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EngBrian

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 7, 2007
217
1
Ontario, Canada
What is stopping Apple from making a workaround for visual voicemail? (Other than presumably some incentives to be exclusive to cingular/at&t) I guess I don't see how this part of the product requires any special network enhancments on cingular's end of things. My thinking almost as soon as this was announced was:

1) Get the phone to automatically intercept voicemail (if a person can dial into their voicemail there is nothing stopping a phone from doing it automatically)
2) Save as an audio file
3) Still use the front end UI of the "visual voicemail" demo'd at macworld but it is really just opening a saved file on your harddrive.

I don't see any technical limitation to doing this on any network as it is all done with the phone. And if they can implement some of the technologies like multitouch etc in one small package I can't see how they couldn't do this.

My 2 cents.
 

EngBrian

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 7, 2007
217
1
Ontario, Canada
I was thinking more of an auto-dial approach instead of pushing to the phone. I know it is not the best solution but I just thought I would throw the idea out there.
 

chatster18

macrumors regular
Jan 14, 2007
132
0
The problem with auto dialing would be the constant network traffic to essentially pole every x min for new voicemail, kinda like what the treo does. This would cause a big increase in network traffic that could be avoided by using a "push" solution.

my 2 cents also
 

EngBrian

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 7, 2007
217
1
Ontario, Canada
The problem with auto dialing would be the constant network traffic to essentially pole every x min for new voicemail, kinda like what the treo does. This would cause a big increase in network traffic that could be avoided by using a "push" solution.

my 2 cents also

Hadn't thought of that...good point. So I guess it would work but in the end not a realistic situation.
 

Johnnyrockts

macrumors newbie
Mar 7, 2007
4
0
1) Get the phone to automatically intercept voicemail (if a person can dial into their voicemail there is nothing stopping a phone from doing it automatically)

My 2 cents.


So what happens if your phone is off/dead/or out of service....a person just wouldn't be able to leave a voicemail?
 

EngBrian

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 7, 2007
217
1
Ontario, Canada
So what happens if your phone is off/dead/or out of service....a person just wouldn't be able to leave a voicemail?

No it is just like any other voicemail service. Just as with current voicemail your phone doesn't have to be on for someone to leave a message. That is most of the point of having voicemail to begin with. As before this would be more of an autodial when your phone is on.
 

chatster18

macrumors regular
Jan 14, 2007
132
0
Yes, but for it to pole "auto dial" for voicemail, just is impractical... going back to unnecessary network traffic...

I doubt there will be a work arround like that.

Now that I think about it, if it were to pole for VM every 2 Min. then it would also use your regular min. that you pay for.

So polling every 2 min, in one day you would use 180 min, just polling for VM (figuring it is a 15 second connection every 2 min, for 24 hrs)
 

EngBrian

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 7, 2007
217
1
Ontario, Canada
Yes, but for it to pole "auto dial" for voicemail, just is impractical... going back to unnecessary network traffic...

I doubt there will be a work arround like that.

Now that I think about it, if it were to pole for VM every 2 Min. then it would also use your regular min. that you pay for.

So polling every 2 min, in one day you would use 180 min, just polling for VM (figuring it is a 15 second connection every 2 min, for 24 hrs)

Alright I have been convinced. The idea won't work. But I wanted to try thinking outside the box. Although, as it turns out, I was also thinking outside my area of expertise...haha
 

Baron58

macrumors 6502
Feb 19, 2004
450
3
Yes, but for it to pole "auto dial" for voicemail, just is impractical... going back to unnecessary network traffic...

I doubt there will be a work arround like that.

Now that I think about it, if it were to pole for VM every 2 Min. then it would also use your regular min. that you pay for.

So polling every 2 min, in one day you would use 180 min, just polling for VM (figuring it is a 15 second connection every 2 min, for 24 hrs)




GAHHHHH!!! you're making my head hurt.

All modern cellphones ALREADY have a voicemail indicator on them somehow. When somebody leaves me a voicemail, within a few seconds an icon appears on my Motorola V551 to indicate it (as well as a "X new voicemail(s)" pop-up). You don't have to use plan minutes for this, it's part of the normal status dialogue that your phone carries on with the network all the time.

There is absolutely no reason why this couldn't then trigger a dial/retrieve event to store the VM locally on the phone as an audio file. In fact, this could be done over 2 years ago with Series60 smartphones (like my old Nokia 6600) using third-party software. Those phones offer more flexibility and call management options than have so far been demonstrated with the iPhone. I can't find the app now that I used to have that did this, but here's something similar with a lot of call-management features: http://www.symbiangear.com/product.html?pid=1301,1306,18646

Also, 'visual voicemail' is neither new nor Apple-invented. Here's an article from 2 years ago (Feb '05) about it on Blackberry devices: http://www.geekzone.co.nz/content.asp?contentid=4082


(I'm not anti-iPhone; I'll be getting one as soon as they're out. They're not perfect, though.)
 

EngBrian

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 7, 2007
217
1
Ontario, Canada
GAHHHHH!!! you're making my head hurt.

All modern cellphones ALREADY have a voicemail indicator on them somehow. When somebody leaves me a voicemail, within a few seconds an icon appears on my Motorola V551 to indicate it (as well as a "X new voicemail(s)" pop-up). You don't have to use plan minutes for this, it's part of the normal status dialogue that your phone carries on with the network all the time.

There is absolutely no reason why this couldn't then trigger a dial/retrieve event to store the VM locally on the phone as an audio file. In fact, this could be done over 2 years ago with Series60 smartphones (like my old Nokia 6600) using third-party software. Those phones offer more flexibility and call management options than have so far been demonstrated with the iPhone. I can't find the app now that I used to have that did this, but here's something similar with a lot of call-management features: http://www.symbiangear.com/product.html?pid=1301,1306,18646

Also, 'visual voicemail' is neither new nor Apple-invented. Here's an article from 2 years ago (Feb '05) about it on Blackberry devices: http://www.geekzone.co.nz/content.asp?contentid=4082


(I'm not anti-iPhone; I'll be getting one as soon as they're out. They're not perfect, though.)

There we go someone to back me up and I just conceded the point too (rats). Sounds like I should step to the side and let everyone else who knows more than me figure this one out.
 
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