Naked Emperor News dug up some old footage of President Obama talking about using Medicare as the way to move to a single payer system. Notice, he sai.
Read More... [Source: Conservative - Google Blog Search]
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Our American Flag by The American Illuminati.
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Our Capitol by The American Illuminati.
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Our First Flag by The American Illuminati.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
The Pitch
It doesn't really help to describe Google Voice in terms of what it is—a bizarrely fragmented hodgepodge of different telecom and internet technologies, drawn together by Google—so you just have to start with what it does. In short, it can completely change how you use your phones, more or less for free.
⬢ It can give all of your phones the same number for incoming calls. Google will assigned you a new, Google Voice-specific phone number for free, which you can forward to as many phones as you want. What always drives the point of Google Voice home for people is when I have them call my number, which causes three of my phones to ring at once. You can keep this number forever, too, without ever having to worry about porting it from carrier to carrier.
⬢ It can give your phones the same outgoing number as well, with which you can make free domestic calls (well, sort of—more on that later), and very cheap international calls. Since Google Voice routes your calls through their phone system, they can connect you directly to cheap VoIP services to the rest of the world. It seems like you're just making a regular call, but behind the scenes you're doing something more akin to Skyping. End result: money saved.
⬢ You can send and receive unlimited text messages for free. To make things even better, they're all all archived in your online Google Voice account, where they're fully searchable.
⬢ It's got the best voicemail system in the world. Leaving a message at a Google Voice number is nothing like leaving your voice on a regular voicemail service—that is to say, it's not like sending your voice into a barely accessible technological horror pit where it might get listened to, but will probably be ignored. No, Google Voice is different: It stores your messages online, and converts them to text (which can then be sent to you as an SMS or an email). You can archive, forward, delete or save these messages from a simple interface on your phone or computer. Think of it as Gmail, except with voices. Plus, it's flexible in lots of little ways—you can change your voicemail greetings on a per caller basis, for example, or opt to listen to voicemails as they're being recorded.
⬢ This voicemail system isn't just for Google Voice numbers, either—you essentially replace your carrier voicemail with Google Voice voicemail, without using a new number. It's brilliant.
⬢ You have full control over your calls. You can record them for later listening, and have them transcribed into text.
⬢ You can screen callers. You can block numbers, or have callers record their names for your approval. You can have certain contacts only forwarded to certain phones,
Each of these features is compelling enough on its own—together, they'll totally change how you use your phones, changing you from a mere mobile customer to a full-on switchboard operator, self-spy, info hoarder and telco executive. It's like you run your own little phone company, just for yourself. For free. Spectacular.
The Catch(es)
Now that I've got you all riled, it's time for me to pour an icy bucket of water down the front of your pants. Google Voice, as incredible a concept and service as it is, isn't perfect. In fact, there are a few things you need to know and accept before taking the dive, and they might be dealbreakers:
⬢ You can't use your own phone number. At least, not in the way you wish you could. In an ideal world, you'd be able to port your old cellphone number to Google Voice, and have that—the digits people have been using to get in touch with you for years—be your new all-inclusive point of contact. You can't do this yet. For now, the closest you can come is to port your voicemail to Google Voice. That means that your T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon or Sprint number's voicemail can be outsourced to Google, but not its calls. You can unify all your phones under your new Google Voice number, but that means you have to switch. Along with the basic inconvenience of telling everyone about your new number, you're trusting an awful lot in a beta service, the terms of which could change quickly and without notice. It's not something I worry about, but it's not nothing, either.
⬢ You can't record calls that you've placed, just calls that you've received. And every time you initiate recording, Google Voice notifies the other person on the line. This is all makes perfect moral and procedural sense, but just in case you had the impression that there were no limits on your recording abilities, well, there are.
⬢ The mobile app situation isn't ideal. There are apps for Android, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and iPhone via jailbreak, and they all work. That said, they're not perfect—they can be slow, poorly integrated, glitchy, or hard to figure out. And since they're supposed to replace the dialer on your phone entirely, this isn't wonderful. The online mobile interface is a good fallback for placing calls and sending texts, but navigating to that adds an extra step to any call or text that can get tiresome after a while.
