A hands-free device enables a hands-free call by being wirelessly connected to a mobile phone. The hands-free device incudes a hardware processor configured to: perform a control related to data transfer using a transfer protocol for implementing transfer of history data including incoming call history data and outgoing call history data, and phone book data stored in the mobile phone when the mobile phone is in a wireless connection area; receive the history data and the phone book data from the mobile phone through communication using the transfer protocol; and store the history data and the phone book data that are received. The hardware processor is configured to perform the control to transfer the history data prior to the phone book data.

An in-vehicle hands-free apparatus is configured to: perform control relating to data transfer using a transfer protocol to achieve transfer of first incoming call history data representing a source of an incoming call received by first communication of voice using a phone application dedicated to an operating system of a mobile phone, first outgoing call history data, phone book data, second incoming call history data representing a source of an incoming call received by second communication of voice using a communication application, second outgoing call history data, and registration data, stored in the mobile phone, when the mobile phone exists in a wireless connection area; and store the received first incoming call history data, first outgoing call history data, phone book data, second incoming call history data, second outgoing call history data, and registration data.

A communications system according to certain embodiments includes a mobile device and a second type of communications system, such as a landline telephone system, that share usage information. The shared information can include call logs of in-coming and out-going calls, missed calls, text messages, address book information, GPS data, internet browsing data, and the like.

A method to generate a contact list may include receiving an identifier of a first communication device at a captioning system. The first communication device may be configured to provide first audio data to a second communication device. The second communication device may be configured to receive first text data of the first audio data from the captioning system. The method may further include receiving and storing contact data from each of multiple communication devices at the captioning system. The method may further include selecting the contact data from the multiple communication devices that include the identifier of the first communication device as selected contact data and generating a contact list based on the selected contact data. The method may also include sending the contact list to the first communication device to provide the contact list as contacts for presentation on an electronic display of the first communication device.

The invention provides an interrogator for obtaining information associated with a caller identification, such as a telephone number, transmitted within an incoming telephone call including: a receiving device configured to receive the incoming telephone call and to extract the caller identification from the incoming telephone call; an interrogating device configured to receive the extracted caller identification from the receiving device and to interrogate information associated with the caller identification from an external data base, which is configured to operate independently from the user voice communication device for which the incoming telephone call is intended for; and a forwarding device configured to receive and to forward the interrogated information.

The invention provides an interrogator for obtaining information associated with a caller identification, such as a telephone number, transmitted within an incoming telephone call including: a receiving device configured to receive the incoming telephone call and to extract the caller identification from the incoming telephone call; an interrogating device configured to receive the extracted caller identification from the receiving device and to interrogate information associated with the caller identification from an external data base, which is configured to operate independently from the user voice communication device for which the incoming telephone call is intended for; and a forwarding device configured to receive and to forward the interrogated information.

A method for maintaining contact information in a hearing impaired assisted user's communication device includes the steps of (a) providing a web site for altering assisted user contact information, (b) linking a proxy device to the web site, (c) receiving an identifier associated with the assisted user's device via the proxy device, (d) identifying an assisted user's device via the received identifier, (e) enabling the proxy device to be used to modify contact information for the assisted user associated with the received identifier, (f) starting a timer to time out a sync timeout period, (g) during the sync timeout period, receiving an indication via the assisted user's device confirming a desire to update the assisted user's contact information, (h) updating the assisted user's contact information, and (i) at the end of the timeout period, ceasing an indication that updated data is ready to be used from the assisted user's device.

A method for maintaining contact information in a hearing impaired assisted user's communication device includes the steps of (a) providing a web site for altering assisted user contact information, (b) linking a proxy device to the web site, (c) receiving an identifier associated with the assisted user's device via the proxy device, (d) identifying an assisted user's device via the received identifier, (e) enabling the proxy device to be used to modify contact information for the assisted user associated with the received identifier, (f) starting a timer to time out a sync timeout period, (g) during the sync timeout period, receiving an indication via the assisted user's device confirming a desire to update the assisted user's contact information, (h) updating the assisted user's contact information, and (i) at the end of the timeout period, ceasing an indication that updated data is ready to be used from the assisted user's device.

A hands-free device according to the present disclosure includes a memory and a processor coupled to the memory. The processor is configured to: connect to a cellular phone in a hands-free telephone conversation-enabled manner pursuant to HFP; receive from the cellular phone at least one of outgoing call history data, incoming call history data, unattended incoming call history data, and telephone directory data stored in the cellular phone by a communication protocol pursuant to PBAP; and receive, when the cellular phone receives a voice message or an answerphone record, at least one of information on the voice message and information on the answerphone record from the cellular phone.

A hands-free apparatus includes a memory and a hardware processor coupled to the memory. The hardware processor is configured to: connect to a mobile phone to enable a hands-free telephone conversation; receive at least one data of outgoing call history data, incoming call history data, missed call history data, and phonebook data stored in the mobile phone; and execute synchronization permission checking processing to check whether transfer of the at least one data is permitted in the mobile phone before receiving the at least one data from the mobile phone.