You can even do a “vanity” search for phone numbers that might spell your name, or snag specific digits you like. The calls you receive to these virtual numbers will forward to VoxOx and can be forwarded to any other phone numbers via VoxOx Find Me (our call forwarding feature). So … you can give out a number like 212-BEN-5555 and have it ring your cell phone. Pretty cool, right? 

There are probably a million ways to use these new virtual numbers, but I was thinking of a few of them, and I thought I’d share a few: 

1) For your Craigslist ads

Looking for a roommate on Craigslist? It would be useful to give out a contact number, but you may not be thrilled with the idea of some stranger having your cell phone or home number. The nice thing about virtual numbers is that you can just add the new number for a month, forward it to your cell, and when you’re done, cancel the number. So easy.

2) When you have a small business

Now, say you own a small business – perhaps a small consultancy with a highly mobile staff.  With VoxOx, you could buy a bunch of local numbers in areas you think you could drum up a lot of business, and suddenly you’re a local business in many places at the same time. Since small businesses like to go local in the first place, not bad, right? 

3) When you have family in another town (or Canada)

Ok, forget about the business world. Let’ s say you have a big crowd in your hometown.  Friends, cousins, uncles, brothers, sisters, etc., and you want to give them all a chance to call you without ringing up long distance charges. Now, I know most, if not all of us, have cell phones with long distance plans, but still, if you and your people back home are a bit budget-conscious (maybe they use a landline at home), it’s worth saving them a little  cash. And if you have folks in Canada, get a local virtual number there too, and then you’ll definitely save them some serious money.  (Suddenly the old axiom that you can’t be in more than one place at a time loses some merit.).

4) Hometown pride

Sometimes it’s just nice to be able to represent the city of your choice with your phone number.  Having lived in Miami for quite awhile, people love to call the city by its area code – 305.  And who could blame them? It’s a catchy number… also I think Ludacris’ famous area code anthem started it.  Anyway, I’m keeping my 305 number no matter what.  And if I ever lost it? You better believe I’d buy one again.  And it’s not just about Miami, I know someone whose 212 New York cell phone is a source of wonder, awe, envy and plenty of conversation (seriously).  Most of us identify with area codes in one way or another and now VoxOx gives you a way to buy them and represent where you’re from with pride…and text messages. Plus, if you don’t see the area codes you want, you can request more here. 

So there you have it.  All good reasons to get virtual numbers, but the best part is — you don’t have to pick just one. You can get as many virtual numbers as you want for any of these purposes, and they’ll all reach you in the same place.

Check out step-by-step instructions and pricing for our custom virtual phone numbers here. Or you can view our Frequently Asked Questions here.

Ben, the VoxOx Intern, is a second-year MBA student at the Thunderbird School of Global Management. He has drunk beer on 4 continents, is fluent in 3 languages and has an encyclopedic knowledge of obscure NBA players. Ben also...wait, are you really still reading this? Because, you know, he's just an intern.

follow Ben a.k.a “The Intern” twitter.com/voxox

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Why such strong demand? A couple of reasons. First, Google Voice users cannot currently receive calls on their desktop. Second, they can’t make phone calls directly from their desktop (without the use of an actual phone).

The VoxOx Alternative

VoxOx gives out a free U.S. phone number upon sign-up in the U.S. (and dozens of other supported countries). This number rings the user’s desktop application and it can also be forwarded to other numbers, but that’s not necessary in this scenario.

So, once someone adds the free VoxOx phone number to the list of phone numbers they maintain in Google Voice, the user gains the ability to pick up a phone call on their desktop. They also gain the ability to make VoIP calls directly from their desktop without the use of an additional phone. 

Receiving Calls to Your Desktop

Here’s the process of how to set this up. If you’re a Google Voice user:

1. Sign up for VoxOx and then download the desktop client. During the sign-up process, you’ll be asked to SMS-verify from your mobile phone to activate your free phone number. Make sure you complete this step to get your free number.

2. Sign into Google Voice. Under Settings / Phones, add your VoxOx phone number and name it VoxOx. You can choose “mobile” as the type of phone because VoxOx enables you to send and receive SMS text messages:

Credit: Google Voice

3. Confirm within Google Voice that VoxOx has been added as one of your phones:

Credit: Google Voice

That’s it for receiving calls on your desktop!  Your VoxOx desktop application will now ring anytime someone calls your Google Voice phone number. (And it’s all free of charge.)