⬢ Lastly, the way American phones work, you're still going to end up paying for your minutes, somehow. Just because Google Voice says you can make free domestic calls and cheap international calls doesn't mean that you actually can: in both cases, you need to dial out to Google Voice's external system in the first place, which means you're still using your monthly minute allotment. There are ways around this which I'll discuss later, but Google Voice, as good as it is, isn't magic.
Discouraged? Don't be. Google Voice is still well worth you time and effort, and it's only going to get better. Now, for God's sake let's get started already.
The Process
Signing up. This is simultaneously the easiest and most irritating part of Google Voice: It's still invite only. Lucky for you, "Invite" in this case doesn't mean you actually have to wait for an individual to select you from the masses; it's just Google's way of saying their keeping the signup pace down at manageable levels while the service is still in beta. Just submit your address, after which Google "anticipate[s] that it will be a short wait before you receive your invitation."
What's a short wait? My invite took about four days. Some come within 48 hours. At worst, they take about two weeks. Lots of you will have already received your invite, and just not done a whole lot with it—you guys can keep reading—while the rest of you should just bookmark this post, and come back to it once you get your invite. Protip: check your spam filters.
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Ok, hello again, people I was talking to anywhere between two seconds and two weeks ago! How are you? Now that you've got your invite, you can log in to your Google Voice Dashboard. It'll look familiar if you've used any Google Service before:
Logging in. Follow your confirmation link, or navigate here. Click around for a while to get a feel for the interface. This is how you'll manage your phones from now on. It's liberatingly simple.
Adding your phones. This is assuming you want to forward a single number to all your phones, which is kind of the point here, so: Go to the Google Voice settings page (up in the upper right-hand corner of the screen. In the first section, called "Phones," click "Add a Phone" or "Add Another Phone." Give it a name "My iPhone" and enter its phone number. That's it.
Setting up your voicemail. Now that the phone is added, it can accept calls directed to your Google Voice number. If the call is ignored, it will forward the voicemail to Google Voice, where it will be stored online. Alternately, if you only want to use Google Voice for voicemail, you can disable the calling feature (by unchecking the box next to the phone), and set up the service to hijack your actual cellphone number's voicemails—even when the call didn't get routed through Google Voice.
Your voicemail has been switched—all you need to do now is set up a quick bookmark in your mobile phone to Google Voice, which provides a functional, if sparse, interface for your Google Voice messages. It's like visual voicemail, except through your browser. (Or a mobile app, which I'll get to soon.)
Choosing the rest of your settings. Now you'll see your phone listed under the "Phones" settings tab. The other tabs contain a few pages of settings for your Google Voice account. How you toggle these is up to you, but here are the most important ones: If you want to forward SMSes to email, you'll have to enable that in the "Voicemail and SMS" tab; call screening settings are located under the "Calls" tab; and international call credit can be added under the "Billing" tab, from a credit card.
Finding your feet. Take some time to experiment with some of Google Voice's core features now. Place a call using the button at the top left of the Google Voice homepage. Enter your recipient's number, and choose which of your phones you'd like to place the call with. Google Voice will call your phone first, which upon answering will immediately call your recipient's phone, which will think it's getting a call from your new Google Voice number. It might sound odd in writing, but once you see it work, it just kind of clicks. You can also place these calls from the mobile web interface, without a computer. Texting is more direct—you can send those directly from the web interface without any intervention from your phone.
⬢ Apps: This is by far the best way to use Google Voice. Android has an official Google Voice app, as does BlackBerry.These automate the dialing/texting out process, so you don't need to mess with a web interface—you just opt to make some or all of your calls through Google Voice, and the app takes care of the rest. Windows Mobile has unofficial clients that do the job pretty well, as does the Pre, in the App Catalog. iPhone clients are available, but they're not approved by Apple: You'll need to jailbreak your phone and install them from Cydia.
⬢ The call-in method: Simply dial your new Google Voice number from your cellphone or landline, press 2 once it's connected, then enter the number you want to dial. This is less convenient than the web interface method, even, but it's vital to the next one:
⬢ The contact method: This is a little cheat to automate the aforementioned process. What you're doing, basically, is saving your Google Voice number, a pause, the number 2 (which selects "call another phone" from the Google Voice automated menu tree), a pause, then your recipient's number.
