PocketLookup

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by Jay Lagorio

Ever lose a phone number you wrote down but hadn't yet entered into the Contacts program on your Pocket PC? As long as you have a connection to the Internet from your Pocket PC, you can find that US-based phone number almost as quickly as you can write!

Overview

Having been on the road with the need to get directory information without a laptop, I've found that using sites like Verizon's SuperPages or Big Yellow over a GPRS connection to be slow, and sometimes unreliable depending on the JavaScript they use on their site. With PocketLookup, however, I've been able to do much the same thing I've done on the larger image-heavy web sites with only a small (less than 100K) program and the same GPRS connection - and the time has been heavily cut down to get the job done.

This Beta version of PocketLookup can search by a person's name and city/state or by telephone number (reverse lookup). To use it, connect to the Internet, choose your search type, and click the Search button - your results are shown in the next window. The application requires the .NET Compact Framework 1.0 to run and is compatible with Pocket PC 2002 and Windows Mobile 2003. Compatibility with Pocket PC 2000 has not been tested, although I'd love to hear from anyone who has it working on their older device.

Registration

While this program is in beta, usage will be free of charge. You can sign up using the registration form. Restrictions on trial accounts, including search type limitations, result limitations, and expiration dates, will not be enforced until the product is released as a final version. At that point, all trial accounts will be extended 15-days from the date of the first release.

When it is released, there will be two versions available - a trial version which will search only by telephone number or name and location, returning one result per search, and a full featured version with much more capability than the trial, including downloading maps of addresses, city/county information, multiple search results, reverse lookups, and other advanced options. Pricing will be subscription-based at $15.00 US per year. As a special incentive, all customers who purchase in the first two months of release will receive the application and all updates free of charge as long as the application is sold. Customers after the nine-month mark will be charged the same price, but will be required to renew each year.

Installation

Installation is taken care of with the downloadable executable. Simply connect the device to the computer through ActiveSync, run the installer on your desktop machine, and it will install all the necessary components. PocketLookup will be in your Programs menu after installation.

Contact the Author

If you have any questions or comments about the program, please E-Mail me at jay@lagorio.net and be sure to reference the program in the Subject line.

Download

Version History:

Version 0.5.5
- Added the type of listing, whether Personal or Business, to search results.
- The transaction time can be shown after each search.
- Fixed bugs, improved the application to be user-friendly, and made some optimizations for speed.
- All users must be registered as trial users, though no restrictions are being enforced as of yet.
Database Upgrade
- This update optimizes the database to make it faster and to minor link issues between information types. It also includes the lastest information from the numbering authorities. Because this is all in the back end, no client update is necessary.
Version 0.4.1
- Fixed a bug that caused the application to hang on searches (Thanks, Vance2247!)
- Modified a few internal pieces for speed improvement.
- Made the application more keyboard-friendly.
- Added an options dialogue to allow customization of some parts of the application.
Version 0.4.0
- Searches for people by name and address or phone number.
- Displays information on a phone number, such as carrier and general assignment location.
- Shows information on cities and counties.
- Gets mapping information on locations returned by search information.
- Returns more than one search result when applicable.
- Multi-threaded user-interface.
- Remembers parameters for up to ten recent searches.
- Works well over GPRS connections.
Version 0.2.1
- Initial Beta Release

Version 0.5.5 Builds Available and their Issues:

Version 0.5.5
Possible Issues:
None that are apparent.

This page was last updated at 11:48 AM EDT on 7/10/2005