Faces – Review
By App Type: Uncategorized
Our rating: 
By: Faces
Version #: 1.0
Date Released: 2008-10-18
Developer: Guided Ways Technologies Ltd
Price: 2.99
User Rating:
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Simply the best speed dial application out there. Well, at least from a photo dial perspective. I have tried at least three top ranking photo speed dial application out there and although each one does what it says it does, this one tops it all.
How?
First off, this is an application that allows you to set up photo favorites for your contacts. You have the option to set up the speed dial to immediately send an SMS, E-mail or call the contact. Each are indicated by a little icon of specifically what it is supposed to do. Most of the photo dial applications just simply calls your contact but the top ranking photo dial ones, gives you the option to be able to assign the favorite photo dial to SMS, E-mail or place a call.
Now here is where “Faces” outshines the rest. In the event that want to call a contact where the speed dial is set to send an SMS message or email or call a contact, you can hold down the photo contact and it will pop up a window with all the other options of communicating with that person. Furthermore, if you have an address for the contact, it even has an option to select the address and it will map it out on the native Google map.
In addition, in the event that you want to add a contact, just shake the phone and it will prompt you to select a contact.
These features alone go above and beyond, in comparison to, the other similar photo dial applications out there.
The only caveat that I find with this application is that you are limited to three pages. By default, it’s Family, Friends, and Work, which you can change to whatever you want (page numbers or whatever). Each page can hold 12 contacts so, in my opinion, not an issue. A favorite contact should not be that many contacts to begin with and this is by no means to replace your phone contact list. That’s what ABContacts is for…
Last but not least, what is the load time? Simply fast! I remember when I first started to entertain the idea of photo speed dials and immediately was turned off because by the time it loaded, I would have already placed the call if I just normally went through the native contact list applications. By the way, this would have been the determining factor for which speed dial you would have chosen to live on your springboard but a good percentage of these speed dial apps have pretty much hammered the nail on the coffin with regards to long loading times.
On a final note, I should mention that anyone who uses Exchange or MobileMe, there used to be an issue where if you were using any of these services, your favorites would get lost within the application because your iPhone would constantly update/sync itself, hence, wiping the data id, mumbo jumbo. At least two of the applications I have tested had this issue and from my inquiries, the developers were in the works of resolving it. I think it’s safe to say that this is no longer an issue, especially with this application.
Quick Take: Value: Extremely High (replaces my favorites contact list)
Would I Buy Again: This is a winner!
Learning Curve: Medium
Who is it for: Anyone who is loves photo speed dials.
What I like: It goes above and beyond the normal speed dial applications out there. Feature Riched!
What I Don’t like about it: Nothing really, but if I was to nitpick, the pages should not be limited to three pages. But realistically, who has 12 family, friends, work favorites? This would translate to 12 individuals who you constantly need to talk to….wierdo.
Final Statement: I would highly recommend this if you are looking for a speed dial application. Definitely a hidden gem.
Update: Just a quick update, you can actually have up to 8 pages with 12 contacts on each page. That is a total of 96 shortcuts for your contacts. Wow! In addition, I failed to mention one more cool aspect of the application—Landscape view. This allows you to see up to 24 contacts at a time in the combined two page view! Wow again!
Face it. You'd rather have fast access to all your favorite contacts, their emails, blogs or addresses daily than to be searching through a long tedious list of text. Faces goes where no app has gone before. Fully integrating direct dialing/SMS/Email/Google Maps and much more.
With Faces you can:
1) Have quick access to favorite contacts, be it their phone, email, address, blog or website.
2) Organize favorite contacts in up to 8 pages with 12 contacts in each page. That is a total of 96 shortcuts for your contacts.
3) Label individual pages to represent certain groups: Friends, Work, Family, Take Aways etc.
4) Add/delete/re-order/edit contacts - iPhone style. *All changes are synced with the iPhone contacts.
5) On added contacts, tap to execute assigned action, or tap-and-hold to access all other possible actions.
6) Choose images for your contacts from your Photo Library, the Camera Roll or take a snap using your phone's built in Camera. Pictures taken from the Camera are also saved in the Camera Roll.
7) Rotate your iPod/iPhone to see up to 24 contacts at a time in the combined two page view.
Since performance has been our benchmark, Faces currently only supports Adding/Deleting/Re-ordeing contacts within a single Page/Group, meaning that you can't swipe to other pages while in that mode. Also note that the'Tap-and-hold'actions are not available in landscape view due to physical constraints.
O U R T A K E . . .
* Deleting contacts from Faces will not delete them from the iPod/iPhone.
