Filed under: Hacks, How-tos, iPhone
Call Home with Open URL
I was talking to iPhone Developer NerveGas earlier today and he was thinking about what it would take to put a one-touch call button in with your other iPhone Applications. I reminded him that OpenURL could open phone numbers as well as web pages, and that I already had a "Call Home" button on my iPhone. Of course, he virtually smacked his head and said: "Oh yes, iPhone Apper". Whether using iPhone Apper or OpenURL, just use the tel prefix and your phone number, e.g. tel:212-555-1212.
Update: By reader request, here's my dreadful icon.
Update 2: TUAW reader orijinal offers a really good point: the iPhone Apper page publishes "recently built apps", complete with Call Home instances that reveal your phone numbers in the URL. You may just want to use Open URL instead.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Jeff said 11:41AM on 11-02-2007
Cool.
Quick question, How does one go about smacking their "said?" Also, what is a said?
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apeguero said 12:05PM on 11-02-2007
Thanks Erica. I'll try this tonight when I get home. I really like this idea and hope I can make it work. It would be even nicer if one could just put small pictures of the contacts on the home screen similar to how some WM6 phones do this.
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Erica Sadun said 12:06PM on 11-02-2007
Apeguero: You can use any icon picture you want. I just happened to have a phone-shape in Photoshop.
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vandy1997 said 12:14PM on 11-02-2007
Erica, would you share the CallHome icon with the phone or post it on your site? Thank you.
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Robert said 12:23PM on 11-02-2007
Erica,
Where do I get the phone icon or can you post it? Thanks!
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Don said 12:38PM on 11-02-2007
It would be great if the home button could be programmed to call a certain number by double clicking it. Then while I'm in the car on my way to lunch and connected to the bluetooth speakerphone, I could double click the home button, calling my wife for lunch.
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Jesper said 12:46PM on 11-02-2007
Can you combine that with http://www.somewhere.com/url2iphone.html
To make online "web apps" available offline AND visible in the dock?
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orijinal said 1:38PM on 11-02-2007
the iPhone Apper page has a "recently built apps" section at the bottom, complete with a few "Call Home" instances that contain people's phone numbers in the url, and therefore are viewable to anyone who visits the page.
So in case people start getting a bunch of random phone calls at their house, now they know why.
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DistortedLoop said 1:49PM on 11-02-2007
@#8 - I was just going to post that comment! Yes, I now have access to Sara's, Jenny's and a couple of other people's home phone numbers just by looking at the little url that hovering over the recently made apps have. I'm not one of those sickos who would call a number like that, but I'd advise everyone to think twice before doing this tip as long as this security hole exists on the site.
Other than than, what a GREAT service it is.
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emcp said 1:56PM on 11-02-2007
This is a little iphone 101, but once i edit everything, what's the best way to get the app onto my jailbroken 1.1.1 phone?
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Dave said 2:24PM on 11-02-2007
Erica- first of all, thanks for all your contributions...they're fun, useful & inspiring!
I'd also like to second the request made by Jesper. In addition to localizing web apps, Bookmarklets like PasswordWallet would be even more useful if they could be launched from the Springboard.
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rtravis said 2:59PM on 11-02-2007
The one thing I miss the most about my old Nokia 3650 was the Phone Favorite's was displayed as photo thumbnails. I was so easy to just look a picture like a 3yr old and say, "I wanna call this person!" and point to their face. I have to read the names and think too much with the favorites list on my iPhone. Could someone put togther an app that opens a new summerboard page that could contain photo thumbnail links to the tel: commands? That would RAWK!
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mcdj said 3:42PM on 11-02-2007
I *thought* I did everything right, but when I click on the icon on the iPhone, it takes me to a white screen and I have to restart the phone to get out of it. What'd I do wrong?
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Fraggle said 3:48PM on 11-02-2007
"Update 2: TUAW reader orijinal offers a really good point: the iPhone Apper page publishes "recently built apps", complete with Call Home instances that reveal your phone numbers in the URL. You may just want to use Open URL instead."
Still use it, Just pust 111-111-1111 as the number then open it later in a text editor and change it to number of choice..
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Cadu Gauch said 3:54PM on 11-02-2007
I try to use iPhoneAppear...but i keep getting this message:
Oops. There was an error. Make sure you entered a Title, Url, and uploaded a PNG file.
Help anyone? I am posting all 3 fields...i don't get it!
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emcp said 4:01PM on 11-02-2007
mcdj i'm have the same problem
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rkny said 4:12PM on 11-02-2007
Just realized I'd changed the name of the Unix app...don't do that...leave it named openurl. Rename the app itself (the wrapper).
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Brian said 4:16PM on 11-02-2007
What *is* that green icon? Since when in the past twenty years has a telephone looked like that? ;)
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Mitch said 7:07PM on 11-02-2007
Yes, PLEASE, explain how to get the new little app on an iPhone.
I have a jailbroken iPhone and have tried using SFTP and Independence to install the newly created app.
I can get the app into the phone but I can't get the icon to appear.
Any help (easy to follow instructions) would be greatly appreciated.
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emcp said 7:41PM on 11-02-2007
I don't know much about terminal and all that, so I ended up using iShare and MobileFinder to get it on. I used finder to create a new folder in the applications folder (you have to give it a .app extension in the name so it's recognized as an app). Then w/ iShare (and sendspace.com) I put all 6 of the edited package contents from the OpenURL app into the new folder. I was getting the blank screen when I launched it though, so I went back in and the openurl executable file wasn't setup right. Using finder, I went to modify and turned on 'exec' for owner, group, and everyone. It seems to work fine now. There's probably a much easier way to do this, but like I said, I don't know anything about finder and ssh and all that.
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