Got Wills

Well, I just signed up for pownce today (I forgot my usb drive and have little to do in class because of it). The service looks good, but there are still a lot of missing features. For instance, while they do let you choose your theme, you have like 4 to choose from, and it’s not customizable beyond that. Also, there is still no way to send a message via text or email (just as effective as text, of course). I like that you are able to link to your social networks from the page, but right now it really lacks anything noteworthy. Sure, they have a multi-platform Adobe AIR desktop client, so what, if I’m sitting at my desktop, I’ve usually got a browser open anyway.

Another real downer is that there are going to be ads mixed in with the messages. IMHO, this is always a bad idea (mixing the ads with the content). The ads should have their place on the page and stay there. I hate it when I’m trying to view a page and accidentally click an ad, when I’m trying to view content (although, it can’t be as bad as the mouseover popups in some blogs and forums).

I was really excited about this beta at first, but, as most things, it’s not all I thought it was cracked up to be. There is some chance it can develop into a great service, but I don’t see it gaining much traction.

Well, I got an invite to GrandCentral a few weeks ago and finally found time to set it up. There were no Holbrook phone numbers available. In fact, as far as I can tell, there were no numbers in the local Frontier calling area (Show Low, Snowflake, Heber, Pinetop, Lakeside, etc…). So I went with a Winslow number. The features on this service sound really great, so far (would have been better if I’d have found a Holbrook number). I can get any calls sent to any of my phones that I choose. I can even have them sent to a hotel phone if I choose. Also, I can listen to my voicemail online and choose to have all calls go to voicemail.

If you use the link on the right hand side of my blog, you can call me for free. It will call your phone, then mine. No charge for the connection at all. You can use it to record calls (both parties are notified when you turn the feature on) and you can use it to keep a call log. All in all, it sounds like a great tool. Maybe I’ll even start giving out this phone number to my students, since it’ll be easier to check the messages. Then I can have it go to my office phone only when I’m in the office.

You can also send emails to my phone number at grandcentral.com and they will come to me. Of course, I will not be giving out my number on this blog, but if you would like to know my number and have a good reason to know it, please use the button to leave me a voicemail.

I don’t know how this will work in the RSS, but here’s a call link in the post.