The iPhone app was eventually approved through the iTunes store, thank goodness. It will handle free text messages, both inbound and outbound, in a way that is nearly exactly the way the native "Messages" app works.

If you're in an area with poor data coverage in Anchorage (read: my kitchen), the Google Voice app is nearly unusable. You are also perfectly correct when you say it's a pain to explain having two phone numbers. It is even more painful to try to thoughtfully explain how to use each number without sounding like a pretentious ass.

Finally, you're right again on the text filtering. The call filtering is second to none, as far as I have experience. The text filtering doesn't exist, as far as I have found. Thanks for the warm welcome.