Phone user interface

[John K]

I've recently bought an XDA and having a phone, pda and web browser all combined in something that fits into my pocket is pretty unbelievable :)

However most of the time I want to use it as a phone, and the user interface is dreadful. Is there a replacement phone app available? Something as easy and familiar as a Nokia clone would make the XDA immeasurably better.

I've searched around and not seen any sign of something like this, but it seems such an obvious thing to want! Dialing numbers in the phone app is OK, but looking them up in the contacts list without using the stylus is hit and miss to say the least. Unless I am missing something . . .

Any ideas?

Thanks
John

[Qman]

Check out D9 (Phone Dialer)
http://www.pocketgear.com/software_detail.asp?id=8181

D9 is an open-source, freeware advanced dialler for Pocket PC Phone Edition devices, such as the O2 xda. The main advantage of D9 over the built-in dialler is that it features predictive text entry, meaning that you will normally only have to enter the first few letters of the name of the person you wish to contact. What's more, the buttons throughout the application are nice and big, ideal for thumbs rather than styluses!

Feature list:

Predictive text entry: D9 works out who you're after, meaning it only takes a few keypresses to get in touch. It uses your Outlook contacts for its database, so there's no need to enter any names or numbers - it's all automatic.

Regular number dialling: Of course, you can dial a regular phone number rather than enter a name, should you wish. Simply enter the number as normal and tap the Dial button.

SMS support: Sending a contact a text message is easy with D9. Simply find the person you want and then hit the SMS button by the appropriate phone number.

Contacts list: Shows a list of all your contacts that have phone numbers.

Speed Dial: Add up to 12 entries to your Speed Dial list.

[John K]

Thanks, that's great :)

John

[smittyofdhs]

I've recently bought an XDA and having a phone, pda and web browser all combined in something that fits into my pocket is pretty unbelievable :)

However most of the time I want to use it as a phone, and the user interface is dreadful. Is there a replacement phone app available? Something as easy and familiar as a Nokia clone would make the XDA immeasurably better.

I've searched around and not seen any sign of something like this, but it seems such an obvious thing to want! Dialing numbers in the phone app is OK, but looking them up in the contacts list without using the stylus is hit and miss to say the least. Unless I am missing something . . .

Any ideas?

Thanks
John

instead of searching via the contact list, why no use voicec dialing? Fonix VoiceDial works awesome and it accurate 99.9% of the time and it REQUIRES NO VOICE TRAINING. Since installing voicedial, I never have to go thru the contacts again searching for a number.

[John K]

I'll have a look at Voice Dial. I've binned D9 as it kept crashing my XDA and I didn't like the way it kept its own duplicate contact list.

Still looking for other options. I can't believe that there aren't more ii it seems such an obvious thing!

Cheers
John

[Fil]

Fonix Voicedial is amazing, the fact that it does what it does with absolutely no training whatsoever is slightly special.

I do find however, that you can only use it in really quiet situations, or you end up shouting at it as it is very very sensitive.

But, with a 30 day trial and after that just a paltry $19.95 it doesn't really need thinking about.

:D

[Birdman]

I too find Vonix VoiceDial amazing. I use it all the time to dial contacts, and I find that as long as I speak directly into the mic, it works very well even in noisy situations.
The one thing I can't get it to do well, however, is dial by number. For some reason, when I call out the phone number, it makes lots of mistakes. Dialing by name from the contacts list is extremely accurate, dialing by number, considerably less so.

[AdrianP]

Does anyone know whether you can install Fonix VoiceDial to an SD Card rather than main memory?

Thx

[Fil]

It can, I have mine installed to my SD card.

One thing that is starting to annoy me is that Fonix is now 14 days away from the end of the trial period... but it reminds me everytime I use it.

'You have xx days left of your trial period.....'

Time to pay up I think...