Adding a pause is different on each phone—on the iPhone, for example, you need to save a number as a contact, and in the number editing screen, press the "+*#" button at the bottom left of the keypad. The zero will be replaced with a "pause" button, which when pressed inserts a comma into the number. Google is your friend for this one, though most smartphones make the option available in their respective contact editing screens.
⬢ The 406 method: Have the person you want to text send a message to your Google Voice account. When you receive the message, it will be from a number you don't recognize, with the area code 406. It will be labeled with the sending contact's name, and any replies to that number will return to the person who sent them, but the number is completely new. This is a Google Voice alias, which you can use forever: Just save it as part of your friend's contacts—perhaps as a secondary cellphone or a work number, whatever you can remember—and use it as their primary contact number when call through GV.
The Hacks
As you've probably noticed, Google Voice is kind of a loose system—and a system that's ripe for a little gaming. There are two methods that currently work for getting truly unlimited, free calls over Google Voice. This is where things get really interesting. Interesting in a good way for you; interesting in a terrifying way for the phone companies.
⬢ The Calling Circle Method: You know how some carriers let you designate a few contacts that don't count toward your monthly allotment of minutes, like T-Mobile MyFaves, or the AT&T A-List? By making your Google Voice number one of your friends, you can filter all your calls through Google, whether they be free domestic calls or cheap international calls. Once your Google number is added to your circle, making free calls is simply a matter of dialing into your Google Voice number and, using Google's audio menu system, dialing through to your recipient. (The contact method listed above will work too.)
To make incoming calls—including outgoing calls initiated from the Google Voice web interface—free, you'll need to change your Google Voice settings under the "Calls" tab. Select "Display my Google Voice Number" under the "Caller ID (in)" setting, and you're good to go. A full setup guide for the calling circle method can be found here.
Note: Designating Google Voice as one of your preferred contacts may be against your carrier's user policies—check with them if you're concerned.
⬢ The VoIP method: By signing up for a number with free VoIP service Gizmo5 and adding to to your Google Voice account as a phone, you can place unlimited free calls from your VoIP number to landlines. You can also forward the calls through to Skype, if you'd prefer. This isn't a solution for mobile phones, but it's a great way to make yourself an effectively unlimited VoIP landline for free. Lifehacker's got the whole rundown here. UPDATE: Registrations for Gizmo5 have been closed. Sorry!
Easing the Transition
Lifehacker has assembled a fantastic guide for easing the transition from many numbers to one, covering everything from how to convince people not to call your old numbers, to coping with voice latency.
That's pretty much it! If you have any tips to tricks for getting the most out fo Google Voice, please drop some links in the comments-your feedback is hugely important to our Saturday How To guides.
And if you have any topics you'd like to see covered here, please let me know. Happy Voicing, folks!
Read More... [Source: Gizmodo: top]
A residential development that was part of the same company that owns Sea Island Resorts off southeastern Georgia's Atlantic coast, has been taken over by a subsidiary of Wells Fargo & Co.
Wachovia Bank (now part of Wells Fargo) took over the deed from the Sea Island Company for the Frederica development, a 3,000 acre residential community with home sites ranging from two to five acres, in mid-November. The loan for the property had been made by Wachovia, which merged with Wells Fargo in December, 2008. The transfer of the deed was a private transaction and not a foreclosure. The other assets owned by the Sea Island Co. are not impacted by the transaction.
"As the lender to the Frederica development, Wells Fargo has been working closely with the Sea Island Company to explore options for the property that would serve the needs of both parties and the community," says Wells Fargo spokesperson, Elise Wilkinson. "As a result, Sea Island has transferred ownership of Frederica, including the club property, to affiliates of Wachovia Bank, a Wells Fargo Company."
"We don't anticipate any changes in the short term," adds Wilkinson. "Ultimately, Wells Fargo will seek to sell the property to a new owner that is equipped to recognize the long-term potential of Frederica."
