On 3/29/2011 12:37 PM, ken wrote: > > On 03/29/2011 01:21 PM Stephen Harris wrote: >> On Tue, Mar 29, 2011 at 12:08:33PM -0500, Les Mikesell wrote: >>> GV has been around for years - but previously you had to get an invite >>> from an existing user or go on a waiting list. Now you can just sign up >>> and get a free number which you can send where you want with/without >>> screening and when it acts as an answering machine it transcribes the >>> message and emails it to you. Recent additions are that you can make >>> (and I think answer) calls from your computer while signed in to your >>> gmail account and if you have Sprint Cell service you can use that >> >> With the right software and hardware (asterisk and an ATA) you can even >> use the conjunction of google voice and google chat to act as a "real" >> phone line. Indeed I just wrote up a process :-) >> http://sweh.spuddy.org/gvoice/ >> >> But I think that's getting a little off-topic :-) > > OT OK. So how does this conglomeration work? Say I have an OpenMoko > phone (openmoko.org) and connect to google voice on the web... can I > talk like a human on a landline? What phone number do the other humans > get... to call me? You probably need to understand bare GV first: they give you a new number (with the Sprint service exception or they can port other existing cell numbers which ends the contract with a likely termination fee), and a web page where you control what happens when people call it, which is generally forwarding to some other number(s) where you might answer. But it can also forward to a computer running google chat where you have the voice module installed, using the speaker/mic, a headset, or perhaps a bluetooth headset. > ATA means > https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/AT_Attachment or > https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Analog_telephone_adapter > or something else? The latter. If I followed the scenario correctly, the asterisk server (which acts as a PBX) logs into the google chat session pretending to be you at your browser, and when a voice call comes to the chat session it forwards it to a sip/voip phone. If you don't have a sip phone, the ATA adapter lets you use an analog phone instead. These would generally be land-line phones, although you can probably do sip over wifi. For cell phones, there are google voice apps that make outgoing calls show the GV number on the caller ID but I think they still use the cell plan voice minutes. -- Les Mikesell lesmikesell at gmail.com