20 March 2009 | Author: O. Gaywood Media Optimiser

iPhone apps to stop drunk dialling

It may not be as strict as LG's LP4100 phone - a mobile with a built in breathalyser - but iPhone users can now start adding applications to prevent the dreaded 'drunk dial'.

Drunk dialling - the act of realising, after a few drinks, what a great idea it would be to call someone - usually someone unsuitable like an ex-lover or a boss - to declare your undying love for them. Now designers, presumably by professionals who've been at one end of a few of these calls - have come up with ways to stop the procedure. Two new iPhone applications - The Bad Decision Blocker and Don't Dial! - have been released so that everyone can enjoy them.

The applications work in similar ways and both require a pre-emptive decision that calling certain someones at 3am would be a bad choice and a likely outcome of a few drinks. The user blocks a number of contacts for a certain time frame and the software temporarily overwrites the data in the phonebook. Until that period expires, there is no way to get round the block even if you change your mind and stay sober or actually have a genuine reason to call one of the contacts. Even deleting The Bad Decision Blocker will not lift the ban, as programmers sought to make it as tricky as possible to sneak past.

Don't Dial!, however, allows you to get a friend to create a password that will let you have access again, so it is up to them to decide whether you're sober enough to make the call. Of course, if they're drinking with you, you run the risk of them forgetting the password. Whether these applications will cause users to drunkenly call different people - "Please tell X that I'm still in love. Also, I love you." - or whether it'll just improve the memories of drunks (at present there seems to be no way to stop someone simply typing in a phone number).

Telling people things you oughtn't while drunk has long been a problem, but the widespread use of communication technology has heightened the danger - so much so that GoogleMail recently set up a similar filter. Maybe we should cut down on our Friday night celebrations instead? Technological advances suggest we should not, but rely on them instead.

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