During the transition, the Sea Island Co. will continue to provide professional on-site management. "Wells Fargo will ensure the Frederica property is operated in a professional manner," says Wilkinson. "This is something that is very important to us." Wilkinson added that she doesn't anticipate any changes in the short term that would impact members or homeowners at Frederica.
The Frederica development is located on St. Simons Island and includes a Tom Fazio-designed golf course, deep water river frontage, a 400-acre fresh water lake, salt marsh and wooded views.Property sites currently on the market include a two acre undeveloped home site with expansive lake views for $1.7 million. A 5,600 square feet home (still under construction) on 2.4 acres with 5 bedrooms and 6 bathrooms is currently on the market for just under $5 million.
The Frederica development is a few miles from the world-renowned Cloisters resort, also owned by the Sea Island Co. The Cloister was the site selected by President George Bush to host the G-8 Summit of world leaders in 2004. Sea Island Resorts stretches along five miles of private beach and has served as an unrivaled Georgia luxury resort destination since 1928.
Sea Island Resorts consistently ranks high on lists of best spas, resorts and golf destinations published by such leading publications as Golf Digest, Golf Magazine, Travel + Leisure, Conde Nast Traveler and Mobil Five-Star. In addition to the Cloister at Sea Island, the development includes the Lodge at Sea Island Golf Club and the Sea Island Golf Club which has two 18-hole championship golf courses.
The Sea Island Co. has been owned by the Jones family since its inception in 1928. Alfred W. "Bill" Jones, III currently serves as its chief executive officer and chairman of the board. Jones is the fourth generation of his family to lead the company.
Merry Tipton, spokesperson for Sea Island Co., had no comment.
The Frederica development is the latest victim to troubled economic times. Earlier this month, Amelia Island Plantation, the 1,350-acre luxury enclave overlooking the Atlantic Ocean in northeast Florida filed a voluntary petition for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Filed under: Real Estate Developments
Wells Fargo takes over Sea Island Residential Development originally appeared on Luxist on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Read More... [Source: Luxist]
Want to turn your iPhone into a real GPS Swiss knife, with turn-by-turn navigation, tracking and all, but you just don’t like the prices for the best GPS applications out there?
Well, you’re in luck, as TomTom has reduced the price of the U.S. version of their iPhone application by half, to $49.99. This is a limited offer that lasts only until December 28th, so if you like the new price, you can get it here.
Furthermore, one of the best GPS tracking applications out there, MotionX GPS 9.0, has also been available at a reduced price of $2.99 throughout December, and the offer’s still there.
So there you have it, two of the best GPS iPhone apps for approx. half the regular price of TomTom, which was $100 before the price cut. GPS-related applications are traditionally among the most expensive apps in the App Store, which is what makes these deals super sweet.
Read More... [Source: Mashable!]
In addition to a co-op campaign (set in rural Georgia) and a new "co-operative challenge mode of play," The Passing will offer new content for Survival, Versus and Scavenge modes. Playing as the L4D2 cast, you can also expect to encounter a new melee weapon, firearm and "uncommon common" zombie.
We can't wait to meet up with last year's survivors again ... oh, assuming they really are still survivors.
Read More... [Source: Joystiq [Xbox]]
Update: As friendly tipster M. Schmidler points out, since the time of writing the source has corrected the resolution to be HVGA instead of the previously thought WVGA. Frowny face.
HTC Legend still looking good -- as a render, anyway originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 13 Dec 2009 14:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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There are few automobiles we could truly consider works of art. And most of them are expensive. Bentley surely ranks among them, but the British luxury automaker has taken things one step further.
In a new project, Bentley invited its designers to create works of art inspired by their work. No fewer than 22 participated, working in every medium from photography and painting to sculpture. The results are truly intriguing, and will be auctioned off on December 1 in a charity auction held by Bonhams to benefit cancer research at Manchester's The Christie Hospital. The event is by invitation only, but you can view the pieces in the gallery below.
Filed under: Wheels, Auctions, Art, Charity
Bentley Art Project Benefits Cancer Research originally appeared on Luxist on Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Read More... [Source: Luxist]