I recently switched over to T-Mobile after triumphantly talking my way out of my Verizon contract. Verizon’s phones suck, but I have to give it too them, their service is remarkable. I never truly appreciated Verizon’s signal strength until I got into the elevator at work while on the phone only to have my call summarily dropped. When I looked at my phone, there were three ominous letters where the bars should have been…

SOS

I read David Pogue’s article about GrandCentral in yesterday’s Times with skepticism. Their main premise: One phone number that will ring all of your phones. I don’t need that (at least I don’t think I do). However, I was pleasantly surprised by their robust feature set. One feature in particular answered a Product Prayer ™ of mine from last August.

Grand Central offers relationship based voicemail greetings!

Now you can greet mom or your boo with an “I love you” without having to greet everyone that way. You can share plans with a select group of friends without broadcasting where you are going. You can finally have a professional message for your perspective employer and a fun message for your friends without being inappropriate.

While I am not ready to give up my number just yet, I am glad to see someone offering such a valuable no-brainer service in the face of the telco unwilligness to provide truly useful features.

Gmail recently launched a Gmail mobile application (not to be confused with the mobile browser version located at http://m.gmail.com). This app is super fast and has most of the features you have come to love in Gmail (e.g. converstions, auto address complete, etc.). I am using it on a BlackBerry Pearl. A full list of supported devices is here.

I customize my ringtones based on the relationship I have with the caller. Family gets one ring. Friends get another. Everyone else gets a third, more garrish, ring (I may have to add a fourth distinction when I start my new job in a few weeks). I do this for two reasons. First, I can make a snap judgement without looking at my phone as to whether the call must be answered or can safely go to voicemail. Secondly, I like to think that my brain gets a crucial headstart in preparing me for the the ensuing phone interaction. Like an early warning system, the different ringtones send a nearly sub-conscious signal to my brain that I need to cheer up, relax, or otherwise modify my demeanor to address the incoming party. This is purley conjecture, but I like the notion.

These classifications closely mirror three of my most central identities: that of son/brother, friend, and stranger)

Why doesn’t my phone allow me to have different voicemail greetings based on these identities? I have had the same bland professional voicemail greeting since I was 22. I have done this because my mom, best friend, and boss always end up with my new cell phone number. And would you rather get laughed at by your friend for your long, boring, professional message or have an uncomfortable chat with your boss about how “yo” is probably not an acceptable greeting for clients?

My phone already allows me to make these distinctions between my various relationships when it comes to ringtones. I don’t need separate messages for individuals (but how cool would that be!). I just want different messages for a few of the distinct relationships that we all have.

That way, I could say “love you” to my mom, “peace” to my friends and “thank you for your call” to the masses.

My phone recently had an accident involving water. I waited for several days and, much to my surprise, after it dried out it began working again… Almost. A few of the buttons are difficult to press and battery saver is no longer relaible. While I have insurance and can get a new phone for $50 dollars or so, I was hoping to invoke the warranty. It’s been dry for months. There was no way they could tell it had encountered water right?

Wrong. Without knowing that I had dropped it in water, my friend opened the back, took one look and said, “Did you drop this puppy in water?” I looked at him, amazed, and confirmed that I had. He pointed to a red dot on the inside of my phone and explained that the dot had been white when I got the phone and only turns red when it comes in contact with water. Flipping over the battery exposed a second one of these red dots.

Tricky Verizon. Very Tricky. (actually almost all providers now use this detection system).

Before and after photo below:

Skype is allowing Skype-to-phone calls in the U.S. and Canada for free until the end of the year. Interesting.