Sounds like a pain, doesn't it? For calls received from a new contact, there isn't any easy way to automatically add the contact to your Address Book. So, this information would need to be entered twice, as an incoming call and a new contact. I found using the built-in features of the Palm organizer an awkward juggling act between the four built-in applications. Luckily, the Palm OS platform has inspired developers to write custom applications that better meet the challenge.

Action Names
Action Names by iambic Software brings together the Date Book and To Do List in a single interface, and actually uses the built-in application databases. [Action Names was a classic, excellent Newton program and we're thrilled to see it now available for Palm users. -- DG]

Action Names features a dedicated field for a contact in Date Book and To Do entries. Contact names are displayed in bold type and a magnifying glass icon provides a more prominent look up feature that accomplishes essentially the same thing as the built-in Phone Lookup, as shown in Figure A.

FIGURE A

There's a clear lookup button on the Calls screen of Action Names.

Because Action Names uses the built-in Date Book and To Do List for its databases, it works seamlessly with the Palm Desktop or other conduits. Action Names places telephone calls in the To Do List in a new category entitled Calls.

Like in the To Do List, items in Action Names can have priorities, but no alarms. Action Name's contact linking has the same limitations as the built-in Lookup feature, including look ups by either last name or company only and access to only one phone number. Action Names is unable to look up mobile and pager numbers. In some views Action Names only displays four or five letters of the contacts name, which can look a little cryptic.

Action Names adds some odd characters that you will see if you view records in the To Do List or on the desktop.I had some problems with the Find command. Like with the To Do List, calls in Action Names can be active or checked off, and there is no way to have items waiting for someone else.

To keep track of incoming calls, the Memo Pad would still need to be used, which brings up the same big problem as the built-in solution -- distributing call information throughout multiple applications. While Action Names may provide a compelling integration of the Date Book and To Do List in a single screen, as shown in Figure B, this application doesn't provide much more in the way of call management features than the built-in applications.

FIGURE B

You can see a lot of information in the Action Names agenda screen (although the Palm's screen makes things a bit tight).

Action Names is a fine product, but it's not as well suited for the specific call tracking function as I'd like. There's a new product from iambic called Sales Warrior that's just out. I haven't had a chance to review it, but it looks to be an interesting solution.

PhoneLog
PhoneLog 2.0 from Hands High, as the name suggests, is designed specifically to track phone calls. PhoneLog provides strong features for looking up contact info, managing voice mail, and tracking outgoing calls.