When I was in high school, I had the phone numbers of all my friends memorized. Now, with phone numbers stored in my cell phone, I couldn't even recall the phone number of people I talk to every day (I just hit "call" on their name!).
This becomes an issue when I forget (or lose) my cellphone, or it's out of battery power, but I need to call someone in my phone book (as stated above, we really don't memorize phone numbers as a society anymore).
I suggest that cell phone companies begin storing users' cell phone phone books centrally, in a system that can be accessed via phone or internet. Essentially, the user would "synch" their phone book with this central site (via wireless internet or satellite technology), creating a copy of the phone book on a central server. Then, when they need a number (for one of the reasons listed above), they could call or log on to the central system, enter a pin, and retrieve any numbers they need.
Privacy issues would be a concern here, but this could be a valuable complementary product for cell phone companies.
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Seeing as I just lost my phone, this would be perfect for me, especially if it would update automatically whenever I enter a new #, so that I wouldn't have to take an extra step to sych it.
I've actually never lost my cell phone, nor have I forgotten it when I needed to access a number in its directory. But I know more than a few people who have and for whom the syncing feature would be a lifesaver. This feature would also be helpful for persons buying new cellphones who need to transfer address books from one phone to another.
Good idea although I think it would've worked better a few years back... Nowadays most of the cellphones are connectable to your computer and can be easily syncronized
What if you switch cell phone providers? What happens when (not if) someone breaks in and fetches the address books for a number of people? What happens when the provider begins selling data based upon that information?
I'd much rather see some form of portable, wireless storage that can be accessed by multiple devices. Why have your contact list duplicated across your pocketPC, cell phone, and multiple applications on the desktop and/or notebook computers? Why not just carry a portable drive or data server with bluetooth capability? Cell phones and handheld computers could then be made the the ability to use the device for storing and sharing contact lists and schedules. Digital cameras could maybe have the option of storing images on the portable device rather than on a card. Even portable game systems could be made to take advantage of it.
To help with adoption, someone could probably make an SD card that makes the storage device tvisible to older cameras and handheld computers.
I do not store any phone number in phone. instead I have xhtml page which I can access from my phone. so I never loose anything eventhough I loose my phone :)
It exists. http://www.palm.com/us/software/backup_beta/