Making Calls from Your Desktop

You can also dial out directly from your desktop (via the VoxOx softphone keypad), without the use of a physical phone. Just go to Keypad, and dial:

VoxOx Keypad

You can also set your Google Voice number as your caller ID by going to the Apps Tab and clicking on “Spoof Calls”:

VoxOx-to-VoxOx calls are free. Calls to telephone lines cost one penny per minute in the U.S. and Canada, and variable pennies per minute to other countries. (Though we hook you up with some initial credit when you sign-up.) 

Enjoy VoxOx as a seamless alternative for those who want a Google Voice desktop-like service right now… and give our other features a try too, like multi-protocol chat, social networking integration, fax, file sharing (up to 100 mb!), our real-time translation tool ”Universal Translator,” and much more. Check out our video tutorial on our features here.

Natasha Grach is a PR pro by day and singer by night -- when not telling the world about VoxOx, she can be found on stage at some of San Diego’s favorite musical theater venues. She is also a travel junkie. Her favorite countries include Turkey, Israel, Spain, UK, Italy, Russia, Lithuania. She’ll be using VoxOx SMS CallBack on her next trip around the globe!

follow natasha.grach twitter.com/natashagrach

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Recently, while on a business trip, I found myself needing to print out my boarding passes for my flights later that day. My hotel room was not equipped with a printer, and I wasn’t about to pay the ridiculous Internet and printing rates at the hotel’s business center. So, I wondered if VoxOx could help me out.

Our CEO, Bryan Hertz, who was traveling with me, suggested I do the following:

1. Check in for the flight using my laptop and the hotel room wifi
2. When the screen displays my boarding passes to print, save them as PDF files on my computer
3. Then, open up VoxOx and use the fax feature to send the PDF to the hotel to my attention
4. Grab it at reception at check-out and voila — all set!

This was incredibly handy for me, and, I imagine, this would be useful to any traveler in need of printing a document from a hotel room. So, whether you need to print your boarding pass, a copy of your passport, or your day’s agenda, VoxOx has you covered.

Michael is our Harvard/Wharton-educated, though technologically-challenged, president. In fact, when he’s not speaking with investors, we mostly use him for usability testing -- if HE can use it we know ANYONE can. Michael grew up in Italy and was very happy about the launch of our Universal Translator service as he can now pretend that he still speaks fluent Italian.

follow michael.faught twitter.com/voxox

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Well, that just happens to be our specialty! VoxOx lets you manage all your phones from a single phone number. With our call routing feature, VoxOx Find Me, you can create a common link between all your phone numbers – mobile, home, work phone, and so on – and then set all your phones to ring in sequence or simultaneously.

Say you’re in the kitchen preparing for your 4^th of July BBQ this weekend. You hear your cell phone ring and realize that you have no idea where it is! You may feel an urge to run like a chicken with its head cut off to find it and see who’s calling, but then you remember – you’ve set up Find Me to route the call to your home phone next. So, you can just dry off your hands and get ready to pick up the kitchen landline phone. Relaxing thought, no?

This type of rolling call forwarding can be really useful beyond party planning. With Find Me, you can be more accessible to the “VIPs” in your life (spouse, kids, elderly grandparents). You just give them your VoxOx number, and they’ll be able to reach you anywhere — work, mobile, home, a cabin in the woods — without having to dial a long list of phone numbers. Or, you can use Find Me for your business contacts. Say you want to be accessible to work colleagues and clients when you’re not at your desk, but you don’t want to give out your personal cell phone number. Just give out your VoxOx number, and turn on Find Me during the work week. This can also be handy for business travelers, as Find Me can forward calls anywhere, even to a hotel room overseas!  

So, here’s how you set up Find Me:

• Go to Tools -> Settings  -> Phone  -> Find Me, and enter all your other phone numbers in the order you’d like them to ring: 

• The numbers you select with a check-mark will ring in sequence.
• If you prefer to have all your phones ring simultaneously, then select the “Call Numbers Simultaneously” option.
• Set the number of seconds you want each phone to ring and then hit “Apply.”
• If you don’t pick up, ultimately the call will go to VoxOx voicemail. Read about how to access your VoxOx voice messages here.  
• You can add or remove phone numbers any time by coming back to this Find Me window within the VoxOx client, or by calling your VoxOx number, entering your 4 digit pin code and selecting the “Settings” option. 

Don’t forget that in order for VoxOx Find Me to kick in, you need to provide callers with a VoxOx phone number. This doesn’t mean that you need to get rid of any of your existing numbers – just think of the VoxOx number as your “umbrella” number that reaches all your phones, but if you want to be reached specifically on your cell phone or another device, then by all means, give that number out. If you’d rather not provide a new number at all, there’s a way to forward your mobile phone number to VoxOx.

