Some of my more astute readers may have noticed the little box to the left that appeared not too long ago. It’s the one that says “Call Me,” and it’s all powered by Google Voice. All you have to do is enter your phone number and the robots at Google will call you and me simultaneously, allowing us to connect and discuss your technology needs. I know, it’s amazing, and it doesn’t end there.

Google Voice is a free service that allows you to manage your contacts and phone calls in a way you never could before. It’s invite-only at this point, but you can get your invite here and they’ve been rolling it out slowly to those that have requested invites. I got mine a couple weeks ago.

On to the features.

The short video above provides a great overview and you can find more information on Google’s own about page. Basically, Google gives you one phone number to rule all your other phone numbers. For example, if you call my Google number (or click the box to the left) and you happen to be my wife, both my cell phone and my home phone will ring so I can be sure to hear it. If I don’t answer, she’s greeted by a special voicemail greeting that no one else can hear. If you’re a member of my family and I don’t answer, you get another greeting. If I haven’t entered your number in my Google Contacts, just my cell phone will ring, and if I don’t answer, you’ll get the standard greeting.

You can also set it to go straight to voicemail when you receive a call from specified numbers (very helpful for telemarketers) and you can record any call in progress (helpful for telemarketers and customer support calls). Any voicemail or recording is automatically stored in your Google Voice Inbox, where you can play it or read Google’s attempted transcription of the recording (still a work in progress as you can see in the screenshot). I have it set to text message me whenever I miss a call or receive a voicemail, so I can read the voicemail transcription without even calling. It makes a great business phone for any freelancer.

You can also send text messages and start your calls right from the Inbox. Other nice Inbox features are voicemail emailing, recorded call emailing, and text message emailing. You can send pretty much anything recorded to anyone you want. It’s all integrated seamlessly with Google’s other services.

All-in-all, it’s a great service that will only get better. There are rumors of Google porting their service through your existing numbers in the future, which would negate the hassle of telling everyone in your address book about the new number. Until then, Lifehacker has a great post on how to ease your transition to Google Voice.

It’s a cinch to set up. You just choose an area code, then either pick from a list of available numbers or try to make up your own (none of my word combinations were available in my area code). You then give it an existing phone number to work with, it calls to verify, and you’re good to go!

So go ahead, sign up for an invite and let me know what you think. And as always, feel free to ask me any questions, or call me using the fancy new box to the left! Oh, and don’t forget to become a fan on the Facebook page. I’ll be sharing links and other gems over there.

You may remember one of my earliest posts on this site, “How to Survive the DTV Switch,” but when I wrote that post, I had no idea that the DTV switch could actually be a matter of survival for some people. I was reading through my blogs the other day, when I came across this article: “Digital TV Saved a Man’s Life.” From the original article:

As of 11:15 p.m. Saturday, 69,003 Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division customers were without power. On Friday, soon after the storm blew through, more than 131,000 customers were without power.

The damages caused by the storm are easy to see at the Midtown home of 86-year-old Robert Monsarrat. [...] Monsarrat hasn’t received his digital converter box yet, so instead of watching “The Oprah Winfrey Show” from his bedroom like usual, he went into the kitchen to use his only digital television.

Soon after, lightning struck a large red oak in his backyard, causing it to come crashing down on his house at Hawthorne and Peach near Overton Park. [...] The tree destroyed the back of the house, including his bedroom. [...] Other than a few bruises, minor cuts and a gash on his head, Monsarrat was not seriously injured.

So there you have it. By the transitive property of equality, this blog can save your life. I wrote about switching to digital television, and digital television saved that man’s life, therefore my article saved that man’s life!

Okay, maybe not, but I do hope that everyone else out there made it through the transition without any problems. I may have to upgrade our antenna because after the switch, our local digital signals don’t seem to be coming in as strong as they used to be. How about you? Did you survive the switch?

Oh, and don’t forget to become a fan on Facebook! I’ll be trying to post more content such as links and shorter tips over there so it becomes a little more valuable to follow. Plus, if I get 100 or more fans, I can get a nifty new vanity url!

- Source: CommercialAppeal.com via Warming Glow

We recently discussed how to sync your iTunes Library between two different computers, but what happens when your computer crashes without a backup and you lose all your precious music? Is there an easy way to get the music off your iPod and back onto your computer? Luckily, thanks to a few great programs, the answer is yes.

There are many of these iPod-ripping programs these days, but I will stick to the two that I have used the most, Senuti for the Mac, and YamiPod for the PC and the Mac. As a disclaimer, I have received no compensation whatsoever for recommending either of these products.

Senuti

Senuti is my all-time favorite iPod-ripping program. Unfortunately, it’s strictly for Mac. It’s simple and easy to use, but packed with plenty of features. The interface looks just like iTunes and works every bit as well. It will even tell you which songs on an iPod are already in your library. You can choose to automatically add any songs transferred to your library, or to add them to a playlist, which is great for importing playlists. You just select the desired playlist on your iPod, set the transfer to playlist in the preferences, and it will automatically transfer the songs both to your library and to the playlist of your choosing. Unfortunately, Senuti is no longer freeware, but it is free to try for 30 days. It’s so easy to use though, and so packed with features, that it’s well worth the $18 registration cost. Be sure to check out their preview videos that walk you through some of the basic features. I found them very helpful.

YamiPod

YamiPod is my go to iPod-ripping program for PC. It used to be PC only, but they have recently added support for both Mac and Linux. Best of all, it’s completely free. They have added a lot of features since I first started using it like Playlist support, duplicate track removal, and more. It’s a bit more complicated then Senuti, but still straightforward enough for beginners to figure out. You basically select the songs you want to import and click the button. As an added bonus, it always reminds me of my friend Nathan Yamashita, who has a brother they call Yami.

The most important step to using any iPod-ripping program is verification. After taking music off any iPod, you want to make sure it ended up in the right place and that all your music is in your iTunes library. If you have lost your music to a hard drive crash or something similar, you’ll be warned that your iPod will be erased when you try to sync. After verification, you are free to restore your iPod and ignore any warinings that your iPod will be erased. As long as the same music that was on your iPod is now in your library again, you have nothing to worry about.

So there you go. Those are my favorite iPod-ripping programs. Feel free to leave any of your favorites in the comments below. As always, any questions are very welcome and I will do my best to answer them promptly!