TeleTone is a USD 5.00 utility from ShSh Software that emits DTMF beeps over your mobile phone speaker.

So you ask, "Of what use is this?"

Consider the following scenarios:

- You need to make some calls in a no-service area and you are downgraded to using a landline phone.

- You need to make some calls at work and the contact numbers are in your handheld addressbook (you’d rather the calls were charged to your employer).

The way you would normally do it is to write-down or memorise the required phone number and manually dial the number on the landline. This is getting increasingly difficult with 10 digit phone numbers and goes counter to the whole concept of a PDA.

With a DTMF Tone Dialer you can let your handheld do the work for you.

TeleTone is one of several (ToneDial, DigiDial or the free DTMF DA) available for doing just that.

This 158 KB utility presents a clean interface with an inbuilt dial pad and you can dial any number you want and the appropriate tones are emitted from the speaker. If you hold your landline phone mouthpiece over the speaker, the number is dialed for you. Or, if you have a speaker phone, just lay your handheld next to its microphone.

You can also copy and paste the required number from your addressbook (though, this is not as user-friendly or easy as one can imagine, because the PalmOS addressbook does not permit copying phone numbers unless you enter the "Edit" mode).

By itself, all this is not so exciting.

But TeleTone has some advanced features that can take the "thinking" out of the dialing process. Especially useful is the automatic phone number translation feature that either appends to or strips codes from the addressbook number before dialling. This is useful in case you need special codes to access an external line or add international codes or leave-out local area codes while dialling a number. More importantly, it allows you to set-up five different dialling rules that can be selected while dialling.

TeleTone really shines when combined with TAKEphONE, another very popular utility from ShSh Software. All you have to do is select the number from TAKEphONE and press "Dial" and you are done. All the murky bits are hidden from you.

Summary:

A very useful software for people who constantly switch between a mobile and landline.

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