Up On the Roof…

I just signed up for Google’s latest acquisition, GrandCentral. To be honest, I wasn’t sure what I was getting myself into, but after the process, I have to say that I was impressed by the features and the technology.

What is GrandCentral? The short answer is: You get a new GrandCentral phone number, input all (or some) of your other telephone numbers, so that you have one consolidated number for people to reach you, wherever you are. It also has several more online features that make it attractive for those whose telephone is as important or more important than email. You can import your contact list, view call logs, record calls, screen and block calls, etc.

Some of the technology has been around in VOIP phone systems, but they’ve managed to bring it to the masses here. Note that as of this writing, it’s still in beta. Also, Google just made some of the advanced features free, but note that the terms of service states that it can change and charge for these again at some point in the future.

The first thing to do is sign up for a free account at the GrandCentral home page. Look for the “Reserve” button. They’ve done a nice job with the website. It guided me through the process and I easily made my way through the setup.
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I don’t have an iPhone, but I’ve got a Blackberry 8100, aka Blackberry Pearl. Since I’m unable to perform product comparison, I’ll review my experience with the Pearl and details on how I sync it with the Mac.

I’m using a MacBook Pro (15″ running OS X 10.4.10) and I use Apple Mail, not Microsoft Entourage. I use POP3 internet email, not an enterprise or exchange server. I also purchased a 2GB MicroSD card, with a full-size adapter for using in a standard SD card reader. This is important to know, because it makes a difference when syncing Music and Photos.

For the synchronization software, I had been using PocketMac’s product, which is now the free software that RIM provides for Mac users, but I have been using the MissingSync for Blackberry, by the people at Mark-Space.

The product install requires a restart, because it adds a startup item and other system tie-ins. Note that if you had PocketMac software on your Mac, you should do three things:

1. do a last sync to make sure your up to date
2. backup your Address Book and iCal data (super easy, open those apps and its a selection under the File menu)
3. uninstall the PocketMac software.

Also, when the install asks to allow syncing with Contacts and Address Book, etc., click Allow. It will talk to Mac OSX’s syncing services. It’s detailed here.
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