[Discuss] OT: Obitalk + google voice

[Rich Braun]

I got this amusing spam today:
> Today, marks the 1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY of Official Support for
> Google Voice on OBi VoIP devices. We want to take this
> opportunity to thank our valued customers who have expressed
> confidence in and loyalty to Obihai + Google Voice.

Y'all probably recall my skepticism when the non-Google "announcement" came
out a couple years ago that GV was intending to discontinue support for XMPP,
the API needed to make the Obihai box work.  Many people ditched their GV
account in favor of alternative VoIP vendors or just cut the cord entirely. I
kept my pair of now-ancient VoIP units (got them 4 years ago so I could tell
my friends my new number in area code 415 before making the left-coast move).

The punch line is this: a year ago I bought a condo across the hall from a
Google engineer.  Two weeks ago, I learned that he was one of the developers
on the Google Voice project (so he's quite familiar with all the pluses &
pitfalls of GV; he's moved on to a startup).  But to this day, I haven't found
a better service than GV, paid or unpaid.  And GV remains totally free of all
monthly charges, including unlimited inbound and outbound phone calls to
USA/Canada.

-rich