25 March 2007

All Aboard!

This is one of the cooler services I've seen in awhile. Grandcentral.com allows you to have "one number...for life." Grandcentral gives you a designated number that other people will call to ring all your numbers -- home, mobile, business, etc. That's the most basic part, call forwarding.

But here's where it gets fun. Grandcentral will store your voicemails indefinitely in an online voicemail box. Looks like email, works like email. You can forward the voicemail, save the voicemail, etc. You can also set up different voice mail greetings for friends, acquantainces, or businesses. Want to sound silly to your friends but professional to your co-workers? Grandcentral can do it. It also lets you upload MP3s to replace the *ring*ring* sound.

You can spam block numbers to your phone. You can also listen in to a voicemail as it's being recorded. You can switch from one phone to the other, seamlessly. So if you're walking in the door, you can switch from your cell to your home phone with no "Lemme switch phones, I'll call you right back."

Here's the kicker: you can record any phone conversation you're having by simply hitting a button. Yeah. Think about that. No more "he said, she said," it's all about "you said." Sure it's scary but it's also downright cool.

This service is also free. Yeah, free (up to two lines). If you want to say, set up a phone number that all your friends can call to ring your entire social network, you can. Call 212-123-4567 and hit up all your friends at once? Hello best drunk dialing ever.

Try it out. Get some Grandcentral numbers now and tell me how you like it.