So what’s better than voicemail? It can only be visual voicemail, right? And now it is being offered at MetroPCS on several of their headsets.

The company announced that they were integrating two new visual voicemail services to selected headsets. The service will enable users to view a list of voicemail messages in their inbox and select which messages they want to listen to, the other way that they prefer. The service will be called Visual Voicemail Plus. This is the same service but with message transcription compaired to the other plan.

However, both service will allow users to reply to voicemail with SMS, MMS, E-Mail, or through normal conventional means (yawn) voice call. MetroPCS is bringing these visual voicemail services first to the Samsung Galaxy Induldge, the LG Optimus M, and the Huawei Ascend. A monthly plan of $45 is needed for non-4G phones, and a min. of $50 for 4G phones. Customers can get the visual voicemail plus for an extra $5.

So MetroPCS PPCGeeks, does this excite you? Tell us below what you think of this new offering.

Source: MobileTopSoft

Recently Google pulled one of the most popular Visual VoiceMail applications from Android Market, PhoneFusion. The reason is because they were said to be citing a violation of the developer payment rules. Basically, they were targeted for not processing application payments through Google Checkout.

This just shows us that Google is on top of their game and they will catch you if you aren’t taking payments the correct way. We aren’t saying the developer knew what he was doing or did it intentionally, but you have to make sure things are done the right way or this happens.

Jonathan Hollander, EVP of PhoneFusion, said Google never made clear what the violation was and that he believes Google is forcing them to use Google Checkout for in-app payments. His application is free but does make money using premium features like voicemail transcription, ad-free service and the ability to receive faxes through a dedicated number. PhoneFusion runs those extra purchases through its own website similar to how Amazon links to its own site for Kindle purchases. This is where he made his mistake apparently. Hollander said the move by Google is similar to Apple’s, which forces developers and publishers to use Apple’s in-app purchase system and prohibits them from linking to websites for outside payments.

When developers at PhoneFusion asked Google to give an explanation of “why,” they were then directed to section 3.3 of the Android Market Developer Distribution Agreement:

If you want to collect fees after the free trial expires, you must collect all fees for the full version of the Product through the Payment Processor on the Market. All fees received by Developers for Products distributed via the Market must be processed by the Market’s Payment Processor.

The application will not be gone forever so don’t panic. If you were one of the million who used it, just be patient while they figure out what exactly they need to do. Seems like they just need to re-submit the app with a new name. This is what Google wants which will of course cause them to lose all the positive reviews and download statistics they have previously racked up. Ouch!

Let us know what you think. Is this fair? Do you think the developers knew what they were doing? Leave your comments below.

Source: GigaOM & Engadget

YouMail today annouced that Sprint users can now use their visual voicemail service at no extra charge, but only on their Blackberry and Android phones.

You can either get it from the Blackberry App World or by going to www.youmail.com and signing up for an account.

This service lets you:
-Quickly and easily scroll through incoming voicemail messages to see relevant caller information including caller name, time of call, and length of message
-Play voicemails by simply clicking on them
-Unlock voicemail to easily share and forward voicemails as an email or post to a blog
-Delete, archive or save voicemails, forever

Source: FuzeMobility