So that’s it – you have all the tools to be totally accessible to all your 4^th of July party guests this weekend and beyond! Now go change your RSVP phone number on your Evite to your VoxOx number, take a deep breath, relax, and host your party with ease.

Have you tried Find Me yet? Please share a comment here about how it has helped you or someone you know, we would love to hear your story!

Natasha Grach is a PR pro by day and singer by night -- when not telling the world about VoxOx, she can be found on stage at some of San Diego’s favorite musical theater venues. She is also a travel junkie. Her favorite countries include Turkey, Israel, Spain, UK, Italy, Russia, Lithuania. She’ll be using VoxOx SMS CallBack on her next trip around the globe!

follow natasha.grach twitter.com/natashagrach

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1) Update your global status to let everything know your team scored

When your team scores you have about a second to react before the moment is gone. Just imagine yourself trying to post your “WE OWN YOU BRAZIL” on your Facebook, Twitter, AIM, etc.  By the time you’re done, the other team may have scored, and that’s just embarrassing. With VoxOx, you can update all your networks with one click. Just go to the status bar, bang out your best heckle and enter. Takes 2 seconds and your friends know who’s boss.

2) Use the Universal Translator to gloat to your friends in their language

Talking smack about other teams is fun, but what about talking international smack?  Not so fun when the other person doesn’t understand what you’re saying. Well, luckily we have just the thing – with the VoxOx Universal Translator feature, you just type your…er… feelings… in the VoxOx chat window and it gets instantly translated into the language of your international buddy on the other side of the world. You can do this with texts, emails and Tweets too.  I don’t speak any Spanish, but… mi abuela patea mas duro que tus delanteros! (It may not be perfect but it sure gets the point across.)

3) Screen your calls until half-time

If you’re a true fan, you probably don’t want to be interrupted watching the World Cup, except maaaaybe if someone has something really important to say.  With VoxOx you can screen all your calls, at least until half-time. You can even listen to the caller leaving a voicemail in real-time, and pick up the call at any point with VoxOx’s Eavesdrop™ feature. So, if your buddy calls and starts leaving you a voice message, ragging on your team, you can pick it right up and tell him what’s on your mind.  If you haven’t had a chance to give out your VoxOx number to your friends yet, you can just forward your cell to VoxOx and use many of these calling features. 

4) Set your country’s flag as your VoxOx avatar

It will be nice to look at and it’s one of the easiest things you can do to show your team pride. Just Google the image you want, save to your desktop, and then right click on your VoxOx default pic and browse for the image file. Or you can even get a little creative, like these guys we found online:

5) Call your international buddies for cheap when your team beats theirs

If you didn’t get enough gloating and smack-talking done with the Universal Translator, it always helps to finish the job with a phone call. VoxOx international calling rates are crazy cheap, we’re talking as low as a penny per minute. Did you see that goal? Was that striker off-sides? Can you believe that ref? With such low rates, you can talk about anything and everything and still have plenty of cash left to stock up on refreshments for the next match.

So with that, have an awesome time watching the World Cup in the coming weeks and don’t forget to use VoxOx to “express yourself” about it!

Matt is a software developer, working tirelessly behind the scenes to give us the tools we need to work faster and smarter. He’s the type of guy that is always updating his status, Tweeting, or jumping in on the newest social media network, which makes VoxOx a more-than-natural home for him. When he manages to disconnect from the Internet, you’ll find him glued to his xbox, enjoying the beautiful scenes of San Diego, or throwing a Frisbee.

follow Matt twitter.com/voxox

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All you do is you paste a URL for the video or graphic you want to send into the area where you type your text chats. Hit enter, and the URL will appear as either a clickable video or an image within your chat thread. Check it out:

Cool, huh?  Well if you think so, get your buddies to download VoxOx so you can have some fun with this feature. Once you get their username, just go to “Actions”, “Add Contact” to add them to your VoxOx buddies list, and chat away!  

By the way, to make your VoxOx window look like mine, go to “View”, “Appearance” and select “Modern Bubbling”. Many other choices there too:

Enjoy and keep on Voxing!

Natasha Grach is a PR pro by day and singer by night -- when not telling the world about VoxOx, she can be found on stage at some of San Diego’s favorite musical theater venues. She is also a travel junkie. Her favorite countries include Turkey, Israel, Spain, UK, Italy, Russia, Lithuania. She’ll be using VoxOx SMS CallBack on her next trip around the globe!

follow natasha.grach twitter.com/natashagrach

follow VoxOx twitter.com/voxox

TelCentris was just selected as a finalist for “Most Innovative Company of the Year” in The American Business Awards, a.k.a. “The Stevies,” and we’re thrilled! 

