Talk Plus is a Telephony Revolution
May 1st, 2008 Oliver StarrCategories | Features | Software
300 Mobile Apps but Only One to Rule Them
Before I was the Editor here at GTDtimes I was the founding author of a blog called MobileCrunch. Part of the TechCrunch network of blogs, MobileCrunch was focused almost exclusively on the applications being developed for mobile devices. During my time writing that blog I profiled nearly 300 different mobile applications.
There were many applications that were useful. Some sufficiently so that they stayed on my phone even after I had finished testing them for my reviews. A few were exceptional - some so much so that I still use them today. However, there was only one mobile application that I tested that I felt was so extraordinary that it represented an actual revolution in mobile telephony. That application is TalkPlus.
Telephony 2.0?
These days everything, it seems, is 2.0. I wouldn’t be surprised to find a carton of milk with 2.0 on it. Unfortunately, with all the 2.0 hoopla it seems that the real reason why something would be referred to as 2.0 has been lost in the shuffle. From my perspective, a 2.0 version should be This litmus test generally leaves things a bit shy of the real improvement that I believe deems something to be 2.0-worthy.
TalkPlus, however is eminently so. So just what is it and what does it do?
Talk plus is an application that you can run on Symbian, Blackberry, Palm and even Windows Mobile. It has so many features that you’ll have to visit their website for a complete rundown but I’ll hit the highlights for you here. When I first heard about this application at DEMO Fall in 2005 I was nearly beside myself with anticipation to get it installed on my phone for one reason in particular - it made it possible to have one mobile phone with two or more numbers.
Let me try to explain this clearly. Not one mobile phone with two SIM cards, but your normal phone with its one SIM card and the number associated with that SIM card plus, a second, third even fourth number as well. What’s more, these additional numbers didn’t have to be local to your calling area and didn’t have to be local even to your country.
WHAT?!?
Seriously. With TalkPlus it is possible to have a phone that has say a Los Angeles number (310), a San Francisco number (415) and a London, United Kingdom number (+44)…I know, that is how my phone is set up now. What this means is that my friends in London can call my London number and for them it is a local call. Same for my friends in San Francisco. When they dial their respective local numbers it all rings back at my handset.
My outgoing calls work the same way…I can use the UK number, the San Francisco number or the LA number (and I don’t have to be in LA to use the LA number either). Of course you can just as easily have two different local numbers (say personal and professional) if it suits you better to use TalkPlus that way instead.
Each number has its own voicemail box and call history record too. You could even have different numbers for each of your clients if you wanted to make call tracking extremely simple for yourself.
TalkPlus also lets you set up a conference call right from your handset. I know, big deal right? But unlike the 3 party calls that the telcos support, TalkPlus lets you pull together 10 different endpoints on a single call ad hoc.
Nifty Tricks
Other nifty tricks you can do with TalkPlus include the ability to make all your phones ring when certain numbers are called. You can also listen in on messages being left by callers (instead of having to call voice mail when the other party hangs up only to discover that what they were saying was something you actually wanted to hear…
If you’re an iPhone user like me you will be glad to know that you’re not locked out as a result. In fact the TalkPlus iPhone application is every bit as exceptional as the version that runs on Symbian.
Recently, the team at TalkPlus has also added a service they call Voice Drop. While the name could be improved the service is pretty cool. It lets you send a voicemail message to any email address. Like I said, there are some pretty powerful technology achievements running under the hood to make this possible.
In fact, two years ago I was at a conference and explaining TalkPlus to an engineer from Nokia. When I explained about the numbers and the local/international calling he flat told me it was impossible. I guess no one told that to the TalkPlus guys. Although I almost lost faith in them when they were about a year late to actually launch their beta, they’ve more than made up for the delay by delivering a product that continues to wow me (and which I continue to pay for) month after month.
…But You’ve Gotta Pay…
Oh yeah - TalkPlus isn’t free. Although you can get a free thirty day trial if you visit their site - but be careful; TalkPlus can be a dangerous habit - especially if you want to have numbers in Paris, Tokyo, New York and London like one fashionista I know but that’s another story…
Hi Oliver,
I’m wondering if with this service I could get access to Jott. I live in Europe and I can’t get access to Jott because you need a US number. Do think that would be possible?
BR,
Mark
Mark,
What an interesting question. I can’t say if it would work for sure or not but I’m guessing that it probably would. You could certainly pose the question to the folks at TalkPlus and see what they have to say. I’m sure if you subscribe for thirty days for free you can test it and find out… I can tell you that when you call using a TalkPlus number (for example when I use my UK number) it shows up that I am calling from that number on the receiving end caller id…
Oliver
I’ve been using TalkPlus for several months now. It’s serves a purpose but needs some tweaking, particularly the latent calls. However, I’ve been trying to contact them via email & phone with no response. In fact, the phone numbers provided on their website are disconnected! Various blogs have the company for sale with no new source of funding available.
Their service suddenly stopped this morning. Their website seems to have vanished. I need to keep the phone number I’ve been using through talkplus. Anyone have suggestions?
Well, after a frustrating day, their service has been restored, and talkplus.com is up and running again. But no explanations or notices offered. Their contact phone numbers are not working as of this moment. Anyone know anything about what’s going on with this company? Can I trust this company to do what they promised? Any insight greatly appreciated.
The TalkPlus service has been down for approx a week now and the company doesn’t respond to emails nor has it communicated its status - technical problems?, out of business? They have a good concept but their customer service is lacking and there consitency has been poor. It’s a shame since I used their service for business. This latest event has rendered my printed material using their phone number as useless. And where is Jeff Black in all of this, I wonder?
Jace, funny you should mention this as I attempted to use the service yesterday and it wouldn’t accept a credit card payment or allow a call to go through in spite of the fact that the website was reachable for the first time in several weeks at least.
I have to wonder - if they’ve closed up shop- just how many consumers they’ll have left hanging with credit balances and no way to recover those funds?
All in all I have to say that while I was terribly impressed with the actual TalkPlus service and am at least as terribly unimpressed with the transparency, integrity and professionalism of Jeff and his supposed “A” list team of start-up pros…
Editor
I’ve wondered about other users too and what kind of lurch have they been left in as a result.
I also wonder how many subscribers use the service for personal versus business purposes.
I had a credit on my account which adds insult to injury however, the fact that Talkplus is in a virtual communications blackout is even more annoying!
You mention Jeff Black’s team and I have to wonder if anyone is still working at the company if there funding has dried up.
There doesn’t seem to be any recent news about Talkplus and its exploits. I guess the fact that they’re unreachable is a big reason.
If anyone knows how to get credit for funds unused from Talk Plus please advise. I have bout $300 credit which is minimal in reference to the effect on my bussiness since I used it for that.
Thanks~