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aTAKEphONE released

I know you mentioned this, but having a widget for favorites would be great. All the other favorite widgets out there use the default dialer and do not handle the extensions correctly making them useless for the most part if you have phone numbers with and extension in your contacts.

What is the best designed widget in your opinion ?
 
Well, I have tried the People widget and also the widget from LauncherPro. I think if it is linked to Takephone's favorites that shows a picture of the contact would be great. Also, I like the ability that if you click on it, it dials the default number but if you press and hold, it allows you to call, email, send an SMS, or even get directions. I would also suggest setting the size of the widget and allow scrolling.

Just my 2 cents. I am sure other people will provide feedback as well.

Thanks.
 
What is the best designed widget in your opinion ?

I would prefer a widget that mimics the ibar. a 4x1 that is scrollable sideways (is that even possible tho?) and different options between long pressing and just tapping similar to the behavior it has while in takephone. I also have the LauncherPro contacts widget but what I never use it because i prefer just going into atakephone and using the ibar. It would be awesome to skip the "going into atakephone" step and simply have the ibar available as a widget. If the scrolling sideways was not an option, and vertical ibar would be my next choice.

Thanks,

Christi
 
I would prefer a widget that mimics the ibar. a 4x1 that is scrollable sideways (is that even possible tho?) and different options between long pressing and just tapping similar to the behavior it has while in takephone. I also have the LauncherPro contacts widget but what I never use it because i prefer just going into atakephone and using the ibar. It would be awesome to skip the "going into atakephone" step and simply have the ibar available as a widget. If the scrolling sideways was not an option, and vertical ibar would be my next choice.

Thanks,

Christi

Hi,

What I was thinking of is indeed a widget with the 4x1 i-Bar structure, but with to arrows on each side to allow paging to the next/prev 4 entries.

Possibly if space permits - a "last call" line above the i-Bar strip.
 
just for visuals, can you add some color the bottom of the dialer (i.e. call, favorites)? it looks plain with just gray

Hi,

Can you post a screenshot of a suggestion ?

I will probably add skinning support later on, so you'll be able to build your own GUI.
 
Hi,

What I was thinking of is indeed a widget with the 4x1 i-Bar structure, but with to arrows on each side to allow paging to the next/prev 4 entries.

Possibly if space permits - a "last call" line above the i-Bar strip.

Personally I'd not ever really need the last call as its just as easy to go click the phone button on the bottom to take me right there (if that's how you set up atakephone to begin with of course)

Whatever you end up making, PLEASE consdier some of the newer devices have larger screens and 4 icons across might be a bit larger than we need. (perhaps an option to scale?). I've tried quite a few widgets, that do exactly as you seem to be heading, and honestly they just don't work as good as your Ibar. The scrolling itself seems to be my biggest gripe, as it's a lot faster than clicking an icon.. especially when it's so easy to misclick.

Personally I'd be happy with a Vertical bar even that allowed scrolling so long as it was only 1 across. Similar to the HTC Sense "People" widget, but allowed for more than 3 pics at a time and didn't take up half the screen :)

I know vertical scrolling is allowed in several launchers now (ADW and Launcher Pro)

Also one minor issue that is driving me nutts... I don't know if something changed or if I never had the sound on but I HATE the default selection sound in takephone. The dialing sound is great but anything else such as moving from favortes to dial, has an awful "thwap" sound. I would like to request either the ability to change the sound (via custom ringtone/sound file) or at least provide some alternates that are a bit more ear friendly. Again it's a minor issue and has no functionality problems, but because of it i've had to turn off the sound entirely.
 
Hi,

Scrolling is an inner interface within those launchers. Will consider supporting it.

Regarding the sound - any offer would be welcome. I need a WAV file...

Thanks !

Personally I'd not ever really need the last call as its just as easy to go click the phone button on the bottom to take me right there (if that's how you set up atakephone to begin with of course)

Whatever you end up making, PLEASE consdier some of the newer devices have larger screens and 4 icons across might be a bit larger than we need. (perhaps an option to scale?). I've tried quite a few widgets, that do exactly as you seem to be heading, and honestly they just don't work as good as your Ibar. The scrolling itself seems to be my biggest gripe, as it's a lot faster than clicking an icon.. especially when it's so easy to misclick.

Personally I'd be happy with a Vertical bar even that allowed scrolling so long as it was only 1 across. Similar to the HTC Sense "People" widget, but allowed for more than 3 pics at a time and didn't take up half the screen :)

I know vertical scrolling is allowed in several launchers now (ADW and Launcher Pro)

Also one minor issue that is driving me nutts... I don't know if something changed or if I never had the sound on but I HATE the default selection sound in takephone. The dialing sound is great but anything else such as moving from favortes to dial, has an awful "thwap" sound. I would like to request either the ability to change the sound (via custom ringtone/sound file) or at least provide some alternates that are a bit more ear friendly. Again it's a minor issue and has no functionality problems, but because of it i've had to turn off the sound entirely.
 
