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Awesome: phone calls into and out of your ipad!

spinedoc77

spinedoc77

macrumors G4
Original poster
Jun 11, 2009
11,488
5,414
Just tried the free app "Whistle" which is a SIP client, I tried a bunch of others before finding this one. It works pretty darn nicely. It assigns you a number you get to keep, has caller ID, and the only caveat is when you make a call you hear a real super short ad before it connects you. I don't think there is a minute limitation like on other sip clients, but I really haven't played with it too much yet. Also they don't have bluetooth support yet but are working on it, but it works just fine over the speaker, and also works with a wired headset.

Best part about it is if you are jailbroken you can background it, and when you receive a phone call your ipad will ring!! Then you just switch to your whistle app and answer the call.

This is all over wifi, haven't tested it on 3g yet, but great stuff.
 
I have been using this app also and the only thing I don't like is that you have to have it open for it to ring unless of course your jail broken but then it kills the battery so I just use it to call other people when my cell is dead or I am in the basement. But it is a useful app.
 
Works great. Thanks for the tip.

I assume the app name was inspired by the story of John Draper who hacked AT&T's phone system around 1970 using the tone from a Captain Crunch cereal whistle. Read the whole story:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Draper

Note the connection he had to Steve and Steve at Apple.
 
I tried whistle and it would be more useful if they allowed the incoming/forwarding to use with google voice. It disconnects a call redirect coming from google voice.

I don't particularly care to share 'another' phone number with my friends & family where they may or may not reach me.
 
bluedog3401 said:
I tried whistle and it would be more useful if they allowed the incoming/forwarding to use with google voice. It disconnects a call redirect coming from google voice.

I don't particularly care to share 'another' phone number with my friends & family where they may or may not reach me.
Click to expand...

Forwarding google voice to my iPad whistle works perfectly. Have you set up your whistle number in google voice phones?
 
spinedoc77 said:
Forwarding google voice to my iPad whistle works perfectly. Have you set up your whistle number in google voice phones?
Click to expand...

hmm. Yes, I did. But then immediately after one ring on the iPad it stops ringing and seemingly disconnects. I'll have to revisit that.

Anyone have good luck through firewalls? Does it work wherever you go? Public wifi? Via 3G if you have that model?
 
bluedog3401 said:
hmm. Yes, I did. But then immediately after one ring on the iPad it stops ringing and seemingly disconnects. I'll have to revisit that.

Anyone have good luck through firewalls? Does it work wherever you go? Public wifi? Via 3G if you have that model?
Click to expand...

Yup, 3G works. I love this app.
 
bluedog3401 said:
hmm. Yes, I did. But then immediately after one ring on the iPad it stops ringing and seemingly disconnects. I'll have to revisit that.

Anyone have good luck through firewalls? Does it work wherever you go? Public wifi? Via 3G if you have that model?
Click to expand...

I've only tried it thru my wifi at home and wifi at the office. I'll report how 3g works after I get my minisim adapter hopefully this week.

The only thing they need to fix is to add some kind of voicemail. Google voice has a feature where it lets you force your phone to default to the GV voicemail, but it looks like the commands are carrier based and I can't get Whistle to work with it. If I could get the GV voicemail to work then this would be a perfect solution.

PS: Whistle just got updated to include bluetooth headset support!!!
 
Whistle is great! I wish they offered an in-app purchase to get rid of the ads, but the ability to make calls from an iPad is great. I'm also waiting to see what Skype will come up with for iPad.
 
I'm not too concerned with calls, but texts is what I'd like on my iPad.

My solution - Google Voice

I know it's hard to get an invite (I've had my GV account for over a year already), but here's what I've done for both my iPhone and my iPad. I've configured Prowl, a growl-notification app, to send push notifications when a GV text comes in. I get a pop-up push notice, which will then open the GV web page and allows me to respond.

No need to be jailbroken. The only (very minor) downside is you must set a Gmail filter to forward via email the Google Voice message to the Prowl server so it can send your iDevice a push notification.

Instructions:
http://googlevoice.ub3rk1tten.com/voicegrowl/
 
iPad Phone

Never thought about using my iPad as a phone but this thing really works!
Cool :D
 
spinedoc77 said:
Forwarding google voice to my iPad whistle works perfectly. Have you set up your whistle number in google voice phones?
Click to expand...

I set up the number, but it rings once and disconnects. Although if I call the number directly and if I make a call from the app it works just fine (when on my home wifi).

I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the app hoping that was the issue. It still doesn't work when I call the google voice number and have it ring the whistle phone.

My work has a firewall that is blocking the sip traffic. Does anyone know the ports it needs for me to open up?
 
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