Today, much to my dismay, I decided to stop using the Google Voice service for my mobile voicemail and start using the default AT&T service.

I decided to use Google Voice when I got my new smart phone, the Samsung Galaxy S. There are a lot of great features in the Google Voice product. My favorite features are the ability to “see” my voicemail and listen to messages directly from a toolbar widget in the browser. The option I chose was to forward my phone calls to Google so that they can provide the voicemail service when I missed a call. If you decide to use a Google Voice number, the features and options you have are even greater.

But like all Beta products, you cannot expect everything to be perfect. Unfortunately, when it comes to receiving phones calls, the quality and performance standards that I hold a product to are extremely high. And specifically, with the Google Voice service, it seems that sometimes, phone calls that were made just wouldn’t connect. I didn't believe this was happening until more than one person told me that my phone wasn't working. If you were the caller, you wouldn’t even get my voicemail box. Instead, it would appear as if the number wasn’t connected or a wrong number was dialed. This is unacceptable.

The other issue I had was with the quality of the audio file that was used for playback. Often, the volume was entirely too low to comprehend the entire voice message. Lastly, the transcription of the audio to text was hit and miss. If the caller spoke like a robot and the line was totally clear on their end, the transcription was great. If, however, the caller was not the clearest speaker or their connection (like from another mobile phone) was not clear, the transcription was either not useful or missing entirely.

Overall, I would rate the Google Voice product a C+. Again, I place significant weight on their ability to connect callers. The thought that I may have missed a critical call from someone was too much risk for me to live with and certainly was not off-set by the cool Google Voice features.

So it’s back to the regular AT&T voicemail for me. I’m hoping someday they’ll bring visual voicemail to my phone service. Until then, please leave a message!

So Jack and I walked out to the BMW 530i the other day, open the right rear door and then Jack says "whoa Dad, there's water in your car". We had had 3 consecutive days of rain (which is rare in Southern California) and a few inches of it decided to collect in the floor of the car. I thought to myself "how does this happen?" and "this is a nice car". A little research from my wife Kelly discovered that this is a typical problem with the e39. And after a little visual inspection and simple repair on my part, it was obvious that it was a quality control issue at the BMW assembly plant (either the adhesive was poor or the vapor barrier wasn't seated properly - see the pic below).

Learn how I fixed this issue after the jump.

No, but they make you look stupid. This has to be one of the worst atrocities I've ever seen committed to a classic American supercar (in this case the Ford GT)... blue denim and brown alcantara. What's worse is that the interior colors didn't even compliment the exterior finish (which was midnight blue like the one pictured below). The American flag is admirable but still over the top.

What hurts even more is that this is my dream car. So to see someone do this to such a beautiful, classic, high performance automobile... well, it would be like finding out that Cameron Diaz got breast implants. Not necessary and totally disappointing.  

My dream car - the Ford GT. 

• 0-60 in 3.3 seconds
• 1/4 mile in 11.2 seconds
• Top speed 205 mph
• Great racing heritage, exclusive and collectible
• Only a 2-year production run (2005-2006)
• 4038 total units built
• MSRP $149,995
• White with blue stripes
• Black leather interior

MySpace held a joint press conference with Facebook today to announce their MySpace Facebook mashup. Basically, for MySpace users, the feature allows you to pull in your Facebook data (posts, likes, profile, etc), with the hopes of matching you with relevant content on the MySpace site. For MySpace, this feature addresses a long desired need to help introduce their users to additional content that will ultimately keep them coming back and keep them on the site longer.

There's just one problem. Spam. I went ahead and did the Facebook connect with my own personal MySpace account and within 30 min, I had 2 emails from MySpace "users" wanting to be my "friend". A content match? Maybe. Annoying? Yes.

It's my understanding that it's this kind of garbage that turns people off of MySpace and turned them on to Facebook. Users like the closed network that is Facebook. But, maybe none of this matters now as clearly, MySpace is going for the content play and conceding the social play to Facebook. We shall see!

After too many struggles with my iPhone 3 (running the iPhone 4 OS), I decided it was time for a change. I'm not sure what the cause of the issues are, but here's the problems with the iPhone that I want to avoid with my new smartphone:

• Dropped calls. After all the hoopla around the signal strength bars being misleading on the iPhone 4, I have to wonder... is there an issue with the signal strength bars that are displayed on older gen iPhones as well? How is that when I have full strength and the other caller has full strength, the call mysteriously drops? Could it be AT&T? Apple would like you to think so. Could it be Apple? Nooooooo, come on! Report: so far not one dropped call in 10 days using my new smartphone on AT&T.
• Sluggish response when opening an app. What is frustrating is that I'm not trying to open Tiger Woods golf. I'm talking about waiting 15 seconds to see what text message I just got. Report: no sluggishness on my new smartphone that is running Android 2.1.
• Apps that once worked now always crash: I'm not sure who to blame here but it is especially frustrating when something once worked great and now it will never open. Report: can't say that I won't experience this on the new phone. So far, one crash was experienced (the browser) but I think I can blame that on the site I was trying to visit.
• No Adobe flash support. Report: Android OS supports Adobe Flash "light". 

What I like about my new smartphone:

• The Android OS is a better user experience than the iPhone.
• The search feature is integrated everywhere, accessible from almost every app. 
• The processor in the phone is 1 ghz. This makes a huge difference.
• Better integration with Google Voice, contacts, email and other G services.
• The music player is better that the player on the iPhone.
• The Bluetooth seems to be much stronger.
• Camera videos and picks are nice and sharp 
• The "SWYPE" technology for composing texts.
• Google Navigation! Like having a Tom Tom built right in.

So what phone did I pick? The Samsung Galaxy S or Captivate from AT&T. Some of the differences are to be expected, as I went from one generation of cell phone technology to another. If you're using an iPhone 3 or 3GS, this is something to think about.

Cons

• Battery life. If you frequently browse the Internet using the 3G network, stream content over bluetooth, synch often, use GPS often, the battery life is short like any other comparable smartphone device. However, there are ways to get around this, like widgets to quickly and easily manage the apps that suck up juice. Try the Android power control widget. It comes pre-installed and is a quick way to toggle wi-fi, bluetooth, GPS, sync and led display brightness.
• Marketplace adoption. Seems that app developers are still ramping up on rolling out Android versions of popular apps find in the Apple App Store. Patience is probably required here.

The VW-Prüfgelände Ehra testing track in Germany is where Volkswagen does all significant road testing of automobiles they develop, including the Bugatti Veyron. This track is supposed to be super secret but very little is suppresed in Google Maps. The track includes a straightaway that is over 7 miles long! The Bugatti Veyron is the world's fastest production car, with 1001 horse power, costing $1.7 million and capable of an "electronically governed" top speed of 253 MPH.


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