An App to Keep Track
February 25, 2011 12:51 PM   Subscribe

app filter -- I am finally getting on the smartphone wagon, and it will be a droid (probably a used G1 if that matters). Lots and lots of my job involves talking on the phone. I want an app that will automatically time my outgoing and incoming phone calls by contact and/or by info that I type in. I want to transfer that information on a monthly basis to my computer, to sync that information with my billing program.

I have no objection to manually transferring the info from a list or database to my billing program (Tabs 3). I just want my phone to capture the time I am on the phone with a client or third party or what have you.

Ideally this app would beep or something when I hang up, to remind me to enter or confirm the contact info of the call or allow me to not store that call info.

I have found this "call timer app", the Yast Call Tracker, and the Call Log Manager Pro.

Does anyone have experience with these apps to relate? Any other apps to suggest?

I am a smartphone newbie, so feel free to dumb it down. I am planning on moving my to do list to the phone, and am researching that, so if you know of a to do app that includes call tracking, that would work too.
posted by freshwater to Technology (7 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
I don't know if I'd go for the G1. It's 2.5 years old by now and never got updated past Android 1.6 so that a lot of the newer apps won't work with it.
posted by octothorpe at 1:18 PM on February 25, 2011


Best answer: The G1 can be upgraded to Froyo via the magic of CyanogenMod octothorpe & I heartily recommend doing so. It's still a bit tight on memory: running a lot of apps is not advisable, but it works just fine (the memory pressure can be slightly alleviated by upgrading to the most recent radio firmware, which frees up an extra 15Mb).

I think the call info is just kept in a sqlite database on the phone, so in principle you can just copy the database off with adb & query it directly.

I haven't tried it myself, but the "Call Log Plus" widget gets 5 stars, costs a whole $2 and will email call logs to the address of your choice. Sounds like it will do the job freshwater?
posted by pharm at 1:38 PM on February 25, 2011


NB. octothorpe is right that a slightly later Android phone will be a bit more pleasant to use. A Hero maybe? The G1 really was very tight on memory, something that was fixed with the later phones, which won't cost much more second hand I wouldn't have thought.
posted by pharm at 1:40 PM on February 25, 2011


The G1 is probably the worst Android phone still on the market. T-mobile only supports a very ancient version of Android. You'd be better off with the G2 or the Nexus S which has a much larger screen. Or a Vibrant.

I know a guy with a G1 and its just painful to use. It was designed to be cheap and rushed to market. In 2011 there is no sane reason to buy one.
posted by damn dirty ape at 3:57 PM on February 25, 2011 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: The G1 on offer is a free hand-me-down. I'm open to upgrading, but I want to know what I like and don't before I spend money. The phone will be cleared and given the most recent firmware by the person giving it to me. And I'm happy to deal with limited memory, at least in the short term. This may just be a starter phone, but I'll need some good apps either way.

I'll check out Call Log plus.
posted by freshwater at 8:57 PM on February 25, 2011


Response by poster: I am using Call History Plus, the $2 widget suggested by Pharm. It is working quite well -- it stores the history of every call with its length on the sd card, and it syncs with google and downloads all my calls to my google calendar approximately daily, so I just transfer them to my billing program when I get a minute.

Incidentally, I love my G1. I'm sure a newer phone is faster and better, but seeing as I was coming from a Nokia brick with not even a camera (yes, that Nokia), my phone is the best thing since sliced bread.

I have also gotten onto the online to do list bandwagon -- I'm using Toodledo, and it syncs with the Ultimate To Do List App.
posted by freshwater at 1:07 PM on March 10, 2011


Great stuff Freshwater! I've just moved on from my second hand G1 to a second hand Nexus One. Can't really justify it on any grounds other than self-indulgence though :)
posted by pharm at 7:24 AM on March 12, 2011


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