Ring Ring

See Update Below

So I have a new phone number. It's supposed to be the last one I'll ever have according to Grand Central. Grand Central is a new service that I'm playing with. Here's their own schpeel about their service:

What is GrandCentral?

Get all the same calls, but in a whole new way.

GrandCentral doesn't replace your phones; we just link them together and help them do more. How do we do that? We give people One Number...for Life^TM - a number that's not tied to a phone or a location - but tied to you.

With GrandCentral, you can be reached with a single number, answer a call at any phone you want, seamlessly switch phones in the middle of a call, and even know whether a call is important before you take it.

What else can I do with GrandCentral?

We're not your typical phone company. And these aren't your typical features.

• Check your messages by phone, email, or online
• Keep all your messages online for eternity
• Record and store your phone calls (just like voicemail)
• Quickly (and secretly) block an annoying caller
• Click-to-dial from your address book
• Surprise your callers with a custom voicemail greeting
• Forward, download, and add notes to your messages

I've been using them for over a month now and I've really enjoyed the service. I like people being able to be reach me without trying to play phone tag. I also like having a single voicemail box. They offer a lot more features than the ones listed above. For example, they have custom rings that you're callers will hear while Grand Central (GC) tries to call your phone numbers, some of them are quite funny.

They also have a phone switch feature that allows you to transfer your current call to another one of Grand Central phones. For example, if someone calls me on my GC number and I pick up on my work phone. Let's say that it's my wife and she talks more than I expected (happens all the time) and I need to head for home. I can hit the '*' on the phone and GC will have all my other phone numbers tied to GC ring. So I pick up my ringing cell phone, hang up the work phone and continue talking to my wife without her ever knowing that she's been transferred.

It's been a great service. I think they are still in private beta so not everyone can sign up for the service right now. I still have a few invitations left, so let me know if you want to try out the service.

Update: GrandCentral is not doing invitation right now.
Update 2: GrandCentral is now Google Voice. The service is essentially the same just run by Google.