T-Mobile outages post earthquake

In case you are just catching the news a 5.9 magnitude earthquake outside of Washington D.C. and up along the east coast is affecting T-Mobile service. The above tweet shows that T-Mobile is aware of the difficulty as are all major operators experiencing trouble and customers are advised to use SMS or e-mail in the meantime. Hope everyone is safe!

@tmobile

Disaster Recovery Tip #33

Spread the word.

Last week we discussed how social media can help companies communicate with the public and customers during disasters. This week we're focusing on the internal communication benefits that social media offers through the often overlooked resource of SMS messaging.

We know that cellular networks are often crippled during a disaster by increased traffic and sometimes even physical damage to the network infrastructure. Many times the only information able to sneak through overloaded systems are small packets of data like those in text messages.

Setting up a protected Twitter account for employees and instructing them on how receive mobile updates is one way to build a free text messaging resource. Whether it's about a delayed opening due to icy roads, or that your building has burned down (GULP), a Tweet can spread the word simply and efficiently.

Another alternative is Agility's own Alert Notification System (available to Member's free with every ReadySuite package). Agility's Alert Notification system can send both SMS and email alerts at the touch of the button.

Grand Central Evolution to Google Voice

We've just started to release a preview of Google Voice, an application that helps you better manage your voice communications. Google Voice will be available initially to existing users of GrandCentral, a service we acquired in July of 2007. The new application improves the way you use your phone. You can get transcripts of your voicemail (see the video below) and archive and search all of the SMS text messages you send and receive.

You can also use the service to make low-priced international calls and easily access Goog-411 directory assistance. As you may know, GrandCentral offers many great features, including a single number to ring your home, work, and mobile phones, a central voicemail inbox that you could access on the web, and the ability to screen calls by listening in live as callers leave a voicemail. You'll find these features, and more, in the Google Voice preview. Check out the features page for videos and more information on how these features work.

If you're already using GrandCentral, over the next couple days, you will receive instructions in your GrandCentral inbox on how to start using Google Voice. We'll be opening it up to others soon, so if you'd like to be notified when that happens, please send us your email address.

Watch Video Here

Send Free SMS via Gmail Accounts

Wednesday, December 10, 2008 4:32 PM

Posted by Leo Dirac, Product Manager

How often do you try to chat with somebody and they don't respond because they just walked away from their computer? Or maybe you're in the middle of chatting with them just as they need to leave. But you still need to tell them something -- something really important like you've moved where you're meeting...or ice cream! We need ice cream! This is why we built a way to chat with your friends even when they're away from their computers. Now you can keep the conversations going with a new Labs feature that lets you send SMS text messages right from Gmail. It combines the best parts of IM and texting: you chat from the comfort of your computer, and your friends can peck out replies on their little keyboards.

A few weeks back, we ran into a few snags when we first started rolling this out, but starting today you can turn on text messaging for chat. Just click on Settings, and go to the Labs tab. Scroll down until you see "Text Messaging (SMS) in Chat" and select Enable and Save Changes.

We're just trying it out for cell phones in the United States right now, but you can send texts to your friends with US phone numbers from anywhere in the world. You can start by just typing a phone number into the search box in the chat window on the left, then select "Send SMS." You can also select the contact you want to SMS first and then add their phone number.



Once you give us a name for that phone number, you'll be able to start chatting.



We'll save your friends' numbers in your Contacts, so next time you can just type their name in the chat box and select Send SMS.

On the receiving end, when you get a text message from Gmail on your phone, it will come from a number in the 406 area code. (The l33t folks in the crowd will note that this spells G0O.) You can reply to this text on your phone just like you'd reply to any other text. The reply gets routed back to our Gmail servers and shows up in your friend's Gmail chat window. Each of your friends' messages will come from a different 406 number so you can reply to any message and it will get back to the right person. Messages from the same person will always come from the same number, so you can even bookmark it in your phone.

If you get a message from somebody you don't want to chat with from your phone, just reply with the word BLOCK. If you don't want to get texts from anybody using Gmail, reply with the word STOP and we'll leave you alone. Keep in mind that all these text messages count as part of your regular mobile messaging plan and might incur fees. So unless you know your friends have unlimited text message plans, please be sensitive to their phone bills.

