BlackJack II - Auto Forwarding

All,

I recently acquired a BlackJack II (replacement for my Treo 700p).
Anyhow, on my Treo I used an application called "CradleCare" to
forward calls to my home phone whenever the phone was plugged in to
the charger. I _love_ this functionality.

I have been searching for something similar for a non-touchscreen WM6
device. Any ideas?

I've checked out PhoneAlarm from pocketmax.net, however the "SP"
version for non-touchscreen devices curiously does not seem to support
call forwarding!

Does anyone know of an app that will work for this?

--Dan

Thurman
Sun Mar 30 08:03:15 PDT 2008


"Dan" <dsfh@cox.net> wrote in message
news:2f3500b4-e5a3-4787-a3a8-96f7b88eb638@b64g2000hsa.googlegroups.com...
> All,
>
> I recently acquired a BlackJack II (replacement for my Treo 700p).
> Anyhow, on my Treo I used an application called "CradleCare" to
> forward calls to my home phone whenever the phone was plugged in to
> the charger. I _love_ this functionality.
>
> I have been searching for something similar for a non-touchscreen WM6
> device. Any ideas?

My first search for cell software is always http://www.handango.com

When I was using Sprint, they had forwarding as a 'CO' service. Like your
home phone, you could dial in to the cloud to forward calls.

Beverly
Sun Mar 30 18:42:12 PDT 2008

Have an associate who is a realtor and has this with an older phone
where the functionality is in the cradle and linked to the provider
(SWBell then) and was so dependent on it that he refuses to upgrade
because of the penalty doing so would have on his way of working... i.e.
walk in, plant the phone in the cradle and it's done... pick it up to
leave and the cellphone is active.

Asked around with providers, equipment and software providers and they
were disinterested, couldn't or wouldn't understand the need or felt
that it would impact the provider's revenue stream.

Beverly Howard [MS MVP-Mobile Devices]

Todd
Sun Mar 30 19:35:26 PDT 2008

At 30 Mar 2008 20:42:12 -0500 Beverly Howard [Ms-MVP/MobileDev] wrote:
> Have an associate who is a realtor and has this with an older phone
> where the functionality is in the cradle and linked to the provider
> (SWBell then) and was so dependent on it that he refuses to upgrade
> because of the penalty doing so would have on his way of working...
> i.e. walk in, plant the phone in the cradle and it's done... pick it up to
> leave and the cellphone is active.


Ahh, the old SWBell Mobile "Fast Forward" service... When the phone
detects it's in the cradle it goes into "Fast Forward" mode- it forwards to
a preset number (usually one's home or office phone) and cancel's the
forwarding when the phone is lifted from the cradle.


> Asked around with providers, equipment and software providers and
> they were disinterested, couldn't or wouldn't understand the need or
> felt that it would impact the provider's revenue stream.


In reality it's probably much simpler- it was never a popular feature.
SBMS (eventually Cingular) made you buy the silly cradle that only
supported two or three phone models then charged a monthly fee (but in
return didn't charge for the forwarded calls themselves.)

To imitate the function, your associate could simply set any phone to
"forward when unavailable" to his office phone, and just turn the new phone
off (either power down or go into flight mode) whenever he gets to the
office. If the phone is on, it'll ring as normal, and when off, will roll
to the office phone (like when his current phone is cradled.)

The downside to this scheme (aside from the obvious "what if he forgets to
turn the mobile phone off?") is that unanswered mobile phone calls will
forward to his office rather than go to his cellular voice mail. However,
this might be a blessing in disguise- it's probably time for him to use a
unified voicemail service anyway. If he adds a "visual voicemail" service
to his office phone (like Callwave.com's free VV service) it'll e-mail
and/or text him when he gets a voice mail on either number (the unanswered
office phone calls will forward to Callwave and the mobile's will Tinker-to-
Evers-to-Chance it's way there via the office phone.)

Beverly
Mon Mar 31 08:13:31 PDT 2008

>> but in return didn't charge for the forwarded calls themselves. <<

In this guy's world (realtor) his volume of calls made this _the_
significant factor...

Your tip is great... recorded -)

Beverly Howard [MS MVP-Mobile Devices]

Beverly
Mon Mar 31 08:15:25 PDT 2008

Forgot to mention;

afaik, the cradle was from a non swbell vendor, and while there may have
been a monthly charge, it was never mentioned or discovered... I did
find his cradle still available for the same old phone on the internet.

Beverly Howard [MS MVP-Mobile Devices]

Todd
Mon Mar 31 10:35:00 PDT 2008

At 31 Mar 2008 10:15:25 -0500 Beverly Howard [Ms-MVP/MobileDev] wrote:
> Forgot to mention;
>
> afaik, the cradle was from a non swbell vendor, and while there may
> have been a monthly charge, it was never mentioned or discovered..
>. I did find his cradle still available for the same old phone on the
internet.


That might all be true- back in those days, SBMS (SW Bell Mobile Systems)
policies and procedures were far more regional in scope. This was an era
before the mergers and acquisitions created the national Uber-cellular
companies we have today- local/regional management had more control to
react to local/regional competitors' moves.

In my area at that time (Kansas City) where I owned an SBMS dealership,
SBMS KC charged $4 a month for the Fast Forward service, and they'd only
sell it customers who's account had one of the supported phones on it.
The ~$40 cradle, while technically required, was available from enough
dealers that you could claim you bought one elsewhere and set the
forwarding manually.

(Of course, the $4 monthly service fee itself wasn't required either-
customers were free to pay per-minute forwarding charges for their
forwarded calls rather than the flat fee.)


More interesting to me is how your associate still has the service- you're
in Texas, right? IIRC, SBMS would've sold that service on the old TDMA
network that was shutdown (by the now AT&T) recently. How did your realtor
convert it to GSM?

Beverly
Mon Mar 31 12:23:15 PDT 2008

>> old TDMA network that was shutdown <<

He may not have it now as the last time I talked with him about it was
several months before the shutdown.

I'm interested in this and related "real world" user problems to find
solutions to make user lives easier...

however, I am constantly amazed that needed solutions are not only not
available, but providers and vendors are not interested in even
understanding them much less meeting them.

At the moment, Grand Central <http://www.grandcentral.com> (ironically a
free service) seems to be a good future bet for providing user
controlled options to make mobile life a bit more controllable.

Beverly Howard [MS MVP-Mobile Devices]