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When a call comes in, Phone Amego flashes up a semi-transparent status window with the callers name and image from your Address Book if any.
To refuse an incoming call, press the close button in the upper left corner of the window. This will generally send the caller to your voice mail depending on your cell phone service. The Action menu (bottom left) allows you to open the corresponding Address Book contact if desired. Pressing the Option key while selecting "Open Contact" will open the contact for editing, creating a new one if needed.
To place a call from your Address Book, click and hold over the label for the desired phone number. When the menu appears, select "Dial with Phone Amego".
Phone Amego will display a semi-transparent window showing the status of your outgoing call. To cancel, press the close button.
You can also select a phone number that appears on a web page or in an Email message and press Cmd-Shift-D to use the "Dial with Phone Amego" application service. Phone Amego normally appears as a status bar item with a pull-down menu.
The status bar image will change color to indicate the status of a connected Bluetooth device (
Out of range, 
In range, 
Connected and ready). Selecting Preferences from the status bar menu opens the main Phone Amego window.
Most of the controls are self explanatory.
You can set Phone Amego to monitor whether a paired Bluetooth phone is in range, and notify you when a call is received.
You can have Phone Amego start automatically each time you login to your computer.
You can set a dialing prefix for phone numbers that begin with "+".
You can have Phone Amego install or remove a simple Address Book plug-in that allows you to dial calls from Apple's Address Book application.
If you have a Google Voice account, you can set Phone Amego to place calls through Google Voice so that your Google Voice number will appear as the caller to the person you are calling. This feature logs in to your Google Voice account over the web so it can work with any phone you have designated to receive calls via Google Voice including your office phone or iPhone. It does not require Bluetooth. When placing a call, Google Voice will first ring the local "Number to Ring" you specify (your phone number), and then call the outgoing number you selected from your Address Book.
To use Google Voice, you must setup your account information as shown below.
Click here for more information on using Google Voice.
If you have a Bluetooth cell phone that you have paired with your computer, you can select this device. It is possible that your phone offers more than one service that matches the Handsfree (HFP) or Serial Port Profile (SPP). I recommend choosing the first Serial Port or Handsfree Gateway listed. If that doesn't work, try the others.
Phone Amego works with many Bluetooth phones such as those by Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, RIM BlackBerry, Google Android, and Apple iPhone. You can connect up to two Bluetooth phones at the same time for Caller ID, and select which one will be used for dialing.
Phone Amego scans to see if your phone is turned on and within range approximately every 30 seconds and will connect automatically as needed.
Click here for more information on supported phones.
You can use Phone Amego with landline phones connected through a compatible USB Modem. You can connect up to two phone lines at the same time for Caller ID, and select which one will be used for dialing.
Landline phones connected through a USB modem do not provide real time call status when you answer a call or hang up. Phone Amego can detect when the phone line is in use (off hook) and update the call status accordingly. To check call status, the USB modem must connect to the phone line briefly. If you have a telephone answering machine on this line, it may think you have answered the call and no longer take a message. You can select whether you want Phone Amego to check Call Status accordingly.
Checking call status through a USB modem can take about 10 seconds to detect Call Answer, and up to a minute to detect Call End. You can tell Phone Amego a call has ended immediately by closing the call status window, or choosing Hang Up from the Phone Amego menu.
Click here for more information on compatible USB Modems.
Telephone Device (Sharing)
You can share Caller ID information from one computer to another on your LAN. For example, if your home phone is connected to a Mac in your office, you can have Caller ID information from that phone appear on any other Macs on your network that are also running Phone Amego Sharing. When sharing is enabled, a small checkbox appears below each phone icon allowing you to publish Caller ID information for that phone. Click on the "Sharing..." button to enable Caller ID sharing and select which Phone Amego servers to subscribe to.
In this image, Phone Amego sharing is running on another computer named "Lexi". Lexi has subscribed to us, so we are publishing Caller ID information to Lexi (for any phones set to publish). When the home phone rings (in this example), a call status window will appear on Lexi.
You can have Phone Amego launch an AppleScript for the following events:
For example, you could have Phone Amego pause iTunes when you answer a call, or tell your computer to activate a screen saver when you leave the area. AppleScripts are normally found in ~/Library/Scripts/
The "will_dial (n)" action allows you to intercept outgoing calls just before Phone Amego dials so you can pre-process the phone number if desired.
The "call_from (n)" action allows you to intercept incoming Caller ID information just before it is displayed by Phone Amego. The included "Speak CallerID" example announces the callers name. You could also lookup private phone numbers in a company wide database if desired.
Click here for more information on scripting with Phone Amego.
See Looking up A Phone Number below for more options.
