magicJack and magicJack Plus Support, Reviews, FAQs and Hacks

redpepper · Dan Should Pay Me Joined: 13 Oct 2009 Posts: 501

Starting this time next month (mid February 2012), you will be able to fully "re-purpose" any new, used or expired regular MJ dongle and switch to Google Voice's free calling services using the new downloadable "GVJack App" from PCPhoneSoft.com.

The "GVJack App" is designed to provide a featured landline calling experience. When placing calls while your computer is also in use, everything is processed quietly in the background without the use of popups and display screens so you can focus on your work.

To place a call, pick up the handset and use your phone's keypad to dial the number. When somebody calls your Google Voice number just answer your phone when it rings. You will also be able to use the same phone for online voice and video chats via Skype, Yahoo and Facebook.

Popular features including 7 digit local area dialing, caller id name and number delivery, call waiting and voice mail waiting indicators are currently undergoing rigorous testing in the lab and are working well. In addition, Google Voice has its own built in features for screening incoming calls.

Computer assisted calling is also supported. When you are surfing online, you will also be able to click on any phone number found on a given webpage to place a call. The "GVJack APP" is also designed to let you instantaneously access your online Google Voice account to send and receive SMS text messages.

While more expensive standalone solutions have their own merits, the additional redundancy that Google Voice offers make it an ideal fit for lower cost USB based hardware solutions. For example, Google Voice provides the flexibility to simultaneously ring your mobile phone when somebody calls. This redundancy means that you can continue to receive calls on your mobile phone even when your computer is powered off.

You will be able to download the "GVJack App" and try the full version with your regular MJ dongle for up to 7 days to see if it meets your needs prior to purchase. The one time software purchase will be significantly less than the price of a standard 1 year MJ service subscription.

nailgunner · MagicJack Sensei Joined: 18 Mar 2010 Posts: 1548

bitstopjoe · Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2012 6:40 am Post subject:

You guys are the best.........Hands down..........

conniemadagain

What happens when "Google Voice's free calling services" are not free anymore?

Google Voice's free calling services are good through 2012 as I understand ...

Darkman90808 · Dan Should Pay Me Joined: 27 Feb 2008 Posts: 701

What Joe said - you're awesome! I used your other prooducts, including the SkyJack with great results.

laserjobs · Dan Should Pay Me Joined: 12 Nov 2007 Posts: 670

Awesome idea, looking forward to it

redpepper · Dan Should Pay Me Joined: 13 Oct 2009 Posts: 501

The main Google web page http://www.google.com/chat/voice/ that promotes their calling service quotes "Free domestic calls within the US and Canada and low rates for other countries". There is no reference to a year at this point in time nor are there any footnotes provided with the statement so that it what we are using as our point of reference.

From outside press releases and interviews, it appears their strategy is to subsidize the costs of offering free domestic calling with international calling charges and the charges now being collected from users abroad as well. No doubt Google also have some advertising revenue plans.

None of this of course guarantees they will not start charging something in the future and people will need to make an informed decision at that time. The same of course very much holds true when MJ increases their standard 1 year subscription price for regular MJ dongles from $19.95 to $29.95 per year later this month. Some users will probably be making informed decisions about extending their MJ service.

Anyway, the "GVJack App" will be released in the next few weeks and it gives users a means to fully re-purpose their regular MJ dongles even if it has been tucked away in a drawer somewhere and has already expired.

cell14 · Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2012 4:50 pm Post subject:

A great idea! this way we will able to recycle the growing number of our expiring dongles.... Cool

cell14 · Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2012 4:55 pm Post subject:

redpepper · Dan Should Pay Me Joined: 13 Oct 2009 Posts: 501

If you have a MJ dongle you no longer need, the "GVJack App" will definitely give you the opportunity to sell it to somebody with a new useful life.

The license is not tied to any particular computer, Gmail account or Google Voice phone number.

You are able to log in and out of any account you want to have used for placing and receiving calls. You can also move your MJ dongle between computers using the same license.

The license is only tied to the physical MJ dongle that was used at the time of license key registration. If you are unlucky and have to replace your MJ dongle at some stage we will help you move the license key to the replacement MJ dongle.

Bill Smith · Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2012 11:21 am Post subject:

FYI - On December 13, 2011, Google announced that:

"As the holiday season approaches, we're happy to announce that we've extended free domestic calls within the US and Canada for 2012."

