Idea of a voice mail application

[Ortwin Regel]

And people just accept paying for incoming connections?! I still can't
get over how US phone contracts work... O.o

On 3/2/08, Mark Haury <wolfmane at gmail.com> wrote:
> >On 29 Feb 2008, at 17:34, Marco Trevisan (Treviño) wrote:
> >
> >> siaPeter Trapp ha scritto:
> >>> Hi everybody,
> >>> I thought about the possibility of a voice mail installed on the
> >>> neo.  The idea is to let the application decide if you are
> >>> reachable for the caller or not. The decision will be done on
> >>> profiles (time, who is calling, what to do (let it ring or answer
> >>> directly) ). Eg: Saturday 10:00pm and your boss is calling (and
> >>> you have a signal)
> >>> Neo is aware that it is "weekend" and who is calling. It just
> >>> turns on the voice mail... Dear Boss, actually it is weekend and I
> >>> just don't want to get some work right now. Sorry, my neo will not
> >>> even inform me that you've called. So don't try again later. It
> >>> would not help until Monday 9am! Have a nice weekend
> >>>   --- without the possibility to leave a message      ;)
> >
> >I would like this feature also, and really I assumed it would become
> >a commonplace usage on OpenMoko.
> >
> >> Cool, but your caller will pay for this.. So maybe it won't be so
> >> happy :P
> >
> >Stuff the caller. I carry a mobile phone so I can make outgoing calls
> >when I'm away from home, not so I can be interrupted in the middle of
> >a conversation. If someone is calling me they assume that they're
> >going to incur the cost of a call, anyway, so I don't see that the
> >cost of a call to voicemail is a large imposition (it is probably
> >better than me answering my phone to say "stuff you", at least).
> >
> >Stroller.
>
> In the USA, the originator of the call is irrelevant. It charges against
> your plan minutes regardless of whether you are making or receiving a
> cellular call. So if software on your phone is picking up the line and
> your phone itself is acting as the answering machine, it will use up
> your minutes as well as costing the caller minutes. Actually, if they're
> using a landline and you are a local call for them, it won't cost the
> caller anything, while it uses your minutes regardless.
>
> The exception is that often if the caller and the recipient are both on
> the same network, neither is charged. I know that's true of T-Mobile.
>
> Another issue is that this function will only work if your phone is both
> turned on and in service. Of course, maybe this functionality is only
> needed in that situation anyway (e.g. you are in service and want
> to receive calls from certain people and not certain others.)
>
> That said, I still think it's an extremely useful function for the phone
> to have by virtue of its power and flexibility. If it could do things like
> give different outgoing messages based on who's calling, or forward the
> incoming message (maybe even send to email?), or automatically send a text
> message and that kind of thing, it would be really cool. The suggestions
> of real-time screening (like you can do with a home answering machine) and
> sending calls from specific numbers (or all but specific numbers) directly
> to the provider's system voicemail are great too.
>
> Mark
>