The beta period is over and VoiceCentral is now available to the general public. We planned to release it Friday, but there was an issue on the web server that caused us to delay until today. Everyone that registered to be notified of the public release will be receiving an activation e-mail to the address they provided during sign up.  But for anyone who hasn’t previously registered, feel free to register now!

We would love to give everyone free and unlimited access to VoiceCentral Black Swan, but unfortunately we have significant costs in providing this service. Aside from R&D costs, Google bills us monthly for the amount of data our users access above a certain threshold. In order to still provide a “free” alternative, we have released two versions of Black Swan: a Free (ad-supported) version and a Premium Subscription.

The free version provides all of the core features for the casual user. It allows you to import contacts from your Google account, search your contacts within VoiceCentral, and dial those contacts using Google Voice or your iPhone. It provides you with easy access your 20 most recent voicemails, calls, and SMS conversations. You can listen to voicemails as well as read their transcriptions. The SMS functionality lets you create messages or reply to existing conversations.  It has advertisements so we can keep control of our costs and we appreciate your support on that front!

If the Free version can do all that, why did we create a Premium version? A Premium Subscription removes the ads and allows access to additional features:

• Unlimited number of voicemails, calls, and SMS conversations
• Contact Photos
• Billing History
• Do Not Disturb
• And one of our most requested features: a custom Favorites list providing fast, simple access to the contacts you choose.

To learn more about both versions, please visit the features page. Regardless of the version you choose, we look forward to your feedback and hope you enjoy VoiceCentral Black Swan.

Some of you have noticed that the VoiceCentral site is down for maintenance. This should not take long—a couple of hours tops—and you’re sure to like what you see when it comes back online.

Happy Holidays and just wanted to start by saying thanks for all the support from everyone. We are very humbled that we received so many responses for the beta and we will be working through the list. If you haven’t had a chance to sign up yet, feel free to go to the register page and put in your details.

I also wanted to mention a few things that have come up in questions from folks along the way.

• If I purchased VoiceCentral from the App Store do I automatically get on the beta for Black Swan?
  Apple does not share your information (email address, etc) with us so we would not have your Google Voice information to set you up for Black Swan. You will have to register separately for the Beta because of this. You can also send us a note via the Support Link inside the application so we know you also purchased the app. We really appreciate all the folks that purchased the app through the App Store and just wish Apple hadn’t removed it from the store. We would love to produce updates to that version of the product, but we think Black Swan will be a lot more powerful.
• How long until I will have access to the Beta?
  We will be opening up the beta to more and more users over the next few weeks and will work through them in the order they were received. It will take some time though and just want to provide the best experience for all the users. You will get setup soon and we will be in touch with you so stay tuned.
• How do I merge my Contacts into Google Voice?
  The Mobile Safari browser doesn’t have native access to all the functions of the phone so we don’t have access to the Contacts data. There are many ways to get that data into Google Voice and you can check out: our contacts FAQ for a few of them. This is actually a really good thing because you get a lot more of out of Google Voice once you have your contacts merged in. That data also can easily be synced like the rest of your data on your phone so you can set it and forget it. You can also take advantage of other features like arranging contacts by Groups, specialized Call Presentation, etc so you will be unlocking a lot more from Google Voice. Plus, it will allow us to do a lot of other interesting things with the app in the future once you have your Contacts integrated with Google Voice.

Thanks again for all the questions and all the support. Have a Happy New Year!
pk

I don’t think this is anything to get excited about.  And we certainly don’t care since we feel we have an even better solution (Black Swan Edition) on the very near term horizon, but thought I would share with you an interesting email we received from Apple today after months of limbo:

Dear Riverturn, Inc.,We are currently reviewing an app that you submitted for inclusion on the App Store, and want to let you know that the review process will require additional time. We apologize for the delay and will provide you with an update on the status of your app as soon as possible.

Application Name: VoiceCentral

Application Version Number: 1.3.8

Application SKU: VOICECENTRAL_001

Application Apple ID:310081988

If you have any questions or concerns regarding this notice please contact us at appreview@apple.com .

Sincerely,

The iPhone Developer Program

Many of you were lucky enough to get VoiceCentral before Apple pulled the rug out from under us. Now users have reported that they are unable to dial using VoiceCentral (yes, we still try to support our users months after Apple made it difficult). We have narrowed the issue to a change on Google’s side.

The more important issue, of course, is “what can we do about it?” At this point, Apple is still “pondering” the latest version we sent them for review. We hope for the best, but we are not naïve and with no forthcoming news from the FCC we don’t expect that to change in the very near future. The unfortunate consequence is that the native iPhone version of VoiceCentral is effectively dead in the water.

This is not a new development and it is not a surprise.

So, Riverturn, what have you been doing about it?
We have been furiously developing a replacement.

A replacement?
Yup, all the VoiceCentral goodness with none of the App Store.

No Apple review team amateur hour? No jailbreaking required?
That’s right. All on the up and up.

VoiceCentral. On your iPhone. Google Voice access on your iPhone. For Real.

How?

Black Swan Edition.

Coming very soon…

I had the pleasure of speaking with Steve Bostedor and David Buchanan on “The App Show.” It was a great show and I appreciated the invite.

You can check it out here.  Also the episode is now live in iTunes and you can get it here: http://www.theappshow.com/2009-08-06-the-app-show-episode-35-theres-no-app-for-that/

(Thanks for the additional links Steve!)

Thanks guys! I’ll be listening to your upcoming shows.