2,700 entries from organizations of all sizes and in virtually every industry were submitted for consideration in more than 40 categories, so you can imagine our excitement to be in the finals.  Last year, VoxOx won in the “Best New Product or Service” category at The American Business Awards, so we’re crossing our fingers for TelCentris this year!

Stay tuned and we’ll update you when the winners are announced in June at a big event in NYC.

Connie is the telephone number guru responsible for your VoxOx phone numbers (let's call her director of CLEC operations). With several certifications she’s really a jack of all trades and keeps us humming along. She may be dubbed the team step-mom, but has more fun than most! With all the RV trips to the River & Desert, VoxOx is great for staying in touch with the “real” world…who says you need to be stuck behind a desk?

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It’s Kevin’s birthday today, and what better birthday present can a guy get than to have his hard work and dedication acknowledged?   

Late last week, the third annual San Diego Business Journal IT Executive of the Year Awards event recognized the most outstanding Information Technology executives who work in San Diego County, and for the second year in a row, Kevin was selected as one of the finalists. Nominees were submitted by their fellow co-workers, which just goes to show how much we all think of Kevin around here.

SDBJ IT Executive of the Year Awards finalists in various categories (ours was Private Company)

The awards event focused on 2009 achievements – as CTO, Kevin championed several projects  including the expansion of our company’s IP network, the implementation of our CLEC infrastructure, and his crowning achievement was his leadership role in the public launch of VoxOx 2. Kevin continues to lead our technology efforts in 2010 (for which we’re sure to nominate him next time around).

The entire team congratulates Kevin on his achievements and wishes him a happy birthday!

Kevin Hertz, CTO and fearless technology leader

Connie is the telephone number guru responsible for your VoxOx phone numbers (let's call her director of CLEC operations). With several certifications she’s really a jack of all trades and keeps us humming along. She may be dubbed the team step-mom, but has more fun than most! With all the RV trips to the River & Desert, VoxOx is great for staying in touch with the “real” world…who says you need to be stuck behind a desk?

follow connie.sanders twitter.com/

follow VoxOx twitter.com/voxox

Sending mom a link to VoxOx will give her even more access to keep in touch with you on a regular basis. When she sees all the possible ways you can send her your love, it will make her day. So, why not start with Mother’s Day? 

Here are five ways you can wish her a Happy Mother’s Day via VoxOx:

1.    Call her on-the-cheap

My mom’s in Canada and she thinks I spend big bucks on phone bills (makes her love me even more). What she doesn’t know is that it costs 1 penny per minute to call Canada from VoxOx!  Plus, when you sign up for VoxOx in the U.S. or Canada, the first $1 worth of VoxOx credit is on us, so you can call a bunch of places worldwide for super cheap. 

It’s so easy too – just find her on your contact list, right click to select the contact, and then press the little phone icon. You’ll be giving her a call in no time!

And, if she’s not in your contact list, just go for the keypad tab:

2.    Let the world know she’s your favorite lady!

Declare your love for mom on all your IM/social network statuses from VoxOx by simply typing your message in the global status bar: 

3.    Fax her “I love you, mom” to her office

She won’t be expecting to see it when she comes in on Monday, and it will start her day off on a happy note.

As with calling, find mom on your contact list, right click to select her contact, and then press the little fax icon. For more details on how to fax via VoxOx, see our Earth Day entry.

4.    SMS ur xoxo from VoxOx

If your mom’s like mine she won’t text you, but you bet she reads the ones she gets… so text her “Happy Mother’s Day!” and make her smile.

Just like calling and faxing, you can text by finding her on your contact list and right clicking to select. Then, hit the button that says “SMS.”

VoxOx charges a 1 penny for outbound domestic U.S. & Canada texts, a 2 pennies for international texts. All inbound texts are free! Not bad, eh?

5.    Tweet your love for mom in 50 languages

If your mom is a real “with it” mom she might have her own Twitter account. Well, if that’s the case, why not send her a few loving Twitter @replies through VoxOx?

To do this, just find her Twitter profile in your VoxOx contact list, click on the Twitter logo by her name, and select “reply to”.

Now, if your mom speaks more than one language, VoxOx has a special way for you to impress her. For example, if she grew up in France (and raised you in CA), you can type your Twitter @reply in English, it will post in French.

To do this, when you select “Reply to,” a chat window will pop up — click on the globe icon (bottom right). Set your language, your mom’s language, and voila! Now you can tell the world that you love your mom in 50+ languages.

So, there you go – five ways to let mom know how much you love her. And with that, our VoxOx team would like to wish a Happy Mother’s Day to moms everywhere!