This may seem like a really crazy question but is there a way to get aTAKEphONE to be the default app when there is an incoming call? I seem to recall it was an option to set on my old Palm phone which made for less problems.
 
I downloaded the latest version to try it again. At this point, I've taken LPP off my droidx. It worked for half a day and then started totally locking up the phone. Had to do a soft reboot to fix.

I have no idea what is going on. Obviously, it is not LPP. Could be Touchdown, I don't know. I know I really like the aTakephone app, I like it alot. It is much, much better than DialerOne ... except for the freeze problem. I'd gladly pay $10 for this app if it worked flawlessly.
 
This may seem like a really crazy question but is there a way to get aTAKEphONE to be the default app when there is an incoming call? I seem to recall it was an option to set on my old Palm phone which made for less problems.

Hi,

Not sure I understand - what would you need this for ?

Thanks
 
I downloaded the latest version to try it again. At this point, I've taken LPP off my droidx. It worked for half a day and then started totally locking up the phone. Had to do a soft reboot to fix.

I have no idea what is going on. Obviously, it is not LPP. Could be Touchdown, I don't know. I know I really like the aTakephone app, I like it alot. It is much, much better than DialerOne ... except for the freeze problem. I'd gladly pay $10 for this app if it worked flawlessly.

That's a real bummer.

Is LPP Launcher Pro ? why the extra P ? (maybe I am testing with a wrong launcher app ?)

Maybe I should install Touchdown ? Can I ?
 
Hi all,

I am going on a (long awaited) vacation in the UK starting tomorrow, until 23/8.

So - not sure I will be available here (will try - from time to time...).

Sorry for the inconvenience.
 
That's a real bummer.

Is LPP Launcher Pro ? why the extra P ? (maybe I am testing with a wrong launcher app ?)

Maybe I should install Touchdown ? Can I ?

LPP is Launcher Pro Plus. It's the paid version and adds some extra eye candy. For purposes of testing your app, it shouldn't make a difference.
 
I guess I don't really need it to be my incoming call app too but as it is the phone app I use when I am calling it is the more familiar one so I would simply prefer to have it also the one that is used for incoming calls. If you can't do it I won't complain though. It is a minor thing.
 
Hi Shimon,

Been using Takephone on my Centro for a long time and when I bought a HTC Desire a few weeks ago the first program I bought was aTakephone to get back some of the functionality of Takephone that I relied on a lot.

I have been using aTakephone for a couple of weeks now and here are some of the MAJOR issues that I encounter and hope you can help fix them:

The function that I wanted very badly was the ability to search in different fields within contacts like on my Centro, including in particular searching by tel numbers to identify a name. The Centro did this fast with the physical keyboard and the search logic was exactly as I wanted it.

But with aTakephone, I have given up using this search/find fuction as it is very slow to the point of being irritating. When I type using your dialpad, after a few keys the app just lags heavily while it does a search for the next letter/number and so on.

4 important points to raise here:

1. When I am on the Find/Dial screen, can I please have the choice of having my proper on screen keyboard shown instead of your dialpad. This presumably will make searching faster as I will call on a specific alphabet rather than 3-4 different alphabet possibilities associated with each key on your dialpad. I find using your dialpad really annoying for doing fast searching and I have given up using it to search and reverting to the htc built in search function (which defeats the purpose of me installing aTakephone in the first place)

2. Can you please implement separate tabs for "Find" and "Dial Pad" like on my Centro. The problem with this merged tab is that when I want to just dial a number rather than doing a search, typing numbers will lag because the app is trying to do a search (problem is compounded by the fact that search is not efficient using your dialpad).

3. When searching for names on my Centro, for eg. if my father in law is recorded as "F-I-L" in the name field in contacts, the typing "FIL" using my Centro keyboard will bring up the entry. Takephone on the Centro will ignore "-" and "." and make the search flexible. Not so on the HTC Desire. aTakephone will not find the entry because it is looking for the exact entry of "F-I-L" in the names field which I can't input anyway using the inefficient onscreen dialpad. & that is very annoying.

4. The last major problem is searching for contacts using telephone numbers. Most telephone numbers in my contact list are formatted like this xxx.xxx.xxxx (with a dot separating every three or four digits). For eg. let's take the telephone number 123.123.1234 On the Centro, if I wanted to find out the contact detail by typing in this telephone number, all I do is type 1231231234 and the contact will be found. On the Desire, aTakephone will never find this number. Even if I attempted to invoke my onscreen keyboard by long pressing the Menu button on the Desire, the "." is difficult to insert and in any case aTakephone does not seem to recognise it.


All I am hoping for is for aTakephone to bring back the above capabilities that were so useful and efficient on my Centro. I do not use fancy graphic stuff like iBar and things like that. I want aTakephone to be an efficient search and dial tool just like on my Centro.

Please help.

