aTAKEphONE released

[takephone#AC]

Hi,

Afraid swipe cant be done, due to the nature of widgets interface.

 

[Groucho]

I loved TAKEphONE back in the Palm days & am looking forward to trying it out.

I used it with my Treo a zillion years ago and thought it was great. Downloaded the trial but there is no way to change the default on the phone soft button on an INC to make it useful. Would have to have a shortcut on a home page I guess.

 

[DroidGnome]

I used it with my Treo a zillion years ago and thought it was great. Downloaded the trial but there is no way to change the default on the phone soft button on an INC to make it useful. Would have to have a shortcut on a home page I guess.

I've never used an incredible, but when I have two applications on my Evo that can do the same thing, it opens up a choice dialog where I tell it Which app to use, much like the Home Selector.

I had problems with aTakePhone and the home button on my HTC SenseUI but got it working (though I'm not sure exactly how now).

Try this.. find an application that auto-dials a person (like maybe a link in an email) and see if it asks which application.. if so tell it takephone and 'remember this action'.. that should also force the button as well... but then again if it's a MotoBlur issue it might not work.. no clue.

I can say it works fine on the Sprint EVO with SenseUI as the home launcher.

 

[takephone#AC]

Hi all,

Just got my hands on a Nexus with OS 2.2 (FroYo), and it has the same issue - the on-screen PHONE button is hard-coded to launch the built-in PHONE app.

Afraid it seems they wrote it so NO other app can take over that button.

Sorry - currently only workaround I can offer is to put the aTAKEphONE icon on the launcher screen...

Any other offers are most welcome !

 

[meyerweb#CB]

I don't have any suggestions for the Phone button issue, but I have several suggestions for the app. (By the way, the EVO will let me assign TakePhone as the default app for the on screen phone button!)

Up until last week, I'd been using TakePhone on Palm for years. aTP has some nice features, but there are at least a couple of things that will keep me from buying it as it is today.

(1) First, and foremost, T9 sucks for searching contacts. I paid hundreds of dollars for a smartphone with an alphabetic keyboard, why would I want to use the same input method a $19 phone from Wally World uses? One of the best features of TP is the ability to search companies. So let's say I want people who work at IBM. I hit 4-2-6 and get all my IBM contacts, but also people named Handburg, and Hamilton, and Gamestop, and.....

(Note, I have an EVO, without a physical keyboard. The App needs to work with the on-screen alpha keyboard. Most Android phones don't have a physical one. If there's a way to force the on-screen keyboard to open, it isn't obvious.)

Let me use the built-in keyboard (in landscape AND portrait, please) to search contacts, so the app knows I mean "IBM" when I type I-B-M. You can leave the standard number pad as the default display, but when I tap on the "Enter a name or...." field bring up the keyboard, just like other Android apps. (Put the Help functionality under the Menu button, like other Android apps.)

Fix this, and I'll buy the app, and hope you fix the item below, too.

(2) The search results screen doesn't show enough information, because half the screen is taken up by the keyboard. The Palm version has separate search and keypad screens. Either do the same thing with the Android version, or give me a way to hide the keypad when search results are displayed. I think I'd prefer it to automatically devote the whole screen to the results, but a close keyboard button would be marginally acceptable. You could also shrink the font for the names in the search results screen a lot, which would allow me to see more entries. You could even let the user decide on the font size as a setting option.

(3) Not a functional issue, really, but it would be cool to be able to swipe left and right to shift between the Call Log, Find, Favorites and Dial Pad screens.


I'll keep playing with it, and if I have any other thoughts I'll let you know. But fix (1) and (2), above, and you've got a real winner.

Thanks,

 

[takephone#AC]

Hi,

Thanks for your detailed reply.

Actually these ideas are already on my list (both the qwerty keyboard, and the "hide keypad"). Will probably add them at some stage.

Might also add the swipe thing.

Thanks !

 

[meyerweb#CB]

Thank you Shimon. Looking forward to a version with these features.

One other thought: I'm wondering why TakePhone doesn't appear in the Market. I don't think most users are going to look beyond the market for apps, so they'll never know about TakePhone.

 

[bling300c]

search "aTakePhone" it is there.

One other thought: I'm wondering why TakePhone doesn't appear in the Market. I don't think most users are going to look beyond the market for apps, so they'll never know about TakePhone.

 

[meyerweb#CB]

I guess I searched for "TakePhone" without the leading "a". And I suspect that's how many people will search, especially those who came from the Palm platform.

Shimon should include the name TakePhone in the description, so it will show up either way.

 

[meyerweb#CB]

One more request, Shimon:

Can you add an option for slow DMTF tones. The stock dialer does the tones so fast some of the conference calling systems I have to use don't recognize the tones.

 

[takephone#AC]

I guess I searched for "TakePhone" without the leading "a". And I suspect that's how many people will search, especially those who came from the Palm platform.

Shimon should include the name TakePhone in the description, so it will show up either way.

Thanks for the tip - did it.

 

[takephone#AC]

One more request, Shimon:

Can you add an option for slow DMTF tones. The stock dialer does the tones so fast some of the conference calling systems I have to use don't recognize the tones.

Hi,

Afraid I can't control the DTMF dialing - it is the built-in dialer app that handles DTMF on a call - Google does not allow 3rd party apps to send DTMF tones on line...

 

[bling300c]

Shimon,

Can you add the ability to turn off the phone but still toggle BT? This is useful to listen to music on the phone via BT headphones.

 

[meyerweb#CB]

Hi,

Afraid I can't control the DTMF dialing - it is the built-in dialer app that handles DTMF on a call - Google does not allow 3rd party apps to send DTMF tones on line...

Don't think that's completely accurate. Check out the Dialer One app. It lets the user select DTMF intervals between 50 and 500 milliseconds. The dial-in services that fail with the standard dialer work with dialer one set to 400. (They may work with faster settings, too, but I haven't tried yet.)

 

[takephone#AC]

Shimon,

Can you add the ability to turn off the phone but still toggle BT? This is useful to listen to music on the phone via BT headphones.

Hi,

I will look into this, but not sure I will put this in aTAKEphONE - seems out of scope of the app.

 

[takephone#AC]

Don't think that's completely accurate. Check out the Dialer One app. It lets the user select DTMF intervals between 50 and 500 milliseconds. The dial-in services that fail with the standard dialer work with dialer one set to 400. (They may work with faster settings, too, but I haven't tried yet.)

Hi,

Just tested. These settings in Dialer One refer to it's ability to dial tones via the device speaker, and NOT for playing tones on an actual call (via the carrier).

You can not use them for when making calls to IVRs and stuff from your phone itself (via your carrier), but only when doing the call via a landline phone while holding the Android device next to the speaker.

I will be adding the "dial using DTMF" feature sometimes later on.

Thanks.

 

[meyerweb#CB]

Interesting. All I know is that dialing services that fail with the stock dialer seem to work with Dial One.

 

[takephone#AC]

Interesting. All I know is that dialing services that fail with the stock dialer seem to work with Dial One.

Interesting indeed. Did you try this with aTAKEphONE ?

Anyway - what I say is from Dialer One documentation.

 

[PainKiller]

I love this app. Not only is it a great step up from the stock dialer but I have gotten nothing but quick responses from the dev when I did have questions. It's how the app system should be...not overrun with crappy apps that take the money and run.

 

[meyerweb#CB]

Interesting indeed. Did you try this with aTAKEphONE ?

Anyway - what I say is from Dialer One documentation.

Not disagreeing with you, just wondering why it seems to make a difference. I'll test again with the stock dialer, Dialer One, and aTAKEphONE and let you know what happens.