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"Even if you hold your laptop up to your face like a flip phone, talking into your computer is lame. You want to use Google Voice like a real phone-with buttons and stuff. We'll tell you how."

Pretty in-depth article about setting up a home phone to take advantage of Google Voice, with some hardware options so you can finally rid yourself of that landline. I'm done with my landline service so this was perfect timing for me. I'm slow to the VOIP bandwagon, but I'm trying to hitch a ride now.

"As rumored last night, Google Voice is now embedded within Gmail, allowing users to make and receive calls to their Google voice numbers, from right within their browser. That's pretty impressive."

I tested this on Wednesday afternoon, and it worked great. I thought it was going to depend on either flash or HTML5, but in fact, it uses its own plugin, and it should run in any browser. I tested it in Google Chrome, Safari and Camino, and it worked fine in all three. You can go to http://www.google.com/chat/voice/ to download the plugin. If you want to receive calls in Gmail, you'll have to set it up as a destination in Google Voice.

"Are you looking for an easy way to call or send SMS messages to your contacts using your Google Voice number right from your fingertips? GV Connect is your answer."

Nice way to send and receive SMS via your laptop or desktop. If you sync your contacts to your Google account then everything is right there for you to use. If you have a Google Voice account, this is something that works pretty seamlessly with it.