Android App Wards off Telemarketers

If your cell phone number has fallen into the hands of telemarketers, don't worry: White Pages has you covered.

Telephone directory company White Pages has upgraded an application for open-source mobile platform Android that alerts users whenever known telemarketers try to call. Like the earlier version of its Caller ID app, the new version is designed to give users the same Caller ID features on their mobile phone that they get on their landline home service. Because White Pages has a large database of known telemarketing firms, it can flash alerts on your phone warning you not to answer when telemarketers try to call.

It's one of several new tools to avoid telemarketers both technologic and legal, but this is specifically tuned to phones running Google's mobile operating system.

Other features of the updated Caller ID include IDs for mobile phones and a Reverse Phone feature that lets you enter an unknown number into White Pages' database to search out caller names and locations. The new version of the application also retains the same features as the first version, including the ability to look up caller addresses on Google Maps and to sync new caller name and numbers to your online Google Contacts account.

The new Caller ID application can be downloaded through the Android application store. White Pages charges US$6.99 for six months of Caller ID and also offers a free seven-day trial. So far, the application is only available for phones that run on Google's Android open-source mobile platform. White Pages says that the app has received over 100,000 downloads to date.