Connie is the telephone number guru responsible for your VoxOx phone numbers (let's call her director of CLEC operations). With several certifications she’s really a jack of all trades and keeps us humming along. She may be dubbed the team step-mom, but has more fun than most! With all the RV trips to the River & Desert, VoxOx is great for staying in touch with the “real” world…who says you need to be stuck behind a desk?

follow connie.sanders twitter.com/

follow VoxOx twitter.com/voxox

However, some folks would rather not give out a new phone number to people, and we here at VoxOx are cool with that. So, our trusted tech guys gave it some thought and found a way for you to keep your existing cell phone number and still be able to use some of the cool VoxOx perks. It works by forwarding your cell phone to VoxOx through a special set of instructions (provided below). Doing so will enable you to:

• Screen the call through the VoxOx Personal Assistant, which will ask the caller’s name
• Send the caller to voicemail, and let you Eavesdrop™ on the message as its being left – you can pick up at any time, just like those retro answering machines from the 90s!
• Record the call on-demand (*1 to start/stop recording), transfer the call to another phone (*2), and start a conference call with up to 20 people! (press *3 to add friends to your call)
• Use VoxOx voicemail, which lets you access your phone messages both via phone and online – this one’s good for folks who misplace their cell phone regularly and need to access their voicemails

Sold yet? Check out the instructions below, and remember, this is for VoxOx power users!

Instructions: How to forward your existing cell phone number to VoxOx

The instructions are a little tricky, but they work! We tried this with our CEO who has AT&T and he loves it.

(1)      Prep your VoxOx phone settings in the VoxOx client:

• Go to the General tab in Phone Settings (Tools -> Settings -> Phone -> General) and enter your name:

• Go to Tools -> Settings  -> Phone  -> Find Me. You will see your VoxOx number entered, so just enter your cell phone number after it and make sure both numbers are check-marked
• Set the number of seconds you want your VoxOx account to ring on your desktop (suggested: 1-2 seconds)
• Set the number of seconds you’d like your cell phone to ring before going to voicemail
• Where it says “Find Me”, check-mark “ring my numbers in order”:

(2) Forward your cell phone number to VoxOx:

This part is slightly different with every mobile carrier, but fairly simple to do and undo.  Below are the basic instructions, but if you have any specific questions, contact your cell phone carrier.

• With AT&T, you can forward your cell phone number with the following command:

On your cell phone, dial *004*1YOURVOXOXNUMBER*11*10# and press send.  For example: *004*13335554444*11*10#

To undo, dial ##004# on your cell phone and press send. 

• With V erizon, dial *71YOURVOXOXNUMBER on your cell and press send (Example: *713335554444); To undo, dial *73 and press send. 
• With Sprint, dial *28YOURVOXOXNUMBER on your cell and press send (Example: *283335554444); To undo, dial *38 and press send. 
• With T -Mobile, dial *004*1YOURVOXOXNUMBER# on your cell and press send (Example: *004*13335554444#); To undo, dial ##004# and press send. Note: From our research, T -Mobile seems to allow only 500 minutes of call forwarding before they charge you a fee. 

(3) THE TRICKY PART: What to do when someone calls you

You’ve followed the above instructions. Now, anytime someone calls your cell phone number, you will first hear a couple of rings on your mobile – don’t pick up. The ringing will pause for several seconds (to you it will look like you missed a call, but don’t panic, the phone will ring again). When the ringing resumes, this means that VoxOx has kicked in, so pick up and have some VoxOx fun!  As mentioned above, you can screen calls, “Eavesdrop,” record conversations, transfer your call on-the-fly, and more.

(4) Checking your voicemails

Once you’ve forwarded your mobile phone number to VoxOx, all your voicemails will now be stored in VoxOx. They are accessible online and via phone. You will be notified by text message when you have a new voicemail. Go to Notifications in (Tools -> Settings -> Notifications) and make sure that your voicemail notifications by email and text are check marked.

If you want to retrieve messages via phone, set up your 4 digit pin code (Tools -> Settings -> Phone -> Voicemail). Once you’re set up, you can call your VoxOx number anytime and press *PIN# (ex. *5555#) and you’ll get various options, including voicemail.

So there you go!  Just another way that VoxOx works hard for our loyal users. Try it and comment to let us know what you think.

Natasha Grach is a PR pro by day and singer by night -- when not telling the world about VoxOx, she can be found on stage at some of San Diego’s favorite musical theater venues. She is also a travel junkie. Her favorite countries include Turkey, Israel, Spain, UK, Italy, Russia, Lithuania. She’ll be using VoxOx SMS CallBack on her next trip around the globe!

follow natasha.grach twitter.com/natashagrach

follow VoxOx twitter.com/voxox