New SpeedDial App Reviewed on a Treo 650
Another one of those simple functions that Palm overlooked when designing the Treo was speed dial. Yes, we have Favorites buttons where we can assign 70 contacts or applications, but they’re not what everyone knows as speed dial.
Enter LionScribe. LionScribe has come up with a utility that gives your Treo the traditional functionality of speed dialing from your number keys or your dial screen. No more press and hold; just enter your one or two digit code and dial. There’s room for 99 speed dial contacts, so you’re far more likely to forget someone’s code than need room for more.
Setup is easy. The main screen allows you to enable the two features of SpeedDial. After enabling SpeedDial, all that’s left is to configure your contacts. SpeedDial uses intelligent lookup, so the only thing necessary is tapping the speed dial spot, and looking up the contact you want to attach to that number. You can change the number with a drop down menu.
SpeedDial also includes a nifty extension dialer. With this option enabled, you only need to enter the last four digits of a contact’s phone number. This is great for corporate users who have a contact database filled with colleagues who all have the same main phone number but different extensions. When you’re at work you need only key in the party’s extension, and now you have that same ease from your Treo.
SpeedDial is currently in beta phase, but expected for general release version the end of April. The beta is definitely stable. LionScribe is working on some enhancements, requested by their beta testers. One feature they will be adding in ShortDial, is that if there are 2 or more matching numbers, the user would be prompted for which to use. Without this option set, it uses the first number it finds, which is the one in the SpeedDial list. Once the enhancements are coded, if the 2 numbers are the same, then you will not be prompted.
The only complaint that I have with SpeedDial is that I’ve had to disable the option of “Typing starts Contacts search.” But I can live with that. SpeedDial will be available for purchase from the mtdn store when the beta phase is over.
Related Links
Discuss SpeedDial and other Treo Utilities in mytreo.net/forum.
Filed under: Software reviews
Loading ...
Pretty good app, but a few suggestions… speed dial based on numbers is fine, but as we have a qwerty keyboard, it would be good to have speed dial from a single letter..
also, I had a previous phone with a twist on the short dial solution. This allowed me to specify a “default” prefix (areacode-prefix) so that if I dialed the last 4 and there was no match to my contact list, it would assign the default prefix. GREAT for that corporate user without having to add 9,000 entries to the contact list !
Follow up to previous comment. I sent the suggestion to the developer and within 48 hours I had an email back telling me they had added the functionality I requested !!!
Very responsive !!!