Google has found a way to let iPhone owners use Google Voice, the telephony management service whose iPhone-specific application Apple rejected last year.
On Tuesday, Google is launching a Google Voice Web application that runs on iPhone devices with the 3.0 OS or later versions, as well as on Palm WebOS devices.
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The Google Voice application leverages HTML 5’s functionality for running sophisticated Web applications on a browser at speeds matching those of native applications, Google said.
The application lets users tap into a “streamlined” version of the Google Voice inbox, display their Google Voice numbers in caller ID systems, listen to voice-mail messages, read voice-mail transcripts, exchange text messages free and make international calls billed at Google Voice rates, Google said.
To access the application, users need to go to the URL http://m.google.com/voice and sign into their Google Voice accounts. They don’t need to download anything to their phones.
Google and Apple, former corporate buddies turned snarling rivals, got into a spat last year when Apple rejected a Google Voice application for the iPhone.
Apple reportedly justified the rejection by arguing that Google Voice duplicates some native iPhone functionality, which Apple wants to avoid in third-party iPhone apps, while Google called the decision unfair.
The Google Voice-iPhone conflict is one of several issues putting the companies on a collision course. Google’s release of its Android mobile OS and devices based on it, as well as the development of the Chrome browser and Chrome OS all put it in a competitive position against Apple.
Citing increasing areas of competition, Google CEO Eric Schmidt stepped down from Apple’s board of directors last year.
Source: Computer World
