Thank you very much for the positive comment.

You’re not the first to request automatic start/stop with time. The good news is that Dindy will be a Locale plugin starting March 6th, when I release version 1.0.9. If you haven’t heard of Locale – it’s a very elaborate application that allows you to start different settings (including plugins) in response to different conditions (like a specific time of day, but many many more like a location condition which is suitable for work.) So that would be one solution to starting Dindy with a time setting.

The bad news is that the Locale beta (that was free) is over and now Locale costs 10$. While I think Locale is great, I also think 10$ is pretty steep. So I thought about asking the guys who make the app Timeriffic (which changes phone settings according to time) to create a similar plugin system so that Dindy could work with that. Timeriffic is free and is very highly rated (I haven’t used it myself, though.)

If that doesn’t work I might consider implementing a mechanism inside Dindy, but I can’t promise anything.

As for exclusion lists (either to always silence or always make a sound) I’m sorry but I’m not inclined to support those. First of all – note that Dindy only works for numbers you have specified as mobile, because it can’t assume that a text message will be seen if the number isn’t a mobile phone. For other numbers you specify Dindy’s behavior (see the help text for details.) What I do for the “night” profile (and that’s the default when you install Dindy) is that all non-mobile and unrecognized numbers ring on the first call. So a home number will be included in those if it’s not indicated as mobile.

Second, the overhead for a mobile caller is that he/she only needs to dial the same number twice. I realize that in a real emergency where seconds are important this isn’t a good solution, but Dindy wasn’t created to handle these cases.

One of the reasons I generally object to exclusion lists is that they might complicate Dindy for users who simply want a smart silent mode for their phones, like myself. Also, there are other apps on the market for emergency numbers which I think may work while Dindy is working.

I can’t help but feel that I’m disappointing you with my answers. As you can see in the market, Dindy still hasn’t caught on (100-500 users currently) so in the future if there’s demand for a specific feature I might implement it even if I’m not a supporter. But again… no promises.

All I can hope for is that you’ll find Dindy useful the way it is and if a feature that you asked for will be added – then it will be a bonus for your money.

Thanks again for writing. I’ll keep in mind the features you have requested.