Posted in idea, interface, mac,
widgets wishlist: the vonage widget
I decided to share some ideas of widgets I’d like to see. I’m no good at programming, but I know how to build interfaces, so why not put my ideas in the wind to see if someone wants to go on with it, open-source style?
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The first widget I’d love to use is a vonage answering machine: nowadays I listen to my voice messages as audio mail attachments. It’s nice but it could be better: a centralized interface helps me keep track of my phone communications.
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The widget could get the media from the mail app (simple) or directly from my vonage account (better) and show my new messages in a queue, translating the phone numbers to my contacts’ images in address book (I’m assuming you are organized and all your contacts have pictures and phone numbers).
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The front of the widget shows how many new messages I have left (the number reduces after I listen to the message), the queue with images (the current one with an arrow, and the other ones a lil bit whiter).
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The mechanism is the plain ol’ quicktime, and when it finishes one voice message, it goes straight to the next one. Clicking on the any contact plays the correlate message.
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The widget shows some info about the current voice message I’m listening to: Name, date and time it was recorded (maybe a “2 hours ago” so I can guess what to do with it) and the duration.
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Below, some actions can be taken:
- the online button, when clicked, open ichat. This button disappears if your address book entry has nothing on AIM/jabber field or, of course, your friend is offline
- the call function opens the X-pro-vonage app, log in and dial your friend’s number… Only if you have the softphone plan (I do! I pay $10/mo, and I barely touch it!)
- the email button, duh, composes a mail (maybe with a “regarding your call” subject)
- and save, well, saves the message on an specific folder. The messages can be retrieved with the pulldown below).
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On the back of the widget you fill in your vonage account information, and set how many days the widget keeps the old - and unsaved - messages.
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(no, I’m not affiliated with vonage company - at least I don’t get money from them - I’m just a satisfied customer)




