DialByPhoto(TamsPalm review here) was GX5’s first attempt at giving Palm OS Treos a new phone interface. UltimatePhone plans to extend this stylish interface to include application launching and web favorites – can it stack up?
When starting UltimatePhone for the first time, the product presents you an eight-page tutorial about some UltimatePhone features(unfortunately leaving out the core functions):
After closing the tutorial, UltimatePhone displays its regular start screen. The currently-empty squares in the middle are ‘photo containers’ – they can contain contacts, web sites and/or applications that are opened when the square is tapped(look at our DialByPhoto review for more info).
The squares can be aligned in a variety of styles:
Like with the regular phone app, typing letters allows you to browse contacts. Alternatively, a skinned dial pad is available:
Alternatively, voice dialing can be used if VoiceDialIt is installed(never was a fan of that feature…all hail the duffergile 
)
The new feature in UltimatePhone is the web view – pushing the right nav key opens a tab where you can place your favorite web sites for one-click access:
Both web pages and call are handled by the native phone/web browsing applications. However, the product can now bind the launch button. It then replaces the standard launcher and allows you to launch applications by typing their name:
As always, the product’s look can be customized heavily – you can adjust the background picture, and choose overlays,…:
Unfortunately, international users can not use the included fonts – they lack accented,.. characters:
This review looked at DialByPhoto version 1.5007 on a Treo 680. The product needs about 3MB of RAM. It was exceptionally stable in the testing period, and the periodic slowdowns seen in DialByPhoto have also been reduced significantly.
In the end, UltimatePhone is not an application that should be rated on its merit or usage value – that simply is not the point of the app. It is intended to give your Treo a fresh new look – if that’s what you want…get it for 20$ and sacrifice the 3MB…
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