Once the window appears, you can specify additional recipients by selecting different numbers from your Address Book. Since Google Voice does not support "bulk messaging" at this time, Phone Amego will send the message to one recipient after another every few seconds. Sending messages to a group of contacts is especially convenient when your plans change at the last minute since people who might not have a chance to check their Email will still have their cell phones with them.
I understand Google chose not to support bulk messaging initially because free messaging might attract abuse. Phone Amego tries to respect that choice by asking you to select each recipient individually and sending only one message every few seconds.
Notice that if you use Google Voice (GV) to send or receive SMS messages, Google will conveniently archive them for you. The only messages not archived are new messages you send directly from your cell phone. When replying to a SMS message received on your GV number, GV translates the incoming number to an alias (406) number so the reply can be routed back through Google Voice correctly.
Open the Call window from the Phone Amego menu and begin typing the first or last name of the person you want to call. If the name is in your recent history, the input field will auto-complete.
If the person you want to call is not in your recent history, type enough characters to distinguish the name and press the Address Book button to bring up the matching Address Book entry if any. Phone Amego will match both the first and last name, so you can type "J Smith" or "John S" to match "John Smith". If the number shown is the one you want to call, press Dial (or Option-Dial to close the Address Book window). If the Address Book entry found is the right person but you wish to call them at a different number, you can press the up or down arrow keys (or stepper arrows) to select a different number, or click and hold on the label of the desired number in your Address Book and select "Dial with Phone Amego".
Once you are comfortable Phone Amego will find the desired entry, simply type your search string and press return. If there are no digits in the dial string, Phone Amego will try to find a matching entry from your Address Book and update the input field as needed without opening an Address Book window.
If you press the Address Book button and no matching entry is found, the Address Book is opened to the last entry shown to assist you in your search.
If you hold the Option key while you click on the Address Book button, the matching entry will be opened in Edit mode. If there is no matching entry, a new one will be created allowing you to add a recent caller to your Address Book.
Press Dial or "Return" to dial the number shown.
If you are dialing for a modem connected landline phone,
pick up the phone first, then tell Phone Amego to dial.
Phone Amego is commercial software subject to the terms of the accompanying License Agreement.
Any time the call status window is visible, you can hangup or cancel a call by pressing the close button. If you want to dismiss the call status window without cancelling the call, press Command-Close.
If you select "Hang Up" from the Phone Amego menu while more than one phone has an active call, any active calls will be cancelled. To cancel a single call when two phones are active, open the corresponding call status window.
To change the amount of time a call status window remains open, you can use the following terminal command: "defaults write com.sustworks.phoneAmego callStatusTime 20" (for 20 seconds). If you set the time to zero, call status windows will not timeout.
The call status window can be set to appear at any position on any screen. To change the saved window position, open the Phone Amego Preferences Window (closing it first if needed). In the History box, enter a number and press Find. This will open the "first call status" window. Reposition the window as desired and then close it.
It is possible to receive a call while another call is dialing, or receive more than one call at a time. If the "first call status" window is in the top half of the screen, additional call status windows will appear immediately below growing down as needed. If the "first call status" window is in the bottom half of the screen, additional call status windows will appear immediately above growing up as needed.
You can select a phone number that appears on a web page or in an Email message and press Cmd-Shift-D to use the "Dial with Phone Amego" application service. Application services are listed in the "Services" menu of the currenty running application.
On Snow Leopard (10.6), navigate to "System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Services -> Text" to enable the "Dial with Phone Amego" application service. Once enabled, the service will appear as a contextual menu item when you right click on most selected text.
On Leopard (10.5), you can use Service Scrubber to disable services you don't need or change their keyboard shortcut.
If you wish to dial a number that isn't on your screen, select "Call..." from the Phone Amego menu and enter the number in the Call window that appears.
Phone Amego tries to use the phone number format selected in your Address Book. To select a different format, navigate to "Address Book -> Preferences -> Phone", check "Automatically format phone numbers", and choose the desired format.
If you wish to publish a screen snapshot of Phone Amego without revealing a private phone number, there is an option to display phone numbers with the last 4-digits obscured. From a terminal window, you can enter the following command.
defaults write com.sustworks.phoneAmego obscureDisplayNumber -bool yes
Then quit and relaunch Phone Amego. Change the setting back to "no" to restore normal operation.
The Caller ID service provided by cell phone carriers often includes just the callers number and geographic area, but not the callers name. If a matching entry is found in your Address Book, Phone Amego will use this to display the callers name and image (if any). If no Address Book entry is found, the identifying information received by your phone will be used.
If you receive a call from an unknown number that happens to be a conventional landline, Phone Amego can help you find the corresponding caller using Yahoo People Search. There are three ways to search: (1) Select "Yahoo Search" from the action menu of the call status window; (2) Open the "Call..." window, enter or select a number, and press Command-Call; (3) Open the "Preferences..." window, enter or select a number, and press Find. If a match is found, you can get more information by selecting "Open contact" from the call status window.
