Apparatus and methods for protection from inappropriate phone-dialing

Abstract

What is addressed is the problem of dialing telephone numbers stored in the memory of a telephonic device at inopportune and/or inappropriate times for the contacts in question. A telephonic device's database may incorporate means for flagging selected contacts or contact phone numbers for calling-confirmation step(s) to prompt the user to ensure that an outgoing call is appropriate. Alternatively, a contact's local time and/or local time zone may be displayed when browsing a contacts list and/or upon call-initiation to the contact. The proposed solutions encompass communication devices that use buttons, switches, dials, wheels, joysticks, track sticks, trackballs, keypads, keyboards, touchpads, touch screens, voice-recognition commands, biometric-authentication devices, other input technology, or any combination thereof, and wired and wireless communication device accessories. Additionally, the proposed solutions can incorporate various contact-location technologies in order to facilitate automated determination of the current local time and/or time zone and/or vacation status for a contact.