SlyDial, the telephone service that lets you dial directly to someone's voice mail, has launched three new mobile applications for users on Windows Mobile, Research In Motion's BlackBerry, and Apple's iPhone. The new apps have direct access to your phone's contact list so you can begin a SlyDial call without having to first phone in to the service then remember your contact's number.
All three are free, and with the exception of the iPhone app--which is pending Apple's approval, are available right now. The iPhone version is also the only one of the three that does not require you to be a registered SlyDial user to make calls.
Since we covered SlyDial's official launch back in July, it's added a handy feature that lets you assign numerical shortcuts to contacts you think you're going to call frequently. This lets you call them by dialing in the first four letters of their name (or nickname) followed by the # key.
Below is a demo of how this works on a BlackBerry, effectively giving you the option to SlyDial from anywhere via contextual menu:
SlyDial, a straight-to-voicemail call service I covered back in early April, has opened up its doors to everything this morning after undergoing three months of beta testing. New on Monday is a premium service heavy users can subscribe to in order to get all the perks of the service without having to listen to the in-house ads that run before connecting you to a call. There are a few plans available: either a 15 cents per call one-time fee, or a $4.95 monthly or $29.95 yearly plan, which only makes sense if you think you're going to be sending more than 30 SlyDial calls a month.
More useful might be the new quick-dial functionality included for registered users. You can add any contacts from your phone book and have the service automatically connect you to their voice mailboxes. It saves you from having to enter the number or make a phone call in the first place; it'll simply call you instead.
I still hold true to what I said about SlyDial in my initial hands-on. It's a potentially evil service for people who misuse it (see the guy in the video embedded after the break), giving anyone the excuse that they "tried to call you" without having to approach actual conversation. That said, it can be wonderfully convenient if you want to send someone the equivalent of a voice text message without interrupting what they're doing.
SlyDial is a creation of Mobile Sphere, the same folks who did Joopz, the PC-to-mobile phone text-messaging service and Webware 100 2008 finalist.
SlyDial now lets you plug in your contacts and be connected with them just by clicking the SlyDial logo on the left.
(Credit: CNET Networks)... Read more
One rung down from having a friend call you to get out of a bad date is SlyDial, a new service that lets you send people voice mail messages without actually having to call them. Yes such a feature exists if someone legitimately leaves you a voice mail (giving you the option to leave a voice mail reply), but SlyDial lets you skip that first step by simply sending them the message as you would an SMS message. It's tricky, it's evil--I love it.
Maybe the best part is that it works on all the carriers. In my testing, I got it to work with AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon, although it seemed to choke on my T-Mobile digits despite calling them from a number not my own (it's hip to you trying to call yourself). The only other hiccup was with CallWave, which Rafe uses. He was tipped off to my call because CallWave lets you know when someone's calling your voice mail in-box.
To stay afloat, there are short advertisements before your calls are connected. I found it to be a little annoying, but not nearly as in your face as the ones on 1-800-FREE-411.There's also no sign-up required, you simply have to call 267-SLY-DIAL (759-3425) and have the number of the person you're calling on hand. In the future, the service plans to offer a software application that can take advantage of your phone's contact list to save you from having to remember people's numbers.
SlyDial is currently in "private beta" until June, and is for U.S. and Canadian phone customers only, although I no few problems getting it to work.
Related: Gmail's Custom Time April fools.
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