Forever mute me not
For many many years I've suffered a well spread but untreated syndrome. The 'I've Forgotten to Unmute my Phone Syndrome' (IFUPS) and as a consequence I've lost many calls and messages. During those dark times I wondered why cellphones could not have a function to deal with the IFUPS. I hate when a cellphone rings during a movie, actually I would love to establish a 3 strike law to deal with that kind of offenders, the 3rd time your cellphone rings during a movie you would be banned for life (but I would settle for a requirement to surrender your phones on entrance too). I also detest people with ringing phones during an important meeting or whenever concentration is a must – for ex. in a class. Therefore, not muting my phone was not an option – I also have aversion to incoherence – and so, I suffered the syndrome for a long time. Then the smartphones came ... I'm talking about the really first smartphones, not iPhones nor Androids!!! The Windows CE phones and Palm phones were the first ones for me, and with Windows CE phones I later discovered the app Mute4. Heaven! A miracle cure! This app allowed us to mute our phones for a certain period of time, after which the phone would unmute itself. When I migrated to Android I was in troubles again ... but fortunately I was able to find Silent Mobile (*). Even though, smartphones have continued to evolve, and 'quite time' and 'silence during meetings' functions have been implemented, a simpler and more ubiquitous 'silence for a certain time' is still missing. We who suffer the IFUPS, we can't live without this app. Dozen smartphones have passed, but the Silent Mobile icon continues to be always present in my android dock bar. So, whenever I enter a movie, an unscheduled meeting, or a class with just two touches I silence my phone for 2, 3, 4 hours, or any time period I want, and my smartphone unmutes itself after that. I do not miss anything because I've forgotten to unmute my phone, and I can continue to curse all ringing-phone offenders!!! (*) Nowadays, there is an app named Mute4 in Android, and other similar apps exist too. One it's worth mentioning is Phone Silencer, but I prefer Silent Mobile.
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