Newbie - Ringer question - Treo Forums

csmith0406 · 09-20-2006, 08:04 PM

Hi, I have had my treo for a couple months now and I love it! I have just one problem, if someone calls me or sends me an sms, if I miss the initial ring I don't know unless I pick up the phone and look. With my old regular cellphone it would "nudge" me with either a silent vibrate or a little tone, until I cleared the missed call message. I can't find any option in the phone to change this and I searched through the forum and couldn't find anything. Does anyone know how to get around this? Thanks for any help.

kdallen · 09-20-2006, 11:22 PM

Hello and welcome to ET. Many of us have wished the very same thing. There is a very popular app called Butler, which offers a great attention minder which nags you about alarms, calls, SMS, etc.

benjie · 09-20-2006, 11:50 PM

He is being nice about Butler - BUTLER NAGS worse than ..... you know what I mean. I no longer miss any alarms or notifications. The current release is 3.82.

Ben

Yellow M&M · 09-21-2006, 12:25 AM

I can't believe i have to buy a $30 program just to get an ongoing alert for missed calls. Doesn't every other cell phone come w/ that option?

Say it isn't true.

benjie · 09-21-2006, 01:58 AM

Some people have no need for Butler and there are some applications that actually do their own nagging and some that do not. If a device came with everything each person thought was important, you would never use it to its full potential. Instead we would be crying, "how do I remove this." I want this, he wants that, she wants that. I would hate to be in that situation.

What I think is not important, others bitch horribly about not having. For instance, I have zero use for WiFi while others consider it "must have" and frankly, with today's data plans, WiFi is of little value and in public places, it presents a security risk.

Ben

stevetaz · 09-21-2006, 08:09 AM

While I understand what Benjie is saying, I do believe Yellow M&M does have a very valid point. Cell phones are for keeping in touch and a "nag" about a missed call is to me a very basic item that all cell phones should have. Prior to my Treo adventure, I can't think of any of the cell phones I had that didn't have a sound reminder/alert to tell you "Hey, you missed a call"!!! That included Nokia, Motorola, Ericsson and a few others I think.

The Treo, when it feels like it, will do the screen reminder, but that is very weak at best. And you do have to look at it to know.

I do believe this is a major weak point of this otherwise mighty fine device. Spending money for a reminder program is obscene, in my opinion.

Just venting, again!

SteveTaz

Yellow M&M · 09-21-2006, 02:50 PM

yes, why is the screen reminder so inconsistent...sometimes I get a reminder for a missed call a few days ago???

again, I'm not into a lot of gimmicks...Ben makes excellent points, but his perspective is from that of someone who's been in the PDA game for awhile and his "must have apps" will definitely differ.

I'm coming from a regular cell phone that only made calls and had a camera. Even that one had a way to let you know of a missed call. This really is a basic phone function, which I rank up there with "ringing when you get a call". The fact this device lacks this out of the box is weaksauce.

Yellow.

stevetaz · 09-21-2006, 04:08 PM

I believe that would be called a "feature", but then again, I grew up on DOS and then Windows...

SteveTaz

[quote=Yellow M&M;29024]yes, why is the screen reminder so inconsistent...sometimes I get a reminder for a missed call a few days ago???

benjie · 09-21-2006, 05:43 PM

I tend to agree with it being a "feature." The Treo series is a convergent device that takes functionality from the PDA world, phone world and whatever else there might be thrown into the mix. The result is a device that operates like a phone and a PDA in most respects, but not all.

I considered the Treo 300 to be a phone only due to limitations caused by its design. I considered the Treo 600 to be more phone due to it being a better phone than a PDA and I used it heavily as PHONE and PDA for eight to ten hours a day six days a week.

The 650 I consider to be more of a PDA than a phone, though it functions fairly well as a phone with the addition of third party software. The 700 series, including the "p" and "w" series also more of a PDA than a phone. The most noise created during the days of the 600 tended toward more PDA functionality than phone functionalty.

Through the use of third party software, those functions we as users consider to be "weak" can be generally enhanced to take care of those "functionality" problems we are speaking of.

For me, the phone function of the 650/700 is fine. I do not demand that much. I use TakePhone and its design brings the contacts functionality very well into my phone needs. As a PDA, the Treo 650/700 continue to grow. From my first Palm based device, a Kyocera 6135, to the Treo 300, to the Treo 600, to the Treo 650, to the Treo 700 series (I have both a p and w), the Treo series has continued to expand its PDA functionality into a device that provides much more than the basic PDA function I started with six years ago.

Do I need or actually do I have any interest in playing mp3s? None at all. I do so simply as a convenience when used by specific function software - mobileClock, Call Shield, and other programs that have the ability to use WAV/MP3 files. I like announcements. When I receive email via ChatterEmail, the announcement given is something like "You have Fastmail." I have both pTunes Deluxe and Kinoma EX and do not use them to their full potential. I have HanDBase and use it much more than most people do. I use ChatterEmail extensively. I use Documents to Go a lot. What is important to me is not necessarily important to another user.

Do I like games? There is one game installed on my device and it has been played exactly one time - I even registered it. The inclusion of "essential" games would be a total waste for me.

Anyway, some people place more emphasis on the phone functionality and others on the PDA functionality. There is frankly no reason to laden a device with functionality that MOST people do not need. Provide the basics (and they are there) and let the community/developers provide the rest.

Developers such as Marc (ChatterEmail), Shimon (Takephone/SHSH/2Day/4Cast), Northglide (Roy), Bob (mobileClock) and so on, provide applications that beat the heck out of what any company could possibly afford to provide as "default" applications.

Give me a great built-in mp3 player? Absolutely not.

Ben

Yellow M&M · 09-21-2006, 05:58 PM

I'm starting to see a trend.

Basically, the smart phone market parallels the PC market in that software$ > hardware$

Like the naive guy who thinks his computer will come out of the box w/ all the apps he'll "need" and then realized MS Office cost $500.

I guess my expectations were off.

Ben, I'm curious, how much do you think you've spent on applications for your 700p? You seem to have your device set-up the way you like it.

If you say you get all your apps from work for free AND live in Hawaii...