Yahoo Search is helpful when you have a phone number you copied from somewhere and want to confirm who it is before calling. Cell phone carriers do not freely publish subscriber numbers (which is a good thing), and many people choose to keep their number unlisted, so Yahoo People Search will not always succeed. It's like an Internet "While Pages" (no business listings or unlisted numbers). If you get an unexpected call from a neighbor or one of your child's classmates, it may find them including their street address with optional map and driving directions. Select "Open contact" from the Action menu to see what was found.
The Yahoo Search result is indicated by an image in the call status window.
Phone Amego offers some additional features to help you see what it is doing and resolve service problems. If you press and hold Option while selecting "Preferences" from the menu, Phone Amego will open a log window showing the actual AT command exchange with an attached telephone device.
From the Preferences window, you can test individual AppleScripts, test having Phone Amego "Find" a phone number in your Address Book, and test having Phone Amego "Dial" a number for you. If you press the control key and "Login" from the Google Voice setup sheet, Phone Amego will display the WebKit window it uses to interact with Google Voice.
If you press Option and click on "Device..." Phone Amego will list all the services reported by a selected device.
Searching for a matching phone number in your Address Book is more subtle than it appears since a phone number is just a string of characters the user can enter in whatever format they choose. Phone Amego searches for the last 4-digts of the phone number, and then examines each record more carefully to look for an exact match. If you enter a phone number in your Address Book as "123-1234", and Phone Amego receives a call from "14011231234", it will first search for records matching "1234" and then examine each entry by removing the formatting characters and any dialing prefix it recognizes to look for an exact match.
Since dialing prefixes and formatting conventions can vary in different parts of the world, I welcome your feedback to make Phone Amego work correctly wherever practical.
The basic steps to work with a Bluetooth phone are as follows:
If your phone does not appear to work, press Option-Preferences in the Phone Amego menu to see a log window that shows the AT commands being sent to your phone. Your phone should acknowledge one or more commands leading to a message that says [Phone initialization complete]. If you are an expert, you can experiment with sending AT commands to the phone yourself to find the right ones and customize Phone Amego accordingly.
Click here for more information on customizing Phone Amego.
If you have trouble pairing your Bluetooth phone with your Mac, these tips may help.
Mac OS X 10.5 or later, and one or more of the following:
To install Phone Amego, simply drag the program to your Applications folder and double-click to launch it.
To remove PhoneAmigo, uncheck "Launch at Startup" and "Address Book Plug-in". Then quit the application and drag it to the trash. If you do not wish to run the program, you can simply drag it to the trash and remove the Login Item from the Accounts Preferences Panel, and remove the Address Book Plug-in from "~/Library/Address Book Plug-ins".
| Phone Amego (single user) | $20 |
| Phone Amego Family Pack (Up to 5 computers yow own or control within a single family household) |
$40 |
As with all of our Macintosh software, Phone Amego features a fully functional 21 day trial period. Once you are certain that our software is right for the job, a registration key can be purchased from the link below.
Q: What problem is Phone Amego intended to solve?
A: Imagine you spend much of your day sitting in front of a Mac (like me). Your phone is in your pocket, purse, or plugged into a charger. When the phone rings, a little window pops up on your Mac's screen to tell you who is calling. If you don't want to answer right now, you can click the close button to send the call directly to voice mail. If your ear buds are on, you can click "Answer call" to answer without touching your phone.
If you sometimes forget to take your phone off vibrate, the on-screen caller ID will help alert you when you have a call.
To place a call, you can click on a number in your Address Book to have your computer dial it for you, or open the Call window and type the first few letters of the name you want to call. You can dial almost any number that appears on your screen, or add a recent caller to your Address Book with a few simple clicks.
You can dial calls via Google Voice directly from your Address Book. You can send a free SMS using Google Voice to one or more contacts in your Address Book. This is generally much easier than using the small keypad on your phone.
If you are new to Google Voice, the idea is to have one number that rings wherever you go instead of handing out different numbers for where you might be (home, office, cell), and have one place to keep your voice mail. When you call someone, you want them to see your Google Voice number, not the number of where you happen to be calling from (so your cell number remains private). Phone Amego can take care of this for you when you dial a number from your Address Book.
If you don't have good cell phone reception at home, you can use Google Voice to ring both your cell phone and home phone at the same time, and answer whichever one is more convenient.
If your Mac doesn't have a modem or you are connected via AirPort, you can use Google Voice as a wireless dialer. When Phone Amego dials using Google Voice, it connects over the Internet to ring your phone, and then the phone of the person you are calling. You can dial indirectly from almost any phone you can answer that has a 10-digit U.S. number connected to an outside line, including Voice over IP phones.
