[Blink] Blink Feedback

[Dan Pascu]

On 21 Dec 2010, at 02:35, Jesse Reynolds wrote:

> Hello
>
> Blink is working well for me with both an Epygi Quadro 4xi, and with  
> a SipXecs. Two thing that I've immediately found frustrating however  
> are:
>
> 1/ Please add audio volume controls (and VU meter)
> So my system audio is set to the speakers and mic on my iMac and  
> mylaptop, but I always use a USB headset to make calls. It's great  
> that I can tell Blink to use the headset, but then there is no way  
> to increase the volume in the headset, or increase the gain on the  
> mic of the headset. eyeBeam has this and I use it all the time to  
> adjust the volumes. It has a min VU meter as well so you can guage  
> the level that the softphone is seeing.

Don't you already have volume controls on your Mac's sound system  
settings (and a microphone VU meter as well)? Personally I always  
found volume controls provided in the application to be kind of a  
nuisance. I can't count how many times I was wondering why the volume  
is so low even though the system volume was maximized, only because I  
forgot to also check the application's own volume controls. IMO, the  
volume control should be unique per system, at least in my experience.  
The only case I found to be useful, is if the volume provided by the  
application actually directly controls the system volume, so it is  
just a shortcut. To be honest I do not know how that can be done on a  
Mac, but I also do not see the point of it, since every Mac already  
has 2 volume keys on the keyboard which are a lot easier to use to  
control the volume than any other application provided controls.

>
> 2/ Typing a number with the Blink menu in the foreground should put  
> focus into the 'Search Contacts of Enter Address' field. It's  
> annoying to have to click first on the window to bring it to the  
> foreground, and then into the search field, before you can start  
> typing a number to dial.

I disagree. If that search bar would be the only control that accepts  
input, then maybe, though I have reservations about whether it's a  
good practice to automatically steal focus without the user's request  
to do so. But considering that there is more than 1 widget in the  
Blink's interface that accepts keyboard input, this is not possible  
without breaking functionality or creating confusion as of why it only  
works in some cases and not others.

--
Dan