Why does iOS force me to choose between interrupted sleep, or no emergency calls?

[AnthroMatt]

A profile isn't going to do that it'll let any call through.

That's not true at all. With a BlackBerry, you can create a profile only to ring if a contact in your phone book is calling, only if a specific sub-set of contacts is calling, etc.

I don't think it is a silly thing to get mad about. Well, yes I do, but I think anything about a phone is silly to get mad about. In the end, it's just a phone. Nonetheless, profiles is a feature than Nokia and Motorola dumbphones have had in one form or another since 2002 or earlier.

If Apple wanted to go simple first, they could easily have an option to disable or enable profiles. Persons that didn't care could leave it off and those that wanted it could enable it and customize it accordingly.

It's a legit suggestion/question from the OP. But I guess since it isn't something Apple saw fit to include from the start, it is obviously not important.

 

[shandyman]

Put this in the "too late" category, but my wife and I use MobileMe for this type of notification. With the phones set to silent we can make them sound an alert tone. Nice for when it's in her purse and she doesn't feel it vibrate.

Oops. Forgot to add that with it being offered as a paid service there is little incentive to make it part of iOS.

are you talking about find my iPhone? as that's free for all and has been for a while...

 

[ardent73]

Apple Feedback to /dev/null ?

Not to mention, as always I'm sure many people on here bitching have not gone to http://www.Apple.com/feedback

Macrumors is not, and never will be a site that Apple looks at for feedback. If you want a feature, request it.

When I got the first iPhone I submitted feedback about features like this and others...I'm not holding my breath anymore...

Re: bans on pepper spray and stun guns...if you can't figure out how to build your own in 15 mins or less you probably aren't smart enough to use them. For a 16 year old girl I recommend a garrote weapon, made from clothing...

 

[dccorona]

while I'm certainly glad your sister was ok, and it was a bad situation no doubt, its no more than a slight, although admittedly annoying, inconvenience. calling it a dreadful, indefensible omission is a bit much and quite dramatic.

 

[chrono1081]

That's not true at all. With a BlackBerry, you can create a profile only to ring if a contact in your phone book is calling, only if a specific sub-set of contacts is calling, etc.

I don't think it is a silly thing to get mad about. Well, yes I do, but I think anything about a phone is silly to get mad about. In the end, it's just a phone. Nonetheless, profiles is a feature than Nokia and Motorola dumbphones have had in one form or another since 2002 or earlier.

If Apple wanted to go simple first, they could easily have an option to disable or enable profiles. Persons that didn't care could leave it off and those that wanted it could enable it and customize it accordingly.

It's a legit suggestion/question from the OP. But I guess since it isn't something Apple saw fit to include from the start, it is obviously not important.

Sorry I didn't word my statement well enough.

I meant that you would have to literally include anyone who may call you for an emergency in such a profile since there is no system where you can dial someone, press a button and have it register as an emergency call.

 

[dendowling]

Seems like no one posted the obvious solution... Why not just turn off your mail sounds?

It's only 2 or 3 clicks to turn mail sound on/off - just as easy as switching profiles. Or, just leave mail sound off permanently. You can always see when you have new mail by looking at the mail icon.

Settings -> Sounds -> New Mail

Another option is to use an intense ringtone for family/friends that are important to answer and leave a more mellow/faint ringtone as default for everyone else.

Select a contact, hit Edit, and look for Ringtone just below the email addresses.

It's not to hard to learn to ignore certain sounds - basic pavlovian training. Every time you hear ring A, wake up and answer the phone. Every time you hear ring B ignore it and go back to sleep. Eventually, you will never even hear ring B while sleeping.

 

[cantthinkofone]

And self-defence classes are of limited use for a 16 year old..

I disagree. With confidence and training a 16 year old girl can put a hurting on somebody.

Research PPCT. Or sign her up for a jiu jitsu class.

 

[Mak47]

A simpler option than profiles would be to have a toggle switch for each contact that could be set to ring loudly and override the mute switch after a certain number of vibrations. Most of my contacts aren't going to contact me in an emergency (and even if they did I can't say I want many of them to), but there are a few who I would want to be woken up for.

It would be a very easy solution for any user to understand and would be more effective than a profile that would still put through all calls. How easy it would be to bake in I couldn't say.

The OP's example is extreme, but is nonetheless valid.

I'd just like to have an option like this so I can take a nap even if I'm expecting a call from my girlfriend, or for days when I just want to ignore my phone.

 

[Bawstun]

Not trolling, but came back into this thread and I see everyone is still all "Why don't you just do this, or why don't you just download and install this app, enable this, disable that..."

Why doesn't Apple just give us profile notifications like basic dumbphones I've had since 2004? lololol

 

[Consultant]

Apple: Do I really have to choose between not being able to sleep for constant email notifications; or my sister potentially being raped every night when I go to bed?

Does she know how to call the police? Obviously not.

I'm no Apple apologist or anything, but Apple isn't in any way at fault if your sister did get raped. I literally laughed when I read this post, I can understand you're a concerned brother, just hilariously misguided. There are couple things wrong here. First off, why is your sister walking around alone in the middle of the night? I don't know what kind of area you live in, but she should always be walking with friends or taking a cab if she can't get a lift. I'm not an overprotective brother, but that's just common sense no matter where you're from. It seems like you live in an exceptionally terrible area, because apparently every time you go to sleep your sister is in mortal danger of being raped.

