Callwave

<1 min read

Callwave is a free Visual Voicemail service.

In a nutshell, it's a replacement for your mobile voicemail which automatically sends a copy of all voicemail messages to an email account of your choice.

Additionally, your phone will receive SMS notifications whenever a message is received, including caller ID info (name & number), message length and caller location.

Their's also a desktop PC software and a few widgets. The desktop software allows you to do some pretty nifty things, such as taking a call while a caller is leaving a message, etc.

As any regular voicemail system there are three options for greetings: standard, spoken name and custom. All of the greetings mention that you are using Callwave, which is fine; after all the service is free. Although I think some people might be under the impression that you refused their call when they hear the "Callwave" name.

If someone calls from another cellphone they'll also be given the opportunity to receive a receipt notification (SMS) upon leaving a message.

On the minus side, you'll lose the voicemail waiting notification icon on your phone, and incur additional airtime (and SMS) charges since Callwave uses call forwarding.

The desktop software windows cannot be moved to any other screen but the main screen, which a bit annoying, but not uncommon. It's pretty amazing the number of software that simply won't deal with multiple monitors.

I also wish the standard greeting would include the phone number called, like Cingular does.

The Pulse

1 min read

Erik's Pulse has been published.

NVIDIA Essential Vista

<1 min read

NVIDIA is providing a nifty little web-based tool to determine if your PC can run Vista:

I think I like it better than Microsoft's Vista Upgrade Advisor.

Jawbone

<1 min read

I bought a Jawbone Bluetooth Headset at a Cingular store last Friday. Probably the worst designed headset I've ever owned. It's bulky and hard to slip over the ear, although fairly light. It also uses a non-standard charging connector. Yet, it is the best sounding (on both sides) headset I have ever tried. Go figure.

DZone Jobs

1 min read

Rick and the gang just launched DZone Jobs.

Here's a snippet of the announcement:

Recently I read that almost 60% of IT workers are looking for new jobs, and that four out of five of those looking for new jobs say their job search is "somewhat" or "very" active. If true, then I hope these statistics bode well for our newest site. Today, I am pleased to introduce DZone Jobs, a new job site dedicated to helping real developers connect with great job opportunities. DZone Jobs is certainly not the first niche job site, nor do we expect it will be the biggest. Still, we feel it will provide value to DZone's uniquely developer-focused audience. Developers like you visit our sites over a million times a month, and DZone Network sites appeal more to sophisticated, dedicated developers than to beginners and dabblers. We hope the unique composition of our communities will allow DZone Jobs to become a place where genuine, hard-core developers look for their next gigs. You may want to add the RSS feed to your newsreader, so you can keep an eye on where the interesting opportunities are.

Interestingly enough it was build using Ruby on Rails:

We built DZone Jobs with Ruby on Rails, which was an interesting experience. The popular Ruby framework certainly has a lot going for it, but I wouldn't describe it as a "silver bullet" that magically cures all developer headaches. Maybe one of the high-profile Ruby mavens could have written the whole DZone Jobs application in just 20 lines of Ruby, but I'm almost sure it took us more than 100 lines (cough, cough… way more than 100 lines!) I'll try to get Matt to write a serious article or give a presentation on what it was like to build a site quickly with RoR, and I'm sure Mike will want an opportunity to editorialize a bit, too! (Hint: Mike was not exactly the bluebird of happiness while working on this one.)

The Pulse

1 min read

Erik's Pulse has been published.

Free 3D Golf Game

<1 min read

In exchange for signing up for a newsletter (or not), Microsoft is making OmmiG Software's 3D Golf Game for Windows Mobile available for free: