PDA

View Full Version : An idea I had...


deicist
8 Oct 2007, 12:14pm
***The site for E-phone, which is the subject of this thread is Here (http://ephone.dcpsearch.co.uk/)***

So, I was just randomly thinking of stuff to do with my free time and here's something I came up with..

E-Phone addresses!

basically, imagine if instead of giving out your phone number, which is just a string of random digits and therefore quite hard to remember for most people, you could give out an address like John.Doe@ephone.com which people could type into their handsets to dial your number.

I came up with a workable implementation for this... a client resides on your handset, you type the Ephone address into the client, it requests the actual number from the ephone server, the server sends back the 'phone number and the client dials it normally. Simple and easy to use.

There's a few benefits I thought of over and above normal phone numbers:

Easy to remember addresses that actually relate to the person you're ringing.
Addresses can be redirected to different numbers easily.

the addresses wouldn't even have to be of the form someone@ephone.com... there's no reason you couldn't have someone@company.com. It's just a matter of selecting a string from a database, that string could be whatever you wanted it to be.

You could easily make a profit from this by selling addresses to people / companies.

Any thoughts / comments?

GHoosdum
8 Oct 2007, 2:00pm
It sounds like a great idea to me. My only question is, why did you post this publicly on the internet instead of getting the patent paperwork going? ;)

deicist
8 Oct 2007, 2:05pm
It sounds like a great idea to me. My only question is, why did you post this publicly on the internet instead of getting the patent paperwork going? ;)

Because I don't have:

a) Motivation

or

b) backing

To set up a business based on this idea. If someone else does, fair play to them...and maybe they'd be nice enough to give me a cut :D

EDIT: Also, it costs money I don't have to apply for a patent :/

primesuspect
8 Oct 2007, 2:16pm
dns for phones. It's the same idea as icrontic.com being easier to remember than 209.124.56.70 :D

Now the question is: Why hasn't anyone thought of this sooner? :p

deicist
8 Oct 2007, 2:21pm
dns for phones. It's the same idea as icrontic.com being easier to remember than 209.124.56.70 :D

Now the question is: Why hasn't anyone thought of this sooner? :p

Yeah, my original name for the idea was TNS :D

Then I thought that the addresses would be more like an email address than a domain, hence EPhone.

I have a whole business plan coming together....

First off would be to get the name server up and running. Basically this would just take a string from the client and return a phone number. Easy peasy. Next would be a client... first off a windows mobile client (because it's easy to write for, and has a decent user base. Then a series 60 client.

then THE WORLD!!!

deicist
8 Oct 2007, 3:46pm
Site for EPhone is up

Here (http://ephone.dcpsearch.co.uk/)

Be sure to Digg me :D

GHoosdum
8 Oct 2007, 3:49pm
Ooh, how about a client-free version:

"Simply text the ephone address to EPHONE, and the phone number will be sent back to you via SMS."

deicist
8 Oct 2007, 3:57pm
Ooh, how about a client-free version:

"Simply text the ephone address to EPHONE, and the phone number will be sent back to you via SMS."

Yeah, but then it's just a directory enquiries service.

The real beauty of this system is it's completely transparent. You never need to see, or worry about the actual phone number. And, if it takes off (I can dream :D ) there's no reason handset manufacturers couldn't include an embedded client in their handsets no matter what software they're running.

Thelemech
8 Oct 2007, 3:58pm
Site for EPhone is up

Here (http://ephone.dcpsearch.co.uk/)

Be sure to Digg me :D

Consider yourself Dugg fine sir!:cool2:

..oh and all the best in this venture deicist!

GHoosdum
8 Oct 2007, 4:00pm
Yeah, but then it's just a directory enquiries service.

The real beauty of this system is it's completely transparent. You never need to see, or worry about the actual phone number. And, if it takes off (I can dream :D ) there's no reason handset manufacturers couldn't include an embedded client in their handsets no matter what software they're running.

Good point. I was thinking of backward compatibility, but a java applet could run on most modern phones anyway.

deicist
8 Oct 2007, 4:01pm
Good point. I was thinking of backward compatibility, but a java applet could run on most modern phones anyway.

I'm not sure if a Java applet has permissions to dial on most phones... it's something to look at though :)