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Comment by ja27 | Hacker News Reader

Doesn't seem to be available for iPod Touch even though many of the features would work fine on it.

Some of the big ones - like receiving calls - don't.

Not to mention placing calls. That's a huge part of the interface.

It appears number portability and iPod Touch support is not on their priority list. I have no clue why. With those two features, personally, I would be free from cell phone carriers.

To my understanding, it doesn't implement calling functionality -- you have to have a number for the Voice service to call to. It isn't a VOIP client like Skype, so I wouldn't expect this to support the iPod touch any time soon -- unless you were planning on using it to forward to a Skype number or something like that.

It's really more of a telephony abstraction than a client.

It does essentially give you number portability.

1. Set up Google Voice to forward your GV # to your cell phone.

2. Install the Google Voice app to get push notifications for SMS messages sent to your GV #.

3. Give out your GV # instead of your cell phone number.

4. Change the forwarding rules at will -- you can even use the same number for multiple phones.

Number portability in this context means the ability to use an existing number with new service, not the ability to use a new number which points back at your existing number.

Google's been on the record for several years as hoping to support this in the future.

http://www.google.com/support/voice/bin/answer.py?hl=en&...

There are way more iPod touches out there than iPhones. This could have been a great ipod touch app for people who don't want to pay ridiculous amounts for a phone.

Are there actually? Could you link me to numbers on that?

http://www.infosyncworld.com/reviews/cell-phones/apple-iphon...

iPod touch and iPad users account for a little under half of all iOS devices. Still a huge portion of the market to miss.

Thanks! That looks just about what I was (mentally) predicting.

Well it would only be good for SMS, since the iPod Touch doesn't have any ability to make and receive phone calls over the regular cell networks.

It doesn't install on the iPad either. My guess is that they set it to require "sms" or "telephony" functionality.

http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/General...

Google intends to release a version that will work with the iPad/iPod Touch (no VoIP calls, at least at first, but you'll be able to use texts and access your voicemail).

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