I know that the PPC 6700 is a PDA first, and then a phone, but I'm finding the phone features quite lacking. Is there any better notification than the little icon in the taskbar that tells me I missed a call or have a voicemail?

Thanks in advance for your help.

There are at least two apps that give you repeating alarms....PhoneAlarm and PocketZenPhone. There might be others, too

i haven't tried pocketzenphone but phonealarm was quite buggy.

I highly recommend PhoneAlarm.

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Carlos Alvarez, Chandler, AZ

"One cannot expect freedom of speech without the burden of thought."

I've tried them both and at least in my case they both have quite a few issues.

PhoneAlarm was buggy, since it was open to the public during the alpha and beta periods. Since the 1.3 release it has proven to be very stable.

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Carlos Alvarez, Chandler, AZ

"One cannot expect freedom of speech without the burden of thought."

Im looking for this also. In my experiences, both of these programs (zen phone and phone alarm) seem to have to much in them. I just want a simple program that will beep when i have missed a call or have a voicemail.

I gave them both a fair chance but the basic function that I want didn't work consistantly with either programs, plus I had to work around all the other un-needed "features". In the end I removed them and will wait.

I hear you.

I wish I could disable all the super duper features on PocketAlarm, and keep only the dashboard with missed calls, VM, text, SMS ONLY.

Would love to hear from someone who has been able to do this.

You can disable alot of the options on phoneAlarm if you don't need it...then create a simpler skin w/o all the other options. phoneAlarm is very customizable..

creating a skin by the end user..... to make it do the basic stuff can't be called user friendly.

you can also download one of the skins on their website that most fits you if creating skins is too much trouble

What I am curious about is this:

If Windows Smartphones have a single today screen line that will list both voicemail and text messages, why can't someone modify the one on a PPC?

There obviously has to be a hook in the OS to do so.

I am just curious as to whether or not anyone has gone to any lengths to compare the two for possible OS hooks.

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Shi Kai Wei: XV6700/SCH-i730/XV6600/SCH-i600

Sure it can be done. That's what Phone Alarm does. Some people say it does too much; ok, but you can disable almost everything else. I have not seen any program that does ONLY what you're asking for.

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Carlos Alvarez, Chandler, AZ

"One cannot expect freedom of speech without the burden of thought."

Well that would have to be written per user, expensive,

I am not sure if this was in response to my post or someone elses.

To me, I cannot understand why someone should have to purchase Phone Alarm, install it, customize it to perform only one function, when clearly Microsoft can implement this in the OS/Today bar. The major question is why they would willingly CHOOSE to mask this functionality in a larger PPC OS versus enabling it in the SP OS. Unless of course it is disabled at the carrier's request.

I DO understand that currently it is not an available option in the core OS so users really have limited choices when looking to add this functionality. In my opinion Phone Alarm DOES serve it's purpose for clearly identifying stats in regards to messages.

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Shi Kai Wei: XV6700/SCH-i730/XV6600/SCH-i600

In my opinion phone alarm is still buggy. I will end up installing it again but I currently don't have the time to send the log files to get the specific issues I have with it resolved. I would gladly use it if it worked properly..

I agree 100% I used the release version 1.3 and it's still buggy. I had to remove it from my PPC. I also tried that zen one too and it had some issues as well. I wish someone would write something simple. Urgh, maybe I will give it a shot although it will be a stretch for me as I've never done windows mobile dev, just good old desktop and web dev.

What is mind boggling to me is that the resolution to the issue the OP referred to is solved 100% in the native OS, but said resolution is disabled.

That is unimaginable to me. If that option were not there at all, I would shrug and say 'needs a third party app'. But it is there and greyed out.

I've been using PhoneAlarm since the beta versions and haven't had any major headaches. I highly recommend it. The developer is constantly updating the software.

Just because the option appears on the screen does not mean there is any functionality behind it--that's why it's grayed out. Notice that it's only available for PPC notifications and grayed out for phone notifications. I believe the PPC O/S has very limited communications with the phone application.

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Motorola Q, WM5 -- Verizon Wireless, U.S.A.