See: www.google.com/voice

There is a link there for the full announcement.

http://googlevoiceblog.blogspot.com/

conniemadagain · Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2012 11:43 am Post subject:

redpepper · Dan Should Pay Me Joined: 13 Oct 2009 Posts: 501

For clarification, the "GVJack App" is focused on the original regular MJ dongles only and not the MJ+ dongles.

If there is a reasonable unanticipated demand from MJ+ users, we may add support for them when they are plugged into the USB port of a computer.

blueskull · MagicJack Newbie Joined: 18 Mar 2011 Posts: 7

and the cost is what? cause i know everything cost something..

bitstopjoe · Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2012 3:01 pm Post subject:

So far every app RedPepper has released has been very reasonable in price and well worth the small $$ investment. I would expect this to be the same. Though I have no idea what he will be charging, I am only going by past performance..

nailgunner · MagicJack Sensei Joined: 18 Mar 2010 Posts: 1548

redpepper · Dan Should Pay Me Joined: 13 Oct 2009 Posts: 501

For clarification, users may still unplug and plug back in their MJ dongle at any time and use it with the MJ network the way they have done in the past as long as the GVJack App is not running.

genxweb · Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2012 9:24 am Post subject:

Thank goodness I kept one jack left to play with, the rest I sold.

stevereno · MagicJack Expert Joined: 06 Jan 2009 Posts: 86

Will the GV Jack App work on a thin client running XPe?

surfzombie · MagicJack User Joined: 14 Feb 2010 Posts: 45

This sounds awesome. I bought and have been using the magicFeatures plugin for a couple of years now with great success. Redpepper could you make a video showing this in action and setup up? some of us are visual learners. I just bought an obi110 and have it running with GV and I am planning on letting my MJ expire the end of April. It would be nice to use your new GVjack app on my soon to expire MJ.

redpepper · Dan Should Pay Me Joined: 13 Oct 2009 Posts: 501

A video is in the works but you can download it now and try it out free for a few days.

You literally just download and install the GVJack App and then sign into your Gmail account to start placing calls. The user interface for the advanced features is very similar to the Magicfeatures Plugin so you will be on very familiar ground.

No technical expertise is really needed. To go back to your existing setup just exit the GVJack App and plug your MJ dongle back in again.

redpepper · Dan Should Pay Me Joined: 13 Oct 2009 Posts: 501

Release 1.01 is now available for download and includes the following additional features:

- Automatic Call Redialing
- Per Call Screening
- Call Forwarding (*72/*73)
- Speed Dialing (0 to 9999)
- Enhanced Per Call PIN Dialing ##7X (where X is the PIN digit you want to send)
- Enhanced Sign In / Sign Out

Min. Spec: 1Ghz CPU / 1 Gig RAM

stevereno · MagicJack Expert Joined: 06 Jan 2009 Posts: 86

Once I purchase GV Jack, am I allowed to install it on both my desktop and laptop, so long as I'm only running one instance at a time?

redpepper · Dan Should Pay Me Joined: 13 Oct 2009 Posts: 501

You can use it on as many computers as you want with the MJ dongle used at the time of initial license key registration.

The GVJack App is MJ dongle device specific but it is not computer specific.

hbp112358 · MagicJack Newbie Joined: 23 Jul 2012 Posts: 1

not everyone uses windows, do you have plans to cross compile the code for OS X for linux? I would love to use your GVjack app, but the expense and hassle of dedicating the resources to a VM, or real box just to run windows for a phone server seems unreal.

just a Question.
HBP112358

redpepper · Dan Should Pay Me Joined: 13 Oct 2009 Posts: 501

No plans or resources available for that at the moment.

RodBsr · magicJack Apprentice Joined: 05 Oct 2012 Posts: 13

This may have been covered somewhere else and I cannot find it but

how is the CALL QUALITY with GVJack App and an MJ dongle compared to just the MJ by itself?

better?

the same?

worse?

would it be good enough to use with an older xp computer with only 1g of ram to make that computer useful?

call quality is very important to me.

redpepper · Dan Should Pay Me Joined: 13 Oct 2009 Posts: 501

As long as you have at least a 1Ghz CPU and 1GB RAM on your old "bare bones" computer setup and preferably use a wired Internet connection rather than a WiFi Internet connection you should be fine.

In any case you can download and try it free for 7 days to make sure it meets your expectations in whatever computer environment you have set up prior to making a purchase decision.

If you decide you don't need your MJ dongle anymore, please consider selling it on Ebay so somebody else can enjoy using it with Google Voice. There is a pretty strong demand at the moment.