Sorry for the long note but I am trying to be as specific as I can be with the issues.

Thank you Shimon.
 
Hi Shimon,


1. When I am on the Find/Dial screen, can I please have the choice of having my proper on screen keyboard shown instead of your dialpad. This presumably will make searching faster as I will call on a specific alphabet rather than 3-4 different alphabet possibilities associated with each key on your dialpad. I find using your dialpad really annoying for doing fast searching and I have given up using it to search and reverting to the htc built in search function (which defeats the purpose of me installing aTakephone in the first place)


2. Can you please implement separate tabs for "Find" and "Dial Pad" like on my Centro. The problem with this merged tab is that when I want to just dial a number rather than doing a search, typing numbers will lag because the app is trying to do a search (problem is compounded by the fact that search is not efficient using your dialpad).

Two awesome suggestions.. I too came from a Centro and have been a takephone user for years. I think these two features would make the dialer extremely more user friendly.

I'd add a couple of settings to those however, allow one or the other to be the 'default' screen when entering aTakephone (Or better yet allow us to make a shortcut to either function so we could 'swipe' it using Launcher pro!) ... and allow the Ibar to be on either or both screens.
 
Hi,

Sorry for the delay in answering this. Just got back for a (great) vacation in the UK.

Please find my comments below:

1. When I am on the Find/Dial screen, can I please have the choice of having my proper on screen keyboard shown instead of your dialpad. This presumably will make searching faster as I will call on a specific alphabet rather than 3-4 different alphabet possibilities associated with each key on your dialpad. I find using your dialpad really annoying for doing fast searching and I have given up using it to search and reverting to the htc built in search function (which defeats the purpose of me installing aTakephone in the first place)

>>>> Well - while I do plan on adding an option for a "real" keypad, I have to say the whole start point of aTAKEphONE was this T9 search method - since it allows for bigger buttons that are easier to use on the small screen.

>>>> From my experience - it's faster to use the T9 for searching text in contacts then to fiddle with the small full keypad buttons.

>>>> I am aware there are issues with the numbers lookup, and that this makes the latest version real slow sometimes. Will resolve this asap. I promise.

2. Can you please implement separate tabs for "Find" and "Dial Pad" like on my Centro. The problem with this merged tab is that when I want to just dial a number rather than doing a search, typing numbers will lag because the app is trying to do a search (problem is compounded by the fact that search is not efficient using your dialpad).

>>>> Again - will resolve this asap - will make entering the number as fast as it should be (will make it respond in no time, and search in parallel).

3. When searching for names on my Centro, for eg. if my father in law is recorded as "F-I-L" in the name field in contacts, the typing "FIL" using my Centro keyboard will bring up the entry. Takephone on the Centro will ignore "-" and "." and make the search flexible. Not so on the HTC Desire. aTakephone will not find the entry because it is looking for the exact entry of "F-I-L" in the names field which I can't input anyway using the inefficient onscreen dialpad. & that is very annoying.

>>>> This is a bug. Will fix this asap.

4. The last major problem is searching for contacts using telephone numbers. Most telephone numbers in my contact list are formatted like this xxx.xxx.xxxx (with a dot separating every three or four digits). For eg. let's take the telephone number 123.123.1234 On the Centro, if I wanted to find out the contact detail by typing in this telephone number, all I do is type 1231231234 and the contact will be found. On the Desire, aTakephone will never find this number. Even if I attempted to invoke my onscreen keyboard by long pressing the Menu button on the Desire, the "." is difficult to insert and in any case aTakephone does not seem to recognise it.

>>>> This is a bug. Will fix asap.



Thanks !
 
I like the T9 keyboard and don't see why you would want to use a standard keyboard. I agree the whole reason was to make looking up contacts easier and faster and I like the t9 search. Just wish looking up by company or phone was faster.
 
I like the T9 keyboard and don't see why you would want to use a standard keyboard. I agree the whole reason was to make looking up contacts easier and faster and I like the t9 search. Just wish looking up by company or phone was faster.

I am working on it.

Problem is the way the database is structured, I either have to do a search in a different database for each category, or build my own index database, which may be a bit uncomfortable for users (having to keep the indexing database/s updated)
 
I used to use Takephone on a Treo a long time ago and loved it, so I am now trying it on my Droid 2 and have a few issues:

1) Company search is just plain flaky, sometimes company names show up in the search results and sometimes not (mostly not). I can't seem to figure out a pattern of when it will decide to work or not work.

2) I would like to see an option to display the entire call log when there is an empty search (not just the last call), and I would like to have this as the default display when ever I enter the app or end a call.

3) Call log history should have call duration on each entry.

4) I would like an easy way to go straight to my contacts if I want to browse them from the app. For example when I bring up the menu there is a button for the "System call log" that does not seem to do anything. If this could be changed to "contacts" that would be sufficient.

There are a lot of things to like (especially the "x" handling), but hopefully you can make the app even better!

Thanks!

Phil
 
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