If this indeed the case and you know your sister is going to be walking home alone and night and you're not going to get her, don't turn off the sound on your phone if you know it's going to disable the ability to respond to her cries for help -especially if you just want to sleep. Sacrificing sleep is one of the responsibilities of a big brother or boyfriend (I speak from experience) that has an independent girl in their life.

Third; tell your sister to call 911 next time, before her brother if she seriously suspects she's being followed. If the potential rapist hears she is calling the police for an escort home, he will back off. That is female anti rape tactic #1 (that's the first thing they taught my late night bartender girlfriend). Also if she must walk home alone, equip her with pepper spray or a knife.

I know you're a bit upset, but telling people Apple is going to get your sister raped is literally the stupidest thing I've seen today. There are many things that you should be doing differently to protect your sister, and cell phone notifications are not very high on the list.

Exactly. Well said.

 

[nastebu]

She called me because I was 20 metres away; am a 13 stone boxer and have a large combat knife. The nearest Police are 10 miles away and not known for their speed or efficiency..

What happened to the good old fashioned scream? If you're so close by, I would think sticking to the basics would be much quicker than fumbling around with a cell phone.

 

[VulchR]

What happened to the good old fashioned scream? If you're so close by, I would think sticking to the basics would be much quicker than fumbling around with a cell phone.

Sure ... if the situation is unambiguous, but in OP's case it was. His sister was worried but not certain she was being followed. I could see why somebody in that situation would want to phone a family member. My ex still calls me when she is in situations like that.

Anyhow, I like to see location profiles (e.g., home, work, outdoors, etc.) and alert profiles (ringtone, when they are allowed to call, ringtone volume, possibly even message & pictures to display) for those listed as Contacts.

Until Apple decides to deliver this functionality, perhaps somebody has already made an app for emergency peer to peer communication - does anybody know of one?

 

[TheXFactor]

iOS is so far behind the curve in certain aspects it's not even funny. This is one of them. For Apple or anyone else to think the reason why profiles aren't integrated into the OS are because it's too confusing is a fool. Having to jump into the system settings to remember to turn notifications on and off is so Apple......

Adding a quiet time (as defined by weekday/weekend start and end times) in notifications would be the best solution. There is no reason why this shouldn't be there from the start. If you are so confused by such a feature, don't use it plain and simple.

Same goes for this notification/email/sms sound. You have to JB your phone to get that customization? Really Apple?

Don't get me started on the really simple process of adding ringtones either. Is the reason why Apple doesn't allow you to do that is because it would confuse some people? LOL, ok.

I bought pushmail for this very reason. The ability to set a quiet time and use custom tones for email. Apparently the developer was able to implement this feature, but Apple couldn't figure it out?

iOS may be more polished than android, but it certainly isn't any better when it comes to features such as this

 

[dgree03]

I think some of you in this thread are missing to OP's points. I know it is easy to get caught up in the "rape" story. But that is just one example of a sorely needed feature of iOS, and currently there isnt an app that will let you have profiles(as far as I know?)

Profiles is something that has been around since early 2000's, apple should implement that feature and yes the op should report this to apple feedback.

Some people on this forum act like someone is talk bad about their first born, when talking about lacking ipone feature. Its sad really.

 

[EDF]

I agree with the OP, it would be nice to have a profile or group for family only to call.

 

[byke]

So many answers and work arounds ..... Could you not just plug your headphones in?

That way all notifications are silent, and all ring signals are heard as they don't just ring in the headphones.

 

[Agent-P]

Whilst iOS's apparent absence of a Nokia-style 'profile' switcher to change your set of notification tones/volume has annoyed me for a while, last night it came to a serious head.

I'm a light sleeper. At night time, I don't fancy getting woken by any of the countless emails to either my personal or work email (I have clients from around the world, so can expect them 24/7), so I put my iPhone 4 on silent.

Last night my little sister thought she was being followed home; tried to call me for help; but I was asleep and couldn't hear her ring. Fortunately she was ok.

Apple: Do I really have to choose between not being able to sleep for constant email notifications; or my sister potentially being raped every night when I go to bed?

Of course the other solution is going through the menus and fiddling around with my email/text notifications every night. Hardly the 'sleek', 'efficient' OS Apple would like to think iOS is.

Where is the quick profile switch option? Ancient Nokias do this no problem! I had a 'night' profile, which turned of all notifications - but kept my phone-call ring.

Apple, this is an absolutely appalling, indefensible omission.

I wish I could shake your new CEO to tell him!

So I'm not sure if anyone is still reading this thread or if a solution was found, but I happened across this app recently. It requires a jailbreak and IOS 4.X but this would be the solution the OP is looking for. It's called AutoSilent and it allows the user to create custom profiles and enable which options to use in each profile. Here is the developer's website for more info Hopefully the OP sees this and finds some use from it.

http://iphonepackers.info/

 

[ct2k7]

alexjholland... where the heck do you live in the UK? (Cambridge)

Maybe try getting her a rape alarm? Us guys were given rape alarms in a talk at school, I know girls at the girls school were given one as well, becuase someone let their device go, threw the pin somewhere.

It wasn't easy to break and putting it in the glass of water and sticking it in the freezer didn't help. Only after 3 days, did it actually die.

No, the battery could not be removed.

I'm not sure if you're the alex who did some Muai Thai, but teach her some

btw, what's a sales ninja?