Sean Kovacs

How can I get a copy of GV Mobile V.2beta? will it be usable on an iPhone that has NOT been jailbroken? When will it be released?

FYI: I have not received any responses from my emails to Phil Schiller at Apple.

Scott

@Scott Fraser YOU HAVE GOT TO BE AN IDIOT. HAVE YOU BEEN IGNORING HIS BLOG POSTS AND ALL THE COMMENTS THAT HAVE BEEN LEFT HERE? For anyone to even ask “will it be usable on an iPhone that has NOT been jailbroken”, that’s ridiculous. FOr you to keep asking “when will it be released” when it has been said TIME AND TIME again that beta testers are testing it out first, is RIDICULOUS!
#killyourself

I’d like to be a beta tester for the GV mobile app and also donate to the cause. What do I need to do. Thanks

when is the release date?

@sean Black Swan has the same functionality as the GV Mobile beta, go look again. I was just letting dude know that if he gets his app out first he’ll probably make more money. I currently use GV Mobile for dialing and the [slow] Gmail via Safari for SMS (because of the conversation sorting).

Sean, is there any way you/we can make the phone auto-answer for only the incoming ring for outbound calls? That would make your app nearly native. Also, if you implemented Gmail with conversation based sorting (like the website, not the mail.app) then you’d have something that no one else is doing (trust me I’ve looked). Most of the people I know who use GV for SMS have it forwarding to their Gmail inbox for centralized messaging. Eventually everyone will email/sms from the same inbox.

BTW, I just realized I was responding to you

…patiently waiting…

@1977twenty3 Yes, Black Swan is looking quite promising.. If you already auto-sync your iPhone contacts to Google via ActiveSync like I do – Black Swan will have access to the same local contacts as the “native” app.

The only thing Black Swan can’t do that a native app can is access the local earpiece when playing back voicemails, so they have to be played back via speaker/headphone. Pretty minor limitation.

Way to avoid App Store approval jail though.. I too will buy whatever is released first – GV or Black Swan.

@ctyrider
The main issue with Black Swan however is that you have to relinquish your account information to them (they claim that it’ll be safe) and that the whole service can be shut down easily by Google if they decide that they don’t like the middleware approach. Black Swan can pretty much die from one day to the next if it gets a success – not sure what their terms of service are going to be for that…

Just feedback, but maybe something along the line of GVXMPP (http://www.gvxmpp.com/) integration down the line? Possibly some sort of Jabber or IMAP integration to keep from pressing the refresh button over and over?

Otherwise, big fan.

@whatever
There are already many popular iPhone apps/services that act as middleware, and potentially have visibility to various account credentials. For example, if you use any multi-service IM client (Beejive, IM+, etc) – they all in theory have access to your Google/AIM/Facebook credentials. Black Swan just acts as a proxy – they don’t store any account credentials or user data on their servers. But yes there is a degree of trust involved with any servicelike this.

In terms of Google shutting it down – highly doubt it. Unlike Apple, Google isn’t known for this sort of thing.. and I am sure Black Swan developers already have Google’s consensus for what they’re doing.

You also have to consider the big benefits of their approach.. To me, not depending on jailbroken iPhone for Google Voice is huge. What are you going to do when the next hardware version of iPhone comes out with their latest Boot Prom.. and there is still no untethered jailbreak available??

An HTML5 app can run on an iPhone as a local bundle, and you can have access to your GV account data (call history, etc) even when no Internet access is available. So it’s “almost” like a local native app. I think HTML5 approach is really the way of the future in getting around Apple’s ridiculous app store policies..

@sean

No doubt, we would all prefer a real/native app.. BUT.. in the absence of Apple-approved app store access for GV apps – we have to be open to all options. Jailbroken apps are also limited in some key functionality, for example they can’t support Push. And more importantly, not everyone wants to Jailbreak their iPhones.. Your app only reaches a small fraction of iPhone user base, while HTML5 app can be easily installed by anyone. And don’t forget – the latest iPhone BOOT PROM still hasn’t been broken by JB community (after several months of trying), so the whole future of JB app scene isn’t so certain.

HTML5 approacg is a good compromise given the current situation. And yes there is such thing as “almost” – you can compare the native vs HTML5 apps feature by feature. There is only 1 or 2 things that HTML5 won’t do versus an SDK app. People have to decide what they can or can’t live with.

As far as costs co – neither I nor you know how much Black Swan is going to cost. I don’t believe they decided on a subscription price model. But not to worry – I will buy your app regardless, and see what works the best over time. To me, it’s not a price issue but which app will give me the most worry-free and stable long term support for GV on my current and future iPhones.

I don’t post or comment very often, but your reaction to Sean and his product confuse me. I can understand the points you are making, but what points or goal do you hope to achieve by posting them on his website. Sean is a single developer who is making an option available to users based upon the tools that he has available.

If you have questions about GV mobile, or would like to comment on it then this is the spot for the post.

Voicecentral’s product may be a better application choice for you or other users while GV mobile may be better for others, but there is no need to come and post your criticisms on Sean’s website. He is only doing what he is capable of doing and he is aware of GV mobile’s limitations.

