Electric Pocket Launches PhotoDial for the Treo 650

Posted By: Ryan Tuesday, January 10, 2006 11:21:39 AM

Electric Pocket today announces the launch of PhotoDial, a speed dial application for Treo 650 smartphones or Bluetooth-enabled PDAs that enables users to place photographs of their most commonly dialed contacts directly on the Palm OS Applications Launcher. The program enables users to dial numbers with a single tap on a photo or other image from the Applications screen.

PhotoDial works by enabling users to add photos or icons to a PhotoDial group in the Applications menu—the central activity hub of Palm OS handhelds. The application enables users to browse the list of contacts in their handhelds’ Address Book and select the people they call most frequently. Users can pick any photo or graphic image to represent the contact, or they can take a picture with the device’s camera.

PhotoDial for Palm OS & Treo 650Contacts are created and grouped together in the PhotoDial group for easy, one-tap access by the user. Once the PhotoDial group is set up, it is simply a matter of tapping once on the photo of the person the user wants to call in order to begin dialing the number. Users can even use their handhelds’ Preferences option to assign a caller to one of their devices’ “hard buttons,” including the Treo side-button.

“Mobile phone users want to personalize their handsets—you just have to look at the ringtone craze and the success of our very own ringtone manager, Ringo,” said Iain Barclay, Electric Pocket’s co-founder and Chief Product Officer. “PhotoDial is yet another way to personalize your smartphone—but it is more than that. PhotoDial is a very intelligent solution for anyone with hundreds of contacts in their Address Books who often scrolls through screens of contacts to find the ones that they call most frequently. Now it is simply a matter of looking for a familiar face and tapping on it.”

PhotoDial replaces TapDial, one of Electric Pocket’s original “smartphone applications” that enabled users of Palm OS smartphones to tap on icons in the Launcher screen to place phone calls. PhotoDial retails for US$9.95 and a free trial is available.

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Are we all Morons now?

Gekko @ 1/10/2006 6:15:11 PM # Q

Is this kind of like how McDonalds had to put a picture of the menu item on the register?

I can't spell a couple letters of the friggin name??

RE: Are we all Morons now?
LiveFaith @ 1/10/2006 8:41:50 PM # Q
Bud. Don't ever get emotional about software.

Pat Horne; www.churchoflivingfaith.com
RE: Are we all Morons now?
tj8212 @ 2/24/2006 11:36:45 AM # Q
I disagree. Its all about choice here. If a application allows you to have a better experience using visual elements you should not fault the application

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Yawn

nrosser @ 1/10/2006 8:06:42 PM # Q
While clearly intended to compete with the 'PhotoDial' app on the 700w, this attempt falls short since the pics aren't located on the main phone screen, as they are on the 700w. Rather, the user has to use the app picker (or get there by way of some third party launcher app like ZLauncher/whatever) to get to the icons.
I was hoping some enterprising developer could mimic the photo dial function, just like the guy who created the 'Ignore with SMS' app. This attempt by Electric Pocket doesn't deliver the same function as what's on the 700w. Unless I missed something.
RE: Yawn
bcombee @ 1/11/2006 4:48:32 PM # Q
Technically, you could assign the photo dial to a button, allowing a quick access to this. You could also put it as a favorite that appears on the phone screen. The Treo's phone app isn't as extendable as the WinMobile "Today" screen.

The SharkMessage app works based on phone notifications -- it replaces the "accept call" dialog with its own version that has the messaging options.

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Ten bucks? Come on folks...

adamsmark @ 1/11/2006 5:17:52 PM # Q
You know, if I were to buy everything little piece of trick software, I'd spend hundreds of dollars on my 650, without really changing the way it operates. Ten bucks is too much for this tiny little ap.

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