Cell Phones Can Do More Than You Think

The days of expensive bulky mobile phones are long gone. Reception signal and customization were some major problems with the early cell phones. The uniqueness of an original mobile phone for making and taking calls has been far surpassed by even today’s most simple mobile devices. Today, most cell phone users have upgraded to a newer generation of cell phones multiple times. It’s nearly impossible to be in public without hearing someone’s favorite song set as their personal ringtone. Many cell phones come with an extraordinary amount of features and applications that could only be dreamed of with the original models. Phones now include text messaging, built in cameras, video recorders and music players. Additionally, smartphones provide wireless access to email, documents, calendars, internet access and even GPS location. Even if you are stuck in one of those 2 year contracts and can’t upgrade your phone or service plan until that ends, there is still a way for you to get the information you need from your cell phone. Also, if you want to avoid high monthly costs for data plans, what you may not know is that Google has provided a way to for you to get most of the same the information on your cell phone on demand for no additional charges.

Google SMS (Text)

The way Google provides this information is through text messaging. Google Text works very similar to the Google search on you desktop or laptop. Send a text message with your query to “GOOGLE” (466453) and within seconds Google will respond with the closest match. Here are some of the most common searches and examples. I have found using Google SMS very simple and the best part is how quick the responses are received.

• Directions: To get driving directions, enter your start address then 'to' followed by your destination address (ex: 94040 to 94043, pasadena ca to los angeles).
• Weather: To get weather information, enter 'weather' (or 'w') followed by a city and state, or zip (ex: weather 10013, w New York, NY).
• Local Business Listings: To get business listings, enter what you want to find and include a city and state, or zip (ex: pizza 10013).
• Movie Times: To get movie show times, enter the name of a CURRENT movie and include a city and state, or zip (ex: moviename 10013, moviename Boston, MA).
• Glossary: To find definitions on the Web, enter 'define' (or 'd') followed by the word or phrase (ex: define ubiquitous, d network).
• Sports Scores: For NBA/NHL/MLB/NFL/NCAA scores/schedules, enter a team name (ex: Lakers, Sharks, Mets, Jets, Duke). Available only for sports in season.
• Stock Prices: To get stock quotes, enter a SINGLE stock ticker symbol or the word 'stock' followed by a less obvious ticker name (ex: GOOG, stock DUCK).
• Product Prices: To get product prices, enter 'price' followed by the product name (ex: price dvd player, price camera), or enter the UPC/ISBN code directly.
• Airlines/Flights: To get flight information, enter the flight number to get gate times or the airline to get the phone number (ex: ua 14, united airlines).
• Translations: To get translations, enter 'translate' (or 't') followed by the expression, 'to' and a destination language (ex: translate dog to french, t new to german).

Listed above are some of the more popular searches Google offers through Google SMS. There are even more listed on their website. They even give you a chance to get a feel for how this works on the website before using your cell phone.

Google 411 (1 800 GOOG-441 or 1 800 466-4411)

For those that aren’t very familiar with text messaging or just prefer to speak with someone, Google offers a voice activated system of the same information, free of charge. There is no longer a need to pay additional fees for 411 information per call. Google’s 411 services let you search for businesses by name or category, anytime or anywhere. An added bonus, Google will connect you to the desired number or location free of charge. To save time, enter the Google 411 number into your cell phone as a contact.

SMS/Text Messaging at Your Answering Service

Have you thought about how you can use your cell phone to interact with your answering service? Imagine getting your messages sent to your mobile device via text message within seconds of us receiving the call. There would be no need to scramble around looking for a pen to jot the message down on paper. All the needed information would be sent directly to your cell phone. Also, receiving your messages via text messaging allows you easy access to your messages for future reference. Text messaging is a cheap and reliable source of receiving messages. Unlike pagers if you are out of a coverage area, the text message will appear immediately once you return to a coverage zone.

Better yet, you can even communicate with our agents through two-way text messaging. If you need to respond to a message, update your On Call status or just have a question, you can initiate a conversation by sending us a text message. This would allow you the quick, quiet and convenient way to interact with our CSRs. For more information on how using text messaging will work with your account, please give us a call today.

For those that are not clients of ours, check and see if your current answering service offers these features. If not, please give us a call or visit our website to see how we can better suit your needs.