Q: Will Phone Amego work with my home or office phones?
A: Phone Amego works with many kinds of phones and software, most will fall into one of the following categories:

Bluetooth Enabled Phone
This includes Bluetooth cell phones (iPhone) and any other phone designed to work with a Bluetooth headset using the Bluetooth HandsFree Profile (HFP). Phone Amego can work with these directly for both dialing and caller ID.

Landline Phone
VoIP Adaptor
Service from a Telephone or Cable Company
Phone Amego can connect to an analog phone line through a USB modem (using a telephone line splitter). This allows both dialing and detecting incoming calls when the phone rings.

VoIP telephone adaptors for Vonage, Ooma, Magic Jack, or similar services provide an analog telephone interface.

In addition to analog phones that connect directly to a traditional phone line, Cable TV and Fiber (FiOS) distribution systems often support analog telephone wiring inside the home. Many digital phone systems still rely on analog telephone lines that come in to the building, or from a telephone interface inside a wiring closet. Phone Amego can monitor multiple phone lines where they enter the buiding with a hardware call monitoring unit before they pass through a digital telephone switch.

IP Phones and ATAs
The most popular IP phones for small office users are from Cisco, Polycom, Yealink, Aastra, and Snom. Phone Amego can work with many of these as follows:

(1) Phone Amego has been tested to work with Cisco, Polycom, Yealink, and Snom IP phones directly for both dialing and caller ID. Phone Amego has been tested with some Aastra IP phones for Caller ID. Phone Amego works with Asterisk PBXs which support nearly any standard SIP phone. Phone Amego works with some other IP phones using Generic Notification and Dial URLs including Grandstream IP phones and Cisco Call Manager.

If your IP phone or telephone adaptor is part of the Cisco/LinkSys/Sipura family, Phone Amego may work with it directly for caller ID and logging (see VoIP). You may also be able to dial using a Generic Dial URL. Phone Amego also works with the OBi100, OBi110, and OBi202 Service Bridge and VoIP Adaptor.

(2) If your IP Phone or phone system can provide an analog telephone jack, Phone Amego can work with that through a USB Modem, call monitoring box, or OBi110 Service Bridge and VoIP Adaptor.

(3) If your phone is designed to work with a Bluetooth headset (Bluetooth HFP), Phone Amego can work with that directly. Enable the Bluetooth feature in your phone, and then add it to Phone Amego as if it was a Bluetooth cell phone. This has been found to work with the SPA-525G and Gigaset SL400 for example.

(4) It is often possible to enhance Phone Amego to work with your telephone or service directly. This generally involves obtaining a similar phone to test with and a week or two of updating the software. If you are open to supporting this effort, please contact the developer directly.

Soft-phones
Phone Amego can be used with Skype for both dialing and caller ID.
Phone Amego can be used to dial CounterPath X-Lite 4 and Bria 3 soft-phones.
Phone Amego can dial iSoftPhone.

Web based Phone Services
Phone Amego can dial some web based phone services including Vonage, CallCentric, and Push Dialer for iPhone using Generic Dial URLs. Phone Amego also works with Google Voice.

Phone Amego can translate an incoming phone number to an "Event URL" for a corresponding web page. This allows you to bring up a matching customer record in web based CRM systems.
Q: Can I get Internet based VoIP phone service for free in the US?
A: Kind of if your needs are modest.

You can get an OBi110 Service Bridge and VoIP Adaptor which allows you to place and receive Google Chat calls directly from a regular analog phone (DECT cordless phone are especially convenient). No other phone service is required.

You can get a free Direct Inward Dial (DID) number from sipgate.com that works with standard SIP phones or VoIP telephone adaptors. By combining this with Google Voice for outbound dialing you can effectively have nationwide phone service with no monthly charge. You must provide your own Internet connection and will need a cell phone to sign up. The sipgate service is offered AS IS for single line residential use only, and may be withdrawn at any time.

If you're looking for reliable home or office telephone service, I've been pleased with CallCentric which costs a few dollars per month and under 2 cents per minute. CallCentric is a major ISP co-located with a major telephone facility. This combination of internet bandwidth, low cost, and peering agreements makes for exceptionally robust and affordable service. Internet-to-Internet calls are free (similar to Skype), you only pay for access to the PSTN.

For a more capable phone system, Phone.com offers hosted PBX service at consumer friendly prices. See Choosing a VoIP Service Provider for Mac CTI.

Q: Did you mis-spell "Amigo" in Phone Amego intentionally?
A: Yes, I wanted a unique name that was easy to recognize.

Q: Can I help test Phone Amego and get a discounted license?
A: Yes, Phone Amego is still under development as I work to test it with different phones and add new features. If you test Phone Amego and report bugs that lead to a working solution, I'll give you a $10 discount toward your registration. Use the log window (Control+Phone Amego) to see how the program is working.

Q: I notice Phone Amego is available on your website AND on the Mac App Store. Is there any advantage to getting it one place over the other?
A: The web site version is often a little ahead of the Mac App Store version and offers more interactive customer support. If you encounter a problem or have a feature request, I can send you a test version directly. If you are using the trial version from my web site and it's working for you, registering it on my web site will let you keep using the software that is already installed and working on your system.

The advantage of the Mac App Store is transparent (and less frequent) product updates. The Mac App Store does not allow beta test versions and requires a more rigorous submission and review process.  Some features don't meet Apple's submission guidelines so need to be disabled (but you can download and install them manually yourself if desired).  A Mac App Store receipt only unlocks software downloaded through the Mac App Store.

The Mac App Store allows you to download your purchased software anytime you like, and use the software on more than one computer within a family household by unlocking it with the same Apple ID.

I offer a choice to gain the exposure of being in the Mac App Store and let users decide what works best for them.

[July 2012]
Updating the Mac App Store version of Phone Amego has become tricky due to Apple's recent sandboxing rules.  Since one of Phone Amego's reasons to exist is integration with other applications, it is not a good candidate for sandboxing. The website version of Phone Amego is signed with an Apple Developer ID so remains fully compatible with GateKeeper.

If you have previously registered Phone Amego through the Mac App Store and would like to upgrade to the website version, please contact us for assistance with proof of your Mac App Store registration.

[October 2013]
The Mac App Store version of Phone Amego is not compatible with OS X Mavericks because Apple removed the previous Bluetooth Audio API. I have submitted an updated version to the Mac App Store which is currently under review.

In the mean time, you can use the latest version from my website here:
http://www.sustworks.com/sb_site/downloads.html