Google Voice

Let me preface this by stating that I understand someone has to pay for wireless carriers to put up the infrastructure.

That being said, i've discovered a way to make free phone calls on a cell phone. There are caveats, but you could theoretically do quite a lot of stuff with the correct apps. Let me be clear, as far as I know there is no app in the app store for this, nor will there probably ever be (if the wireless providers have anything to say about it).

First, there is this magical program called Google Voice. Its super cool, and has all kinds of amazing features that only google could pull off (transcribes voicemail, ability to switch phones seamlessly without dropping a call, oh, and did I mention FREE VOIP and SMS to any phone in the US? and you get your own number that gets forwarded to any other number you want). The possibilities are endless. Scared the government is tracking your calls? Have someone call your Google Voice number, and forward that to your Skype account, which you can pick up the call on your ebay'ed prepaid blackberry and THAT my friends, is phone security. I'm sure many already are.

But... if there were an APP that would allow you to access the website and use the JAVA (or AJAX or whatever they use) like you were using a laptop... but do it on a cell phone that supports wifi, well, my friends... NOW you have yourself some power. If you could do it with an iPod touch, you'd have an iPhone in a box wherever you could get wifi.

But fine you say... whats the real application? People get cell phones to walk around! Fine. Get US Cellular (free incoming calls) or T-Mobile (which has an android phone... just begging for this app to get written). You can make free calls from the google website... so just go online and call. It will FORWARD the call to your phone and the calleee. Thats an incoming call, and you get free incoming calls. So you can get the lowest phone plan. If you can find a pre-paid plan with free incoming calls you're truly golden as long as you can find the wifi.

My vision for the future is that there will soon be a phone that ONLY has a data/3G plan but a prepaid phone plan. So if you are at home with a wifi spot its free. If you are on the road, you got the 3G to call your phone if you get free incoming calls.

Anyways, this gets interesting especially with international plans, because many incoming calls are free on international plans. Does that mean I can call from my computer, connect, then close my computer and talk for free on my phone in egypt to anyone in the US? IDK, but these are interesting possibilities that are being raised. I think you'll need a blackboard to figure it all out.

Thanks, and good luck,

Guthrie