Google Voice is not a direct replacement for your phone service, but it may allow you to consolidate your phone services to save you money. For example, if you are a micro business owner, instead of having a separate office phone, you can have a Google Voice number that rings your home and/or cell phone. For outgoing calls, Google Voice offers free nationwide long distance and low international rates (which is one way the service pays for itself).
Q: How can I get a Google Voice Account?
A: Point your web browser at <http://www.google.com/voice>. Click on "Get an Invite" near the bottom of the page. I understand invites can take about 2 weeks at the time of this writting. If you know a Google employee or another Google Voice user, they may have invites to hand out. Current Google Voice users are gradually being given invites to share with family and friends. Google Voice is a very popular service so they are expanding it gradually to provide a smooth rollout. Google Voice is not available outside the U.S. at this time.
Q: What happened to the Bluetooth phone to Address Book integration feature in Mac OS X Tiger?
A: Apple hasn't said why they removed this feature. I can only speculate they decided 3rd party developers might do a better job of supporting the vast array of cell phone devices, and they didn't want the ongoing support burden.
Q: What's the point of having a Bluetooth phone?
A: You can sync your phone with your computer to automatically transfer your Address Book contacts and appointments from your calendar. No cables are needed. Just have your phone near your computer and ask it to sync.
You can use your phone as a modem to give your laptop Internet access while you are traveling. Again, no special cables are needed.
You can use a Hands-Free headset or use your phone with another device like a GPS to have it call a nearby restaurant you just found.
Q: Does Phone Amego work with iPhone?
A: Yes. It supports inbound Caller ID and outbound dialing when paired with an iPhone. Since Phone Amego uses the "Handsfree Gateway" to connect with iPhone, you cannot use a Bluetooth headset and Phone Amego at the same time except for the Google Voice dialer which does not require a Bluetooth connection.
Phone Amego uses a fairly small set of Bluetooth capabilities to reduce its compatibility exposure.
This simplifies the design and avoids a large number of special case work arounds and bugs. SMS is supported through Google Voice which also handles archiving.
Q: Which Bluetooth Cell Phones are Supported?
A: Phone Amego works with Bluetooth phones that recognize AT commands using the HandsFree or Serial Port Profile. This includes many Bluetooth phones such as those by Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, RIM BlackBerry, Google Android, and Apple iPhone. I have tested Phone Amego with these phones:
Customers also report success with these phones:
Blackberry support is still under development. Currently you must manually switch the audio back to the handset upon answering a call by pressing the Jog wheel twice to select "Activate Handset".
Q: When I pick up the phone, there is no sound, what happened?
The Handsfree profile on some phones insists on routing the audio to a connected handsfree device. If your phone has an alternative to the Handsfree profile, this will avoid switching the audio path. Alternatively, there should be an option to switch the audio back to the handset. I expect to resolve this in a future release.
Q: How does Phone Amego compare to ApiMac CallerID?
A: The Caller ID feature is similar. Both support Bluetooth and landline phones connected via modem. Where I think Phone Amego shines is handling proximity transitions smoothly, Google Voice integration, dialing, cancelling a call in progress, and support for iPhone.
Q: How does Phone Amego compare to BluePhoneElite 2?
A: BluePhoneElite 2 (BPE2) is certainly a powerful program. If you are looking for SMS integration and extensive synching and call logging features, or support for a specific Bluetooth phone, it's a fine choice. Phone Amego strives for a different balance of simplicity and useful features. Where I think Phone Amego shines is simple usability, Google Voice integration, landline support, and sending SMS to contacts from your Address Book (via Google Voice) even with iPhone.
A: Dialectic has a ton of features for connecting with other Internet phone systems. If you need more options to work with your phone system, this is it. Where I think Phone Amego shines is providing on-screen Caller ID, cancelling a call in progress, and easy configuration.
Q: Did you mis-spell "Amigo" in Phone Amego intentionally?
A: Yes, I wanted a unique name that was easy to recognize.
Q: Can I help test Phone Amego and get a discounted license?
A: Yes, Phone Amego is still under development as I work to test it with different cell phones. If you test Phone Amego with your cell phone and report bugs that lead to a working solution, I'll give you 50% off. Use the log window (Option-Preferences) to see how your cell phone responds.
I've enjoyed creating Phone Amego and tried to make it close to how I think Apple would do it. Good design requires as little learning as possible on the users part, and stays out of the way until you need it. I hope you find Phone Amego useful and look forward to your comments and suggestions. You can Email me directly at psichel "at" sustworks "dot" com.
- Peter Sichel
Sustainable Softworks
13 Fieldside Drive
Cumberland, RI 02864
http://www.sustworks.com
- or -
http://www.PhoneAmego.com
Phone Amego uses the "BLIP protocol" for CallerID sharing, an Open Source component released under BSD license.
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