Phone Like IM

Maybe the technology is up and coming, or maybe it’s around but it’s not in the price range that I usually consider, but I have a question. Why can’t my cell phone be more like IM? And I don’t mean text messaging. I mean that on instant messenger, I can tell if my friends are available to talk before I even bug them. If they’re online but just in away mode, I can look at their message and (in theory) tell what they are busy doing and decide whether I really want to interrupt them or not. It’s a simple concept but, to me, it eliminates some of the reasons for hating telephones (one of these day’s I’m gonna write that rant…)

When I go into a movie, why are my only options vibrate, silent, and off? I want to be able to select a mode that I created and saved called “movie” that will automatically put my phone on vibrate and change my voice mail message to “Hey, I’m in a movie. Try again in an hour or so.” If I’m in a meeting it should say “I’m in a meeting. If it’s an emergency, call the office.” And so on for however many settings my phone will hold. Also, it would be cool (but probably harder) to be able to listen to people’s phone mail messages without actually calling them if they are in my phone list. I see that feature as being a bit further into the future. Still, you would think the first part about changing your phone mail message on the fly would be possible by now. Just record the messages on your phone and when you set the mode, it automatically dials phone mail and changes the settings. I’d be willing to pay a little extra money for that feature. Say, $5 a month. It’s worth more to me than call waiting and three-way calling, that’s for sure.