RodBsr · magicJack Apprentice Joined: 05 Oct 2012 Posts: 13

Thank you. my old computer has a 2.4 cpu with 1g ram.

I am paid up on my original style MJ dongle until Feb, 2014 but the way I read things I can still use the program OR MJ by itself, correct?

I do have a 15 mbps wired cable internet connection but I may need a newer phone as the phone I currently have connected to my MJ is quite old and basic. it seems to work fine as a second phone line and phone except for calls to and from Canada.

I have no plans to renew with MJ as I've just read and heard too many things about how much worse the CS is now compared to four years ago when I got mine. How many have issues with the new MJ Plus and routers and more and I feel like I'd just be better off going this way but I still want it to give me good service. I'm older and not very technical so I figured I'd start asking some questions. We plan on ridding ourselves of our long time landline next year and going with this and prepaid unlimited talk basic cell phones with a new laptop for our main computer and this old desktop for a secondary computer for just a couple specific things including this program. All landlines get you these days are calls you don't want and 911 which of course is important to us... the older crowd.

redpepper · Dan Should Pay Me Joined: 13 Oct 2009 Posts: 501

Yes. If you want to revert to using your magicJack in its original form just close the GVJack App and unplug your magicJack and plug it back in again.

tcgc70 · Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2012 9:44 am Post subject:

I signed up for the GVJack App yesterday on a free trial. It was very easy to install and I am trying it on an XP machine and a Windows 7 machine. So far it is working good, I had some beeps, but went to the instructions how to stop them, and it seems to have helped. I have had a Google number for a while and it rings all my phones. Thanks redpepper!

Neil · MagicJack Newbie Joined: 23 Feb 2012 Posts: 3

Has any progress been made on using MagicJack Plus with GVJack App?

redpepper · Dan Should Pay Me Joined: 13 Oct 2009 Posts: 501

For MJ+ dongles, just follow the download and installation instructions at http://download.pcphonesoft.com .

The GVJack App has 20+ professional features available including incoming call screening and you can download and try it out free for 7 days. Phone calls within the US/Canada are free and you can set up your Google Voice account to ring your cell phone at the same time. You can also use your regular phone to talk on Skype, Facebook and Google+ Hangout voice/video calls. The result is a next generation social media phone service.

If you decide to go with a different solution, please consider selling your MJ+ dongle on Ebay for use with Google Voice. There is a pretty decent demand so you should get a few bucks for it.

chadmd23 · magicJack Apprentice Joined: 18 Jul 2008 Posts: 13

Can you clarify if you can use a MJ+ plugged into an outlet (not a PC) after you load GVJack?

I can't wait to say goodbye to MJ and their crappy service!!

redpepper · Dan Should Pay Me Joined: 13 Oct 2009 Posts: 501

The GVJack App provides next generation social media phone service and the MJ or MJ+ dongle must be plugged into the USB port of a computer with further clarification.

It includes 20+ professional features including 7 digit local area dialing, caller id name/location, talking caller id and incoming call screening and you can also use your regular phone to talk on Skype, Facebook and Google+ Hangout calls.

You can still answer calls on your mobile phone so you are not out of touch if you power off your computer or there is a glitch on your Internet connection. It is free to download and try for 7 days before you need to make a purchase decision.

If you ever decide to ditch your MJ+ please consider putting it on Ebay as the demand is still pretty high for expired/used ones.

chadmd23 · magicJack Apprentice Joined: 18 Jul 2008 Posts: 13

redpepper: do you think you will be able to get your software to work without a PC in the future on the MJ+? I stopped using a desktop PC once I got my MJ+, and hope I don't need one to use your software.

redpepper · Dan Should Pay Me Joined: 13 Oct 2009 Posts: 501

That's probably never going to happen.

For reference, there are lots of MJ+ owners that are plugging in their dongles and using the GVJack App with them these days.

It is definitely not a perfect world but with the extended list of features, full integration with Gmail contacts, the mobile phone simultaneous ring feature and the ability to also use your regular phone for talking on Skype/Facebook, the current solution offered works out pretty well for most.

mcx151 · magicJack Apprentice Joined: 21 Jul 2009 Posts: 24

only way around using gv w/o a computer is obi...

I was dawn to MJ + for the very reason of not leaving my computer on. But since the years don't transfer over as soon as my contract expires and will be decision time to go with obi or upgrade to gv running on my old MJ dongle...