optimizing cell phone algorithms/architecture

[paul wheaton]

(I was whining about this before ... maybe? ...)

A voice mail message is stored at cell phone central as a file, right?

Now, our cell phones have lots of memory, right?

If we have enough memory on our phones, maybe the voice mail could be transferred to our phones - that way we don't have to dial into the voice mail stuff, hit "pound", key in our pin, hit "pound" again, hit "1" to actually listen to it ... all that can be skipped because the voice mail is already on our phone!

When do we get to have this feature?

[Anupam Sinha]

Nowadays many phones have quite a lot of memory. Yeah though a choice should be available to download all the messages to your cellphone but probably that wouldn't be easy as far as the service provider is concerned. The provider would be required to know that your phone can recieve the messages and probably would also require to know that you have ample space to save all the messages.

Secondly storing it at a centralised database would mean someday you change your phone you can still listen to your messages and moreover the provider can provide you the ability of web messages (something like webmail).

[Satish Chilukuri]

What I would really like to see in cell phones is the ability to ban calls/SMS from some phone numbers much like we can do with email. Every day I get calls saying "Hello! I'm calling from XYZ bank. Would like to go for our credit card/loan/insurance...". If someone could maintain a database of these "rogue" phone no.s, all I have to do is download that list and block calls from those numbers.

[Yosi Hendarsjah]

Originally posted by Satish Chilukuri:
What I would really like to see in cell phones is the ability to ban calls/SMS from some phone numbers much like we can do with email. Every day I get calls saying "Hello! I'm calling from XYZ bank. Would like to go for our credit card/loan/insurance...". If someone could maintain a database of these "rogue" phone no.s, all I have to do is download that list and block calls from those numbers.

Luckily, in Australia, we have the Do Not Call Register. If you are registered, you won't get calls from telemarketers. However, this register do not stop calls from government bodies, political parties, religious organizations, and some others. Are there any other countries that have similar register?

[Raghav Sam]

I think there is something like this in S'pore. There is the Contact Center for calls authority which governs this. All telemarketers have to maintain a "Do not call list"