Countdown to Avatar Day

This year at San Diego Comic-Con, James Cameron announced “Avatar Day,” a sneak preview of sorts that shows what’s to come from his highly anticipated 3D sci-fi epic. Details became pretty scarce after the initial announcement, but today has broken the silence. Fans can now log on to the film’s official site to RSVP for tickets to Avatar Day and be among the first viewers to see footage of this top secret movie. The site has been hammered with traffic throughout the day (actually crashing it for several hours), so it is obvious that many people are interested in at least seeing the free preview footage. Act fast! If you want to be a part of Avatar Day, find out where it’s playing on an IMAX screen near you, and reserve your tickets before it’s sold out. If you’re not certain what all the hype is about, check out this video blog that showcases the thoughts of the /Film crew after they witnessed 24 minutes of the movie. August 21st will introduce Avatar to the world and the full film will be released on December 18th. See you at the event!

Favorite Five Features of Google Voice

At last! I got my invitation to try out Google Voice.

What is Google Voice? It is a new service from Google that allows you to make the most of your telephonic experience.

How?, you ask.

Below is a list of some of the cool and useful features discovered thus far.

1. One Number….Forever: Google Voice lets you choose a phone number (from those available) that is tied to you as a person. Your GV number will stay the same even if you switch to a different landline or cell phone provider. However, if you decide you would like to change your Google Voice (GV) number, you can do so for a one-time fee of $10 USD.

2. Visual Voicemail: I’ve been waiting for this since it was first debuted on the iPhone. You can listen to your voicemail on your phone or online. GV will even transcribe (voice to text) the messages left for you and then send an SMS text to your phone.

3. One Ring to Rule Them All: The service lets you tie your GV number to as many phones as you wish (I haven’t found a limit yet). When someone calls your GV number, all of the phones ring at the same time.  You can answer on any of the phones and even switch between them while on the call.

4. Contact Specific Settings: You can record special greetings for each your contacts in your GV account to hear when they call you. You can even organize your contacts into groups so you can keep your family, friends, and co-workers separate.

5. Your Own Personal 9-1-1: By combining features 3 and 4 above, I’ve found a good way to use my GV number for my family in case of emergencies. I added my family members as contacts in GV and associated them all with a group called “family”.  I then edited the ring settings of the group to ring my work and cell phone (could have added my landline if I had one). Next I sent an email to all of my family members distributing my GV number, using GMail of course.  Now when any of my family members calls my GV number, it will ring all of my phones at one time and reach me as fast as possible should the need arise. Pretty slick.

Other slick but rather interesting features include call screening via call presentation, listening in on the caller as they are leaving you a voicemail, as well as recording a phone call with the ability of listening to the recording later online.

What are you waiting for? Sign up for an invite and learn more about Google Voice here.

Google Voice