Google Voice and Gizmo5
Google Voice and Gizmo5 allow you to receive phones calls using your internet connection and your PC or Bluetooth headset. I thought this would be a better way to use my phone where I get poor cell phone reception yet have an excellent internet connection.
To setup Google Voice and Gizmo5 is a daunting task to start with. Google Voice gives you a free phone number and then allows you to forward it, or route it to other phones, based on who is calling you. However if you are going to use Google Voice you will to have to make this your primary phone number, are you ready to do that? Gizmo5 is a Skype competitor, for making and receiving calls, that uses an open standard for call management call SIP, it can inter-operate with regular phones or other SIP-based networks. I am not going to discuss the setup of these applications, but it is a time consuming and complicated process, at least during this early stage in their development.
Google Voice and Gizmo5 have to work together to allow you to forward you cell phone calls to your PC. Once I set up both applications, I programmed 2 speed dial keys on my cell phone, one to forward calls to Google Voice, and one to turn it off. When call forwarding is on Google Voice receives the call and forwards it to Gizmo5. The Gizmo5 application on my laptop lets me know an inbound call has arrived. Gizmo5 recognizes Bluetooth, so I can use my Bluetooth headset for these calls.
In reality this doesn’t work well at all. Gizmo5 randomly disconnects, and if it does, your call goes to Google Voice, voicemail without any notification. Setting the Bluetooth volume is difficult, so hearing the calls can be problematic. And finally the stability of Gizmo5 is poor even when you do connect on a call.
If you want to use your PC for phone calls Skype is the best option available, not Google Voice.
Tags: bluetooth, cell phone, mobile phone, Software
