[jekitchen]

So...this is driving me nuts.

On my 7280 the lower portion of the phone had a view of the names from the address book. All I had to do to dial from the address book was start typing and the name would filter out then I could click the wheel and select which of the numbers to dial. This was very efficient and simple and I'm used to it.

I have not been able to get this to work on the 7100g, am I missing something? I have to go to the phone interface by pressing the green send button, and then click the wheel and select dial from address book. Then from there it seems to be about the same as before. The extra clicks are pretty inconvient and annoying to me.

Anyone know a way to get my 7280 functionality back?

Thanks in advance....

[NJBlackBerry]

No, that feature was removed (and I wasn't happy about it either). I have a 7290 with v4.0 and it doesn't have that abaility either (to type the first few letters of the address and have the Address Book pop up).

They removed a useful feature.

[mbn]

I used to use that dialing feature on my 7290 every day, 10x/day... Also, short cut keys on the main page was very useful.

Holding down the Alt-key and the button on the side below the scroll wheel allows me to maneuver through 4 apps on my 7100 (Home, Browser, phone, messages)- is there a way to customize that apps menu. That would solve the shortcurt keys issue.

[cameron]

I'll just chime in and say that I also used that feature alot on my 7280. To replace it, I've subscribed to Cingular's voice dial service, which actually ends up working a bit better.

mbn - you can't customize that menu. It shows the application you mentioned, plus any other open apps. Think of this as the blackberry version of windows' Alt-Tab.

[guinda35]

Originally Posted by cameron

I'll just chime in and say that I also used that feature alot on my 7280. To replace it, I've subscribed to Cingular's voice dial service, which actually ends up working a bit better.

mbn - you can't customize that menu. It shows the application you mentioned, plus any other open apps. Think of this as the blackberry version of windows' Alt-Tab.

What does Cingular's voice dialing service do, and does it cost extra? Also, do you know if this is available on all Cingular Blackberry devices?

I also use the "running" address book on my 7290's phone screen all the time. It is a very convenient feature. I've been waiting for Cingular to release the 4.0 OS for my 7290. But losing the ability to search for names in my address book directly from my phone screen gives me serious doubts over ditching my current 3.8. Is there really no way of doing this directly on your unit with the 4.0?

[cameron]

What does Cingular's voice dialing service do, and does it cost extra? Also, do you know if this is available on all Cingular Blackberry devices?

It's a Cingular/ATT service that allows you to dial either *8 (Cingular) or #121 (ATT) from your phone and say the name of the persone you want to dial. It's about $5/month. The process for importing contacts from Outlook to the service was fairly painless.

Is there really no way of doing this directly on your unit with the 4.0?

I think the issue is more with the 7100 series than with 4.0. I loaded 4.0 on my 7280 and was still able to use this feature. With the 7100 and it's feature set designed more as a phone - the assumption is that you wan't to dial a phone number first (from the homescreen, from the phone app, etc) and do other things second.

[jekitchen]

Good info guys, thanks for the responses.

I'm still going to miss this until they put it back in and I'll pout about it in the meantime .

I've got the voice-dial feature and I admit it is quite useful...unless you're walking through a noisy airport or something (anywhere that people are talking in the background, it takes their voices as commands). It does work just fine where the background noise is white-noice, like in the car. As mentioned before, syncing with your Outlook contacts works very well and its easy to update once a month or so to keep your numbers up-to-date.

One more question...is there a way to assign the functionality of the button in between the green send and red end buttons? Currently, it goes to the browser, pretty useless to me. I'd love to make that button dial the voice dialing service number.

Someone should make an app that does that .

Cheers

[jekitchen]

Figured out an alternative a couple days ago...thought I'd update my own thread for others out there.

This is basically as easy as the old 7200 series feature:

• Select Address Book from the Home Screen
  Start typing the first name, last name, or company of the contact you want to call
  Once selected (or manually select using the wheel), press the Green Send button
  This will bring up the standard list of numbers for that contact
  Click the wheel on the one you want to dial and talk away

Basically this is as good as the old 7200 feature was...so I'm happy again :D .

One thing I did notice, on the number selection window that pops up, certain themes have the text font set too large and you can't tell which number is selected. The (Home), (Work), etc. designation behind the number is replaced by (... because its too large to fit in the window. That's fairly annoying as I like the O2 theme, but it has this problem. Oh well, back to the default Cingular theme for now...as I anxiously await a theme builder / modification tool.

Hope that helps some...cheers

[gregg]

I too miss the functionality of being able to start typing a name immediately from the phone log screen. While I knew about simply hitting the green button after going into the address book that's still too many extra steps (exit phone log, select address book) IMHO.

I like the idea of customizing the button between the red and green buttons, that would be extremely functional -

[mobilehavoc]

You don't need to do all that.

Press and HOLD the Green Send button from either the Home Screen and/or the Phone app.

If you hold it down (don't be afraid ) for a few seconds, it will bring you to dial-by-name as with the old BBs...

So it's basically the same thing actually even better especially if you hold the green send button down from the homescreen since you can start typing right away.

[mbn]

mobilehavoc! Dude! That is some nice work! Great shortcut....

[aristobrat]

Originally Posted by mobilehavoc

You don't need to do all that.

[Eric5273]

Nice! I guess I hadn't figured that one out yet.

[jekitchen]

8)

Nice work! You've solved one of my life's great hardships.

Now, can you tell me how to make 3 million in less than 1 year without stealing or getting into infomercials?

I'd still like a way to reprogram the button between the call and end though...guess I can never be satisfied .

Thanks again!

[lykedoctor]

this doesnt seem to work for me, im running a 7100t on v3.8. darn

[gregg]

awesome, awesome, awesome

you are the man mobile

[revision78]

*sings praise and offers his old 7730 to mobilehavoc as a sacraficial offering*

you just made me a very happy man!!

[Declarent]

I'd also love to find out if you can reprogram the 'go to browser' button. I have *zero* use for that, but I would love to be able to make it dial *8 for voice dial.

Anyone? Anyone?