Google Voice - Incoming Calls

When I'm in Canada I turn off my cellular service to avoid crazy large charges and rely on Google Voice.  Of course that's only good when I'm connected to WiFi, but that's about 98% of the time. Placing calls is a no-brainer, but receiving calls requires enabling a feature in Account Settings in the Google Hangouts app, as shown below.

https://support.google.com/hangouts/answer/6079064

Flyboard Air

This is just too cool.  A flying hoverboard I thought only existed in Spiderman movies.  The Flyboard Air can go for 10 minutes with a top speed of 93 mph.  The video will make you drool.

http://zapata-racing.com/flyboardair-en/

Gas/Charcoal Hybrid Grill

The latest in a long line of outdoor grill purchases is this gas/charcoal hybrid.  To use charcoal you place a tray under the grates, load it up and (listen for the cheers), light the gas, which ignites the charcoal. That's right, no lighter fluid needed.  I'll miss the explosions.

Gas for the weekday, after-work burgers and charcoal for the weekend steaks and parties. Bring on summer!

http://www.charbroil.com/gas2coal-hybrid-grill

Noisy Tabs

One, of many, Chrome web browser features I absolutely love is the speaker icon that is displayed when that tab is playing audio (circled below).  A major help when having lots of tabs open and one of them is blasting away. Right-click the tab and you can mute that tab.  Just the best!

https://chrome.googleblog.com/2014/01/everyone-can-now-track-down-noisy-tabs.html

Enable Talk

It's ideas like this that make me proud to have a career in computing.  For people who use sign language, the sensors in the gloves transmit their data to a bluetooth-enabled smartphone which turns that into speech.  Not bad for four Ukrainian computer science students!

http://enabletalk.com/

Mikesells

Mikesells is a local Dayton, Ohio potato chip company founded in 1910.  In keeping with the e-commerce drum beat, you can order chips online and even build your own case.  So don't keep jonesing for your favorite if it's not available in your area.

http://www.mikesells.com/

Paulishing

I've moved this blog from the generic blogspot.com domain to my own ... paulishing.com.

Paulishing is a term I made up at NewPage Corporation where part of what I did was review documents and presentations for spelling, grammar and clarity, basically polishing up documents.  So Paulishing is just a twist on polishing, and reflects my love of writing.

The old blogspot link will redirect to the new.  The direct link to the new name is:

http://dailyposts.paulishing.com/

Google Voice - Leaving Verizon Voicemail Behind

As promised yesterday, here's all you have to do to leave Verizon's voice mail service behind for the feature-rich land of Google Voice.  Easy peaches.

https://support.google.com/voice/answer/1065744

Google Voice - Voicemail

Verizon Wireless voicemail, unless you spring for pricy features, is pretty basic.  Most annoying is having only one greeting, so you have to re-record your usual greeting after recording a special one, for example, an "out-of-office" or "I'm on a tropical island with no cell service".  Google Voice allows you to record multiple messages, but even better is getting your voice mails transcribed to text and emailed.   All for free (I love free).  That $10.10 credit balance in the lower left corner?  Been exactly that for years.

Tomorrow I'll show you how easy it is to move your Verizon voice mail to Google.

https://www.google.com/voice

Taking Notes With Your Finger

I use Google Keep on my Android phone to takes notes while I'm out on hikes, which is prime thinking time. Using the on-screen keyboard usually means I have to stop walking first, but I just noticed the little pen (circled in red below) which allows me to scribble with my finger, which even I can do while walking.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.keep