Google Voice, another step in Google's secret plan to take over the world, promises to combine all of your phone numbers into one, bringing together standard sms and phone services with cool features like voicemail transcription, visual voicemail-esque messaging system, and listen in, which allows users to screen calls before answering.
And oh, did I mention its completely free? I didn't?
So if you're a wireless carrier like AT&T, who gets away with charging ridiculous fees for text messaging and long distance, you may, in fact, be shitting your pants. And somehow, through the endless chain of exclusivity agreements and corporate partnerships, this communal pants-shitting continues with the traditionally-cool cats at Cupertino.
Last week, Google was denied an application to bring their Google Voice services to the Apple iPhone. Additionally, all third party google voice apps such as Sean Kovac's GV Mobile received the ax, leaving the blogosphere in a state of WTF. Apple's only response? The application was pulled for "duplicating features that the iPhone comes with." Malarkey.
Thankfully, Uncle Sam has stepped in, announcing Friday that they have sent letters to Apple asking the company to rationalize its recent actions. This comes as part of a larger ongoing investigation of the fairness of access to exclusive phones for rural customers.
It's definitely interesting to see this first big clash between Apple with its iPhone and Google with its Android-based devices and other services. During the Microsoft-era of the tech industry, these two succesfully carved their own comfortable little niches as innovators in their own right. However, it seems that Apple and Google, who have become the biggest players in the future of mobile computing, are bound to collide in what will no doubt be the biggest and nerdiest corporate war ever. Lucky for us consumers, company wars are a good thing.
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