Traveler 2.0

A Few Early Impressions of Google Voice

Google Voice, announced in March, is still not available to the general public. However, I've been using Google's free voice over IP/centralized messaging service for a few weeks, and I'm impressed.

A few early impressions:

* Audio quality has mostly been good. A few times, the person I was talking to said there was some crackle on the line, or that they couldn't hear what I'd just said. But the majority of the time, call quality has been much better than a cell phone but not quite as good as a landline.

* I love the ability to send and receive SMS messages for free from Google Voice. Yes, you can do this in Gmail already. But with Google Voice, the replies to your text messages come to your mobile phone as well as to your Google Voice inbox. With Gmail, the responses to my text messages only go to my Gmail account--which means I have to be at my computer to get them.

* Voicemail transcription accuracy is better than I expected, though not as accurate as Vonage's voicemail transcription service. However, Google Voice transcriptions are free; Vonage charges a nominal amount per transcription.

Google Voice isn't going to replace any of my phone services, at least not yet. You can't currently port an existing phone number to a Google Voice account, for one thing. And unlike Skype or a softphone application, you must have a landline, mobile phone service, or other existing phone line in order to use Google Voice. (To place a call for you, Google Voice must call you on a phone. Once you answer, Google Voice connects you to the number you've dialed.)

When will Google Voice be available? It could be tomorrow, or it could be two months from yesterday. Google is being vague. Stay tuned.

Amazon Kindle DX: A Burden to Behold, Apparently

The initial reviews of Amazon's new, larger-screen, bigger-bodied Kindle DX e-book reader are in. Both the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times reviewers, among others, have said the larger format device is not comfortable to hold.

The Journal: "While it performs its promised tasks adequately, I found that its size and weight made it awkward and tiring to hold for long periods of reading. It's still fairly thin and light, but it's 85% larger and heavier than the standard Kindle."

The Times: "...after toting around the Kindle DX, it suddenly feels as if I am carrying a computer. Furthermore, its larger size means the DX is, while no heavyweight, still heavier than I think I’d want it to be. (One indication: eventual palm fatigue when holding the DX in one hand, as I would when riding the subway.)"

That's a relief.

Having bought the Kindle 2 in February, I was irked when Amazon announced the Kindle DX just three months later. I was preparing myself to experience buyer's remorse. But if the Kindle DX is cumbersome to carry, that defeats one of the primary reasons of owning an e-book reader in the first place. So I'm not interested, thank you.

I suppose if you had the money, you could have a Kindle DX at home and prop it up on a document stand, keep your Kindle 2 in your bag, and keep them wirelessly synced. That way you could pick up reading a particular book on the Kindle DX where you left off on your Kindle 2, or vice versa. Maybe when the economy rebounds...

Samsung N120 Netbook Shows Stamina at Twitter Conference

Last Sunday, I attended TWTRCON SF 09 in San Francisco, the first conference focused on Twitter. It was a long day. But I'm happy to report the Samsung N120 netbook I took lasted longer than I did.

Though power plugs were available to attendees in the Hotel Nikko conference room, I decided to push the netbook's battery as long as possible. Despite having Wi-Fi wireless networking on, the screen's brightness jacked all the way up, and frequent hard drive saves, the N120's 6-cell battery went for about 5 hours before I received a warning that only 10% of the battery's juice was left. Add that to what's probably the best netbook keyboard yet, and we have a winner, ladies and gentlemen.

My next stress test will be to play a video downloaded from iTunes. Video is a weak spot for many, but not all, netbooks. So far, the netbook that's performed the best in my video tests is the Asus Eee PC 1000HE.

As for the Twitter conference? Lots of interesting stuff. But I can't get the words of one analyst out of my mind: "Three years from now," he said during an on-stage panel discussion, "we'll laugh at ourselves for attending a Twitter conference."