future. They still haven’t added that ability, but today Google released the next best thing. You can now use many of the Google Voice features with your existing cell number.

Continue reading ‘Google Voice: Use it with Your Existing Number’

Google Street View Upgrades to a Trike

The post on my blog that attracts the most traffic (for reasons I don’t understand) is a post I wrote last December announcing that Google Street View had put my house on the web. I thought this story would make a good follow-up, since it looks like Google is intent on putting every square inch of the world on its website. Now, to get to those places for which its van is just too big, Google has outfitted a tricycle with its Street View image capture technology. That’s right, a trike! (Here’s the official announcement on the Google blog.)

Continue reading ‘Google Street View Upgrades to a Trike’

Donald Miller Contest: We Have a Winner

As promised, I have picked at random a winner for my Donald Miller book giveaway. Check out this video.

Congratulations to S.C. Davis! You’re the big winner. (Here’s the winning comment.)

Look for Donald Miller’s A Million Miles in a Thousand Years on September 29. Look also for my review of the book to be posted the same day on this site.

Thanks again to everyone who participated in this giveaway! Special thanks to my roommate Joe for promoting the heck out of this giveaway over on his Facebook profile.

CONTEST: Win Donald Miller’s New Book

A Million Miles...

THIS CONTEST HAS ENDED. View the results.

I’m one of the Thomas Nelson book review bloggers. Earlier this week they were looking for bloggers to review Donald Miller’s upcoming book, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. Now, Donald Miller is one of my favorite contemporary authors. So I had already preordered the book. Months ago, actually. But I couldn’t resist being one of the first to have it.

I got my copies on Thursday afternoon. Wait, they sent me two?! The note included with the books suggested the second copy could be given away to one of my blog readers. I’ve never had a contest on my blog before. Sounds like a great idea!

Continue reading ‘CONTEST: Win Donald Miller’s New Book’

But Wait, There’s More

For whatever reason, these past few days have seen more than their fair share of high profile deaths. The latest was a man named Billy Mays, a famous product pitchman who you’ve heard yelling at you on TV to buy OxiClean, Orange Glo, and dozens of other products. He is also someone I love to impersonate. And even though McMahan, Farrah and MJ had more fame and a larger impact on popular culture, it was Mays’ death that startled me the strongest.

Last Friday night I tweeted:

First Ed McMahon. Then Farrah Fawcett. Now Michael Jackson. It’s been a rough week for the rich and famous. #rip

Minutes later, an old childhood friend of mine tweeted this in reply:

@jaledwith it always goes in threes

I remember my dad saying that when I was growing up. Apparently famous people tend to die in groups of three. The most infamous example I can think of occurred on November 22, 1963, they day John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Both C.S. Lewis and Aldous Huxley died that same day. (This actually became the premise for the novel Between Heaven and Hell.) There are plenty of other examples, I’m sure.

So, after being reminded of this “fact” by my friend, I was left somewhat assured. The loss of these three was still sad, but at least it was all over.

Continue reading ‘But Wait, There’s More’