@hitekalex

I don’t post or comment very often, but your reaction to Sean and his product confuse me. I can understand the points you are making, but what points or goal do you hope to achieve by posting them on his website. Sean is a single developer who is making an option available to users based upon the tools that he has available.

If you have questions about GV mobile, or would like to comment on it then this is the spot for the post.

Voicecentral’s product may be a better application choice for you or other users while GV mobile may be better for others, but there is no need to come and post your criticisms on Sean’s website. He is only doing what he is capable of doing and he is aware of GV mobile’s limitations.

@user

First, please point me to anything I said that “criticize” anything that Sean is doing. In fact, as I said, I will be among the first to buy GV Mobile 2.0 once it becomes available.

Second, I thought the point of any blog was free exchange of information and ideas. I wasn’t the one who first brought up Voicecentral’s product here, but there were posts with obviously incorrect assumptions about web-based app capabilities.. So I posted my perspective on this.

Apparently you think that any posts on this blog should be censored to only include praises of Sean and GV Mobile. How very Apple of you.. However, I think Sean is perfectly capable of seeing other perspectives, which might even spark some new ideas for future apps supporting Google Voice on iPhone platform.

@hitekalex
“[…] In terms of Google shutting it down – highly doubt it […]” – Google actually did just that with another service last year:

Oops – looks like WordPress ate my link:
http://www.innerfence.com/google-shuts-down-infinite-sms

saw the tweet this morning, PLEASE let it be released today!!

Google’s got nothing………App Store has nothing……Sean you’re the only one whos got the goods and i need it bad baby because i feel like i’ve got bugs crawling up my skin!!

I agreed with @whatever. The down side of black swan is that if the company goes belly up you have nothing to show for the product that you purchased. It’s just gone. However if you buy a native app and Sean stops supporting it you still have the native app … a stagnate app yes, but still an app.

I find it ironic and funny at anyone that has any criticisms. Opinion are wonderful, criticizing is just plain dumb.

Look, as far as the TRUE Google Voice app for the iPhone….we have NOTHING. I have been using GV Mobile for a while and the truth of the matter is, something is better than NOTHING. Sean takes the time, makes the effort to make our lives better with the app. If you dont like it, dont use it. Plain and simple as that.

@BIG PERM

I wouldn’t go so far as to say “makes our lives better” but it does make thing a little easier. Especially if it was integrated with the phone.app. However, looking at Sean’s latest twitter comments, doesn’t look like that is going to happen. Looks like I am not gonna waste my money on this afterall. Probably pirate it to see what it’s like. But I imagine there is nothing new in this version. Just a prettier 1.2.

where is it? aaahhhh!! once you submit to Cydia how long does it take for us to see it? will that be today?

While interested to see the changes in 2.0, I’m still a little discouraged by the fact that the 1.22.1 update was only supposed to be “temporary till tomorrow” in Sept. Now it’s 2010, and we have a brand new app version.. how long will temporary fixes stand before then next version?

@sean
Looking forward to it, how much is it gonna sell for?

@I want GV Mobile 2.0
“Looks like I am not gonna waste my money on this afterall. Probably pirate it to see what it’s like. But I imagine there is nothing new in this version. Just a prettier 1.2.”

Dude … um … you suck!

@sean

Sean, I don’t think there are any tricks to it. All you need to do is have the dialer to dial in the following format: , 2, . You need to dial from a phone registered with google voice, and disable PIN entry.

try again.. The format for direct dial: GV_number, 2, Recipient_number

I hope Sean has pretty think skin.

When google changed their security protocols and it broke GV Mobile Sean got us a quick fix pretty damn fast. He’s worked hard recoding his app from the ground up adding in new features even though Apple has banned his app and he now has a fraction of the target audience that he used to have. He’s a single person working on an app in his spare time as a hobby. The guy has a real family and a real life (At least this is what I’ve put together from reading his blog and twitter).

The way some of you are acting, like Sean owes you something, and telling him you’re just going to pirate the app is exactly what makes good developers get fed up with their projects and abandon them. I really hope this doesn’t happen with GV Mobile, I appreciate the hard work Sean puts into this project and can only hope he finds the time and passion to continue to do so after 2.0 is released

Nobody here is criticizing Sean, we are just providing constructive feedback to give him ideas on making his app badass so he can make lots of money and we can all be happy. I use GV Mobile everyday, without it I would have sold my iPhone for an Android. In fact, I’m over “apps” as I use my tethered netbook mostly now, so GV Mobile is practically the ONLY app I use. Sean Kovacs and Google have saved me hundreds and I think they rock. I don’t need to suck his dick to prove it, neither do any of you crybabies in the last few posts.

There has been some constructive criticism, I’m not saying suck Sean’s dick (his wife might have a problem with that?). But a few people are just out right being jerks.

ok enough of this talk, get saurik to open it up for sale already !!!!

Thanks for the great app. I may have found a quirk. For offline dialing, I think it would go faster if # is added after the number. as of now it waits 5-10 seconds before dialing.

Thanks again.