Blue Box 4+

Sunshine Valley Systems

Designed for iPad

    • 5.0 • 2 Ratings
    • $4.99

Screenshots

Description

Blue Box is utility for encoding and decoding DTMF (Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency) or Touch Tone signals.

Generate tones by using the phone style keypad or decipher tones using the device’s microphone.

Tone combinations can be played back with adjustable tone, delay and pause lengths and volume.

Choose from US, UK and Europe based systems.

Enable Multi-frequency tones, which were a precursor to DTMF. Additional trunk control signals will be available including KP, ST1, ST2, ST3, KP/ST2.

Additional tones include the Dial Tone, Ring Back Tone, Busy Signal and 2600Hz. A comma can be used as a pause character to provide extra time between tones during playback.

Save and organize any number of sequences for easy recall using the Favorites feature.

Choose numbers from your contacts to display and play back tones.

Share an encoded or decoded number with the Phone, FaceTime or Messages app.

Use Red Box mode to play coin tone sequences, including 5¢, 10¢ and 25¢ for the US system and 10p and 50p for European systems.

Create a custom tone with control over individual frequencies and volumes. The custom tone can consist of any number of on and off pulses and can optionally be continuous.

Record interactions with the encoder and play them back with the same timing. The recording feature works with all tones, including the dial tone, busy signal, ring back tone, 2600Hz and coins and trunk control tones.

A help manual is including, with step-by-step instructions for all features. When the app is first run, pop-ups will be displayed indicating what the controls are used for.

Warning: Blue Box is designed as an educational tool and utility. Do not attempt to use Blue for any illegal or malicious purposes. Blue Box can be used to assist in dialing numbers, but can not be used to manipulate digital telephone utility services.

Limitations: Blue Box is software based decoding and is processor intensive. Performance may vary between devices. Tones that are less than 100 ms with pauses that are less than 100 ms are difficult to process in software. Future versions and processors may increase the reliability of faster tone sequences. If you need touch tone decoding for higher speeds, a hardware solution is recommended.

Blue Box can not play tones into the iPhone phone feature while in a call.

Blue Box is useful for entering numbers into touch tone operated systems such as an answering machine passcode or a dial-up service that requires the entering of several touch tones to navigate a menu system. Simply enter the numbers once and then play back the numbers into the phone's microphone with a touch.

What’s New

Version 5.1.3

The audio category was changed to ignore the mute switch.

Ratings and Reviews

5.0 out of 5
2 Ratings

2 Ratings

DadChompsSam ,

Works great

First: If you’re having trouble with this app… be sure to slide the switch on the side of your phone to in-mute it. If your phone (or iPad) is muted, it can’t generate nor decode audio.

To the developer: Great UI design. I’m using this in my telephone systems class and it’s great.

Thanks for writing such a great app.

nerdy1351 ,

For those who know what this is

I'm really happy and very surprised that this exists. Works very well. Only phone phreaks know what this is really used for, or what it used to be able to be used for.

jgg1956 ,

App Name Misleading

Back in the late 60's and 70's, when AT&T deployed #5 Crossbar switching systems, Blue Boxes were used to emulate the in-band signaling needed to route long distance telephone calls and "surf" the dark unexplored recesses of the long distance telephone network.

#5 Crossbar was phased out and replaced with SS7's "out of band" signaling in the late 70's through early 80's rendering the blue box an impotent artifact of ancient history. Nevertheless, the novelty and folklore of the devices continue to persist.

I would have liked to have rated this app 5 stars, but had to deduct 2.5 stars because the app name erroneously lead me to expect a DTMF encoder that actually emulated the tone matrix of a true "Blue Box" on the iPhone. When the author includes the correctly tuned matrix in the app I'll update my rating. There's no longer any applicable reasons not to (and haven't been for almost 3 decades).

I also had some difficulty with the decoder and subtracted a half point for failing to buffer the touch tone strings detected by the software to work around the frequency detection / number identification issues.

Otherwise, the app does everything else it claims, and the ability to adjust pulse and interval lengths was a nice touch.

Please fix the frequency encoder and allow the user to switch between Blue Box DTMF and "standard" DTMF.

App Privacy

The developer, Sunshine Valley Systems, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy.

Data Not Collected

The developer does not collect any data from this app.

Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More

Supports

  • Family Sharing

    Up to six family members can use this app with Family Sharing enabled.

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