Caller ID for Mac OS X
Displays information about the person calling you before you answer the phone.
Version 2.1
"It's a pleasure to know who's calling before you pick up the phone!"
What is Caller ID?
Caller ID is an application that works in background and provides a visual alert to inform you about the person currently calling on the phone. It's very flexible and supports many options.
The benefits to use Caller ID
The Caller ID benefits are many: it lets you identify phone callers before answering the phone; it alerts you to the source of annoying or harassing calls; it lets you distinguish business from personal calls; it lets you decide in advance how to answer and respond; it provides you security; it alerts you to unwanted incoming calls.
How work Caller ID?
Caller ID uses your Address Book contacts to match and identify a phone number. To receive the caller ID information, you need a modem or a Bluetooth enabled mobile phone. You can also forward this information to other clients in your LAN. Alternatively you can setup Caller ID to receive the caller ID connecting to another running copy of Caller ID in your LAN. The application works in background and can be automatically launched at login. You can use its menu in the menubar to set its main options and to access the Preferences panes.

Interaction with other applications
Caller ID can interact with other applications via AppleScript when a phone call arrives. This opens a word of new possibilities to users. The application comes along with some samples that shows as to create AppleScripts and some ways in which this feature can be useful. Users than can adapt these scripts or create new ones to fit their needs. These sample scripts include:
- Show AB Card
- When a call arrives, opens the Address Book's card of the caller. If this number is not in Address Book, the script ask user whether he/she wants to add a new card and present to user a new card with the phone number already entered.
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- Pause iTunes
- When a call arrives, check if iTunes is open and put it in Pause mode whether a song is playing. This is very useful for people that prefer to avoid to manually pause iTunes when receive a call.
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- Set iChat status Away
- When a call arrives, sets the status of iChat to Away if it's open whit the message "On the phone". This is very useful for people that prefer to not be bothered when receive a call.
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- Test Script
- This is just an example to show to people that want to create scripts which data uses Caller ID and how to use it.
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Questions and Answers
Can I use a DSL modem to receive a Caller ID? No, a analog modem is required, as for example the Apple USB Modem.
Can I use a mobile phone to receive a Caller ID?
Yes, you can use most part of Bluetooth mobile phones.
Can I use Apple iPhone receive a Caller ID?
No, currently Apple iPhone is not supported.
I have correctly configured Caller ID but when I receive a call the application don't do anything. Why?
Some modems tell to Called ID that can support it, actually they don't support it.
How can I to get to make to execute some action when I receive a call? Caller ID can interact with other applications via AppleScript when a phone call arrives. Users than can create scripts that uses the call information as name, number, date, time and ID contact of Address Book. The application comes along with some samples that shows as to create AppleScripts and some ways in which this feature can be useful.
Why for some calls the application shows the text 'Private Number' or 'Number Unavailable'?
Some phone customers can block their telephone numbers from being sent to Caller ID users, so some calling information may not be delivered. The number is not available also for VoIP calls (as for example Skype) and some international calls. Also, if your caller is using a privacy feature, the number may not be displayed.
New in release 1.0 Beta 2 are:
- Fixed a bug on resolving Address Book contacts occurring in some situations.
- Added a debug log for debugging purposes.
- Fixed some minor problems.
New in release 1.0 Beta 3 are:
- Improved the ability to resolve formatted phone numbers.
- Enhanced the compatibility with CID message of some countries.
- Fixed a bug on SMTP authorization data encryption.
- Various minor improvements
New in release 1.0:
- Fixes for all known bugs
- Various minor improvements
New in release 2.0:
- New YAC support.
Caller ID can now act as a network client to receive CID alerts from a YAC server.
- New NCID support.
Caller ID can now connect to a NCID server and receive CID alerts from it.
- New support for carrier's provided name.
Caller ID can now handle the name provided from some phone companies together with the phone number.
- New contact's image support.
Caller ID can now optionally display the contact's image stored in Address Book.
- New Growl support.
Caller ID can now optionally display the visual alert using Growl.
- New screen saver deactivation.
When a visual alert is requested and the screen saver is running, Caller ID automatically turn off the screen saver prior to display the alert.
- New calls log editing.
The name of the caller can be modified and various actions are possible with a right click.
- New AppleScript for YAC forwarding.
Added an AppleScript to forward calls to one or more YAC clients.
- New AppleScript for NCID forwarding.
Added an AppleScript to forward calls to a NCID server.
- New AppleScripts.
Added new script for various operations and updated the existing scripts.
- Improved reliability.
The modem and network connections are now more reliable and behave better in critical situations.
New in release 2.1:
- Enhanced compatibility with some modems and country specific configurations.
- Increased reliability in NCID client mode.
- Minor bug fixes.
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System Requirements:
Any Macintosh, Power Mac, iBook, PowerBook, eMac, iMac, Mac mini, MacBook, MacBook Pro and Mac Pro running Mac OS X 10.4 or newer. Analog modem. A telephone line that sends telephone number of the person calling. |
Caller ID Help
Support forums
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