Google Voice

For those of you not familiar with it, Google Voice is a great way to keep in contact with your faves on your terms. This is a free Google service that gives you a new phone number that you can have ring any phone or phone you have. It can ring in as your google number or as the number of the caller. It can simply go straight to your Google Voice voicemail. You can text back and forth using this number. It can even transcribe each voicemail so you can read them like text messages or emails. You get to choose the area code and even the number itself from the available numbers list.

The main advantages here are having a new number not tied to any one phone, the ability to change that number if you are having trouble with girl, block numbers (which your cellphone carrier won't let you do) and have the calls all routed to voicemail if you want. There is a mobile app that makes it easier to do all this on your smartphone, though any phone can do it.

To learn more, check out http://www.google.com/googlevoice/about.… to learn more or google.com/voice to sign up. You do need a google account to sign up.