TidBITS - Phone Amego: the Macintosh/iPhone Mind Meld
macnn - Review: PhoneAmego
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I'm totally impressed by the speed and ease-of-use of PA compared to alternatives -- PA is far
and away a better product imho.
- Warwick Terry
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You sure did a great job on this app, I have been looking for a click to call Address book plugin for
a long time.
- Michael Gardner
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Phone Amego is AWESOME!
...that PA can grab realtime call data from the SPA is unexpectedly cool.
i've tried pretty much every mac <-> phone integration package out there and phone amego is
the first one i can actually use; it does what i want, the way i want.
- PV
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[MacUpdate ✭✭✭✭✭] WARD I've used a variety of dial-via-modem apps over the years. Each
had quirks and bugs. My search for the ideal dialer ended last March when I discovered Phone
Amego.
My five favorite features:
1. Keyboard dialing: A keyboard shortcut opens the Call window. I begin typing a name, and
Phone Amego completes the name or presents a menu of possibilities. Down-arrow to select the
desired number + 2 Returns, and the number is dialing.
2. Call logging in iCal: One or two Phone Amego calendars collect time-stamped incoming and
outgoing calls. I leave these calendars hidden until I have a question, e.g., "When did I call
Julie?", "How many times has Fred called this week?" I can scan the entries in my monthly view
or do an iCal Find.
3. Growl Caller ID: Incoming callers are announced in the corner of my screen.
4. Enhanced Caller ID: Phone Amego checks an incoming number against my Address Book and
WhitePages.com.
5. Peter Sichel (the developer): His responsiveness to questions, problems and suggestions is
second to none. He's an A+ Mac developer.
I use Phone Amego with a conventional land line. I'm sure I'd be just as happy if I were a
Bluetooth or VoIP user.
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[MacUpdate ✭✭✭✭✭]
WOODEN BRAIN CONCEPTS In a few short months, Phone Amego has gone from a great idea
with a lot of potential to a very solid, full-featured telephony application which mostly realizes
that potential. This one simple menu bar application combines features of several other phone-
related applications.
It will notify you of incoming calls (with Growl or its internal notification system). You can
broadcast incoming Caller ID information over your local network, so every Mac in your house
can see who is calling. If you use BoxCar or Prowl with Growl, you can send incoming land line
call notifications to your iPhone.
Phone Amego also dials outgoing calls through land lines plugged into a USB modem, bluetooth
cell phones (including an iPhone), Google Voice, and VoIP devices. You can even dial a land line
attached to one computer from another computer on your local network. It handles numbers in
your Address Book intelligently, including "plus-dial" international numbers and local numbers
without area codes.
The developer is extremely responsive to suggestions and fixes problems and bugs nearly as
quickly as you can throw at him (and I've thrown a lot at him over the past few months).
The chief remaining issues with Phone Amego have to do with a somewhat disjointed interface
that makes initial set-up a bit tricky. But this itself is mainly the result of rapid feature
expansion. It just got too big for its britches. I'd expect that eventually that will get cleaned up
as well.
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"David Leon (mail list)"
Peter isn't giving the program enough credit. This program is an absolute MUST HAVE if any of
the following apply to you:
1. You bill for time.
2. Your office is busy and you sometimes forget to document that you made or received a phone
call.
3. Your office is busy and you sometimes forget whether or not you've spoken with someone.
4. You have o/c or clients complaining that "you never return my calls" even though you know
you have.
5. You didn't manually document calls in the beginning of a matter because you originally
thought it would be quick and instead it has dragged on (especially a flat fee matter).
The biggest selling point of this software is that it runs passively in the background. You don't do
anything. Right now, I have it to sync calls with my exchange server, so if some o/c calls
whining that we never spoke to him
(a daily occurrence) I can check the calendar and see that
we did call him on such and such date. I can then tell him, authoritatively, to shove it. It also
has it's own built in, searchable database, so you can look for calls.
I strongly recommend buying this program with the WhozzCalling box, so it can track incoming
and outgoing calls. I think it was about $1k for 5 licenses and the box. It paid for itself almost
immediately, due to its ability to recapture lost time. (How many .1 telephone calls have you
forgotten to track because you took a call when you were in someone else's office, didn't have a
notepad handy, etc.)
Also, the unit will track calls on your iPhone if you're within bluetooth range. Ever have a client
or o/c call your cell while you're in the office? It's now tracked.
The other nice thing is that Peter will respond to a feature request if you ask nicely.
This is one of the very few programs that is on my MUST BUY, no exceptions, list.
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I just recently started using daylite and was searching for a dialer to my Polycom. I downloaded
the Dialectic app they recommend but it was so difficult and uneasy to use, and didn't really offer
support for my Polycom. I searched the web and found your product. Super easy to install and
great support steps that allowed a not-so-techy guy like myself to do it without help. So a big
thanks, I went ahead and bought it and its working really well. Please keep it going. You should
really see if Daylite would put your dialer in the Auto Dialer by default. It is sooo much easier
than the alternatives they have.
Thanks again!
John McDowell
Sales Executive
ReadyNet Solutions
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I use Phone Amego at home, and at work together with a iPhone 3GS.
I had some troubles to get the iPhone in contact with my iMac and the Phone Amego.
But the support at Softworks did a great job to help me up and stay.
This app is one of my 2 best helpers on my Mac. I helps me to reduce time spending on things I
do not need to!
THANKS for the program. THANKS for the support.
It is worth every penny.
Geir Fossnes
Norway
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