A way to screen so when you see the ID of a person you don’t want to talk to, you can send the call directly to voice mail.
A way to tell (visual or ring difference) which number the person called. I have both my work and home numbers redirected to my cell. I’d like to answer differently depending on which number they called. (I know this is “impossible” with current technology, that’s why it’s on my wish list.)
A way to send a call to voice mail after you already picked up. Or at least copied to voicemail so you can play it back later. People are always telling me things when I have no pencil handy, things like street directions or “confirmation numbers” that are impossible to remember.
A voice changer button, so you can pretend you have a real office with a receptionist to answer the phone, and are not working out of your car.
Many “normal” cell phones offer this option, though it is often limited. SmartPhones (Palm/Windows/Symbian-based phones) have dozens of call management packages available for them that can generally offer unlimited call filtration and perform any of a variety of actions based on who’s calling.
It seems to me that this would be a function of your cell phone provider, not the cell phone itself; once a connection is established between two parties there would have to be a way for the cell phone to be able to tell the provider it wants to pass off the current call to provider-issued voicemail. The provider would then have to perform the act of doing so. In other words, it’s a line feature, not a phone feature.
While not impossible, I don’t think any software exists for smartphones yet that allow voice changing capabilities. Though some software exists that I know of for Windows Mobile-based PocketPC smartphones that is capable of recording two-way conversations, I don’t know if the phone hardware itself provides the ability for software to access the outgoing voice stream to digitally alter it prior to sending it over the air. Both the hardware and its operating system would have to provide that kind of access before software could be written that supported it, and even then it’s probably a feature that’s not a high priority on many people’s lists so it’s unlikely to appear anytime soon.
What DO YOU think cell phones need? Or, if you think cell phones are perfect, then you really don’t need to post to this thread.
And (duh) I include the “function of your cell phone provider” with the cell phone. Because, the phone itself does nothing useful without the provider. Except work as a game machine and calendar.
My phone WON’T do 1, 2, or 3, which is why they are on MY list. YOUR list may vary.
The wording of your OP strongly implies (or outright claims) that such things are unavailable. The previous two posters were probably trying to be helpful by letting you know that those features are available. In the case of #1, widely available. I’ve never even heard of a modern cell phone that doesn’t allow you to send a call to voice mail.
Just hit the ‘cancel’ option, or the red button, or whatever is the other option to ‘answer’.
I’m pretty sure that once a call is answered, voicemail isn’t going to help, on a fairly basic level. However, I know that my phone has an option to record any call to a local audio file, which can be turned on during a call. And I never remember it’s there until after I’ve scribbled down directions or whatever.
Is this a common thing with US providers? Because none of the providers that I know of in Canada allow shunting a call to voicemail after you’ve already picked up the call.
Personally I wish my phone could schedule “calls” where it would ring and then when I answered nothing would happen. That would get me out of many a bad date/meeting/get together/etc without requiring me to have a friend or someone call.
Also, if my phone could do the dishes that would be great.
That is awesome! Now if only Virgin Mobile could give me as good a deal on a cellphone as Sprint does. I get an occupational discount so it saves me tons of money…maybe Sprint should just adopt this feature too and then my phone would be perfect, except for that dishes thing.
Virgin aims that stuff pretty squarely at the teen demographic (as their website demonstrates) which Sprint and co. generally ignore, so unless they either chase that market or become convinced that adults would pay for such a service too, they probably won’t pick up on it. For the record though I’d like to see it happen.
I think what the OP is wanting is for a cell phone to somehow herald the call differently based on which number the caller used. For example, if I forward my office phone to my cell phone, I would like my phone to distinguish a call that has been forwarded via my office from a call that’s coming from someone who has directly dialed my cell phone number. That way, I would know whether I should answer the call in a professional manner (“Good afternoon, Straight Dope Offices, may I help you…”) as opposed to an informal manner (“Hey, Dude!”).
Right now, unless I’ve missed a technological advance, you can assign different ringtones to different people who are in your phonebook so you can tell whether it’s your mother or your boss calling without looking at the caller ID. What you can’t tell is whether someone dialed the number from which you’ve forwarded calls to your cell phone.
Somehow this all seemed so clear in my head, but in writing, it’s a little hazy…sorry.
My phone lets me set ringtones as alarms. So I can set an alarm for say, 4:00 and it’ll sound like a phone call.
Also, I can assign different ringtones for different numbers, which comes in handy for differentiating between people I might want to talk to (or avoid) and everyone else.
My phone will also tell me whether the call has been forwarded, but won’t tell me which number. But since I don’t forward any phone but my house phone, it doesn’t matter.
My cellphone has alarms but they don’t sound like a ring, they sound like an alarm clock. It is a cellphone though, so I am sure that anyone listening probably wouldn’t know the difference.
This would depend on what information the forwarded line sends to the number it’s being forwarded to. If it forwards the caller’s CID information then there’d be no way for the phone to tell if the call was forwarded from a home or business number – indeed that it was forwarded at all since the forward would appear transparent. If the forwarded line sends its own CID information though then you just set the ringtone according to which number is incoming. There are tons of utilities for pretty much all smartphones to accomplish this. (I use Ringo on my Treo) I’ve never forwarded lines to my cell though, and don’t know if the information that’s forwarded depends on the carrier one subscribes to, so I can’t say for certain what number turns up on the ID.
