Hey everyone,

I just whipped up a little app for the blackberry. All it does is dial. What's so good about it? How often do you get phone numbers like 1-888-ROGERS-1... how the hell do you dial that on the BlackBerry?? (I know there's some sort of setting for it, but I can never remember what it is).

What I did was write a little app that simply displays a "proper" key pad. You can then type in the number like normal, and "dial". It will initiate a call for you, and you will be on your way.

This started out as a little "fun" project. I was trying to play with the Invoke command to see what I could do with it.

I think in the future I will work on upgrading the UI (I want to see what it takes to make a BB app pretty haha).

Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Point your BB here: http://www.ryannickel.com/bbphone/BBPhone.jad

Thanks for the work rnickel. The BB community can always use more quality developers.

About your app, is there a difference between your app, and the native Alpha Character translation that is part of the Blackberry OS ?

Currently, when dialing you can press Alt then the Alpha character to dial, and when the number is dialed the device auto translates the alpha characters to the appropriate numbers.

I'd like to think of mine as being a little more straight forward and user friendly

i did download the app so i could judge fairly, but i fail to see how hunting for a letter on a little keypad display is more straight forward and user friendly then simply typing in the letters in the default phone app..

if i need to dial 1-800-ROGERS1, i would simply dial, 1800, hold alt, type in ROGERS, release alt, type 1.. no hunt and peck.

now beyond the usability issue.. I am a programmer, and i can certainly appreciate the want/need to write your own apps. great you got this working, its neat, simple, and a good learning tool. The more people we have who can program apps for blackberries, the better. So good luck in your future programs.

Very good, thanks for the clarification.

thanks

I've seen enough posts from people confused about this, even after the Alt-key explanation, to believe there may be an audience that can use this app...I haven't seen it yet (RULE #1: Always post screen shots!!) so can't just usability, but the general idea could be useful...

Loaded...easy to use, but the keyboard image is too small! Would really help if it was enlarged....make the keys/text much larger and it will be much easier to read/use.