Like most, I was shocked at the passing of Steve Jobs last evening. I believe there is something in all of us that wants to believe that genius and resources will spare us death. But I doesn’t. He is dead, but what a remarkable legacy he has left behind.

It occurs to me that the greatest tribute to Jobs is his work on the iPhone. In four years he revolutionized the way we think about, use, and what we expect from smartphones.

In 2007, the smartphone industry was a horror show of ugly, slow hardware with archaic input. Each phone seemed to have a larger keyboard, antenna, and battery. This was progress. Then came the first iPhone. Critics scoffed at it. No one would want a touch screen only device. It was too expensive. You couldn’t multitask. It didn’t had GPS or 3G. It was laughably expensive. It would fail miserably.

In 2008, the iPhone 3G was too slow. The screen too small. Too low resolution. Android was going to win because it was open.

2009 brought the too minorly improved 3GS. Apple was poised to be left behind, their massive lead would be quickly absorbed.

Then came the iPhone 4. Within a year of its release, my dad bought one. So did 4 of my non-techie friends. Most people I know that don’t have one, no longer say they never will get one. Android has grown, but the iPhone continues to dominate and define the technology.

I scoffed with the scoffers until 2009. Since then, I have converted from full Windows to full Mac. I bought an iPad. Great products create their own demand.

So that’s Steve’s legacy to me. In four years, he made the smartphone a household device. In four years he took a device from a toy for fanatics and nerds, to a cultural phenomenon. And all around the world, salesmen are pitching the competitions’ products as “Just like an iPhone.”

My friend Jeremy noted it should be called the iPhone 4Steve. I think he has a point. There’s no greater tribute to him than his last revolution.

Clif

Sent from my iPad

I’ve been using Google Voice for over a year now.   Signing up shortly after it was available, I decided to dive into the deep end and fully commit to Google Voice as my primary number.

I did this because I liked the idea of people having numbers, rather than phone having numbers.  I liked the idea of being able to quickly text friends back from my browser, without the hassle of pulling out my phone.

I liked the plethora of voicemail options, and the ability to associate the number with more than one phone.   But, after debating the issue for several months, I’ve decided to transition back:

The “power of 406″ has proven to be weak

The most motivating “feature” that drove me to fully adopt Google Voice was the ability to leverage something that was called the power of 406 at the time.  In essence, this meant I could have my friends send me a text message which would reveal a special number (usually starting with 406) that I could store as their primary number and use to text or call them from my Google Voice number.

While a bit of a pain to setup,  I was able to convert all of my frequent contacts using this method within a matter of days.

This worked well for the most part, but in the last couple of months Google started shifting those numbers around to prevent the overloading of circuits.  While I understand conceptually why this was necessary, it was really annoying to start getting texts from people without any clear indication of the sender.

In addition to these changes, Google never made this feature fully accessible. While it seems like it would have been easy to allow people to do their own number mappings, or at least reveal what the number mappings were, the feature continues to be left in the dark.  So, no land lines. No people without SMS ability (yes, they do exist).  Etc.

Annoying.

The iPhone experience

In addition to these issues, I switched to an iPhone around the same time.  This presented its own challenges.  Google Voice doesn’t support MMS, it also doesn’t really tell you it doesn’t support MMS.  The sender doesn’t receive a failure notice.  The recipient doesn’t receive any notice.  It just doesn’t work.

Starting in June, Apple rolled out FaceTime with the iPhone 4.  This feature, predictably, also doesn’t work well with Google Voice (which is not Google’s fault).  This meant I had to fragment my address book by phone capability.  Jane has an iPhone, so I’ll call her from real number.  Joe doesn’t, so I’ll setup a 406 for him.

iPhones also have the ability to send multiple text messages as one message.  It doesn’t do any of that annoying splitting.   Google Voice splits for you…outbound and inbound.

This past fall, the long awaited Google Voice iPhone app was released…which I found to be underwhelming.  While functional, it further accentuated the annoyances I was already having…the feeling that I had two phones in one.

Miscellaneous annoyances

Lastly, there are the little quirks.  Rare outages (ok, very rare, but still notable).   Time delays with SMS.  Messages show up out of order.  Etc.

Google also appends “Smith, John -” on the front of any texts.  Or the number if you don’t have them in your Google contacts list.  This takes up valuable text message characters and forces texts to be split unnecessarily.  They should allow me to turn this off or something.

Google also treats other Google Voice users differently.  The 406 trick doesn’t work at all, for instance. That limited my ability to really encourage my friends to use the service, as I was creating more complications in my own address book.

Summary

In summary, Google Voice offers a great service.  Especially if you need to make calls from your computer.  Or if you need cheap international calling.

But, in my experience, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I had two numbers…and that my contacts had two numbers.

I have found I don’t really use all of those fancy features like call screening, voice recording, multiple phone dialing, etc.  Voicemail transcripts are nice, but I don’t get many in the first place.

There are other hacks available through jailbreaking.  SMS extensions. Phone extensions. Etc.  I’m just tired of messing with it.  It’s too much work.

And that’s why I’m going back to one number.