Many mornings after a night on the town, UF student Alina G. has difficulty putting together the names and faces of who she met the night before.
The 21-year-old UF student is just one of many people who are frustrated to find their phone books with several unknown — or unremembered — contacts, in addition to most cell phones lacking a feature other than one that organizes contacts alphabetically.
IPhone and iPod touch owners are now able to sort contacts with Social Stingray, an application created by Robert Gadala-Maria, a 2008 UF graduate.
The application sorts contacts by area code, recently added and region to ensure an easier-to-use sorting process.
About 25 people have downloaded the 99-cent application from the Apple App Store so far, but Gadala-Maria thinks more people will download it once they know about it.
“It’s a pretty big problem,” Gadala-Maria said. “Like, when I would go out, I would add people to my phone when I was drunk and wake up the next morning without knowing who I added.”
He said it was a hassle to look through all of his contacts in search of a particular person and was surprised that the iPhone didn’t have a similar default feature.
Gadala-Maria, who currently writes software for a New York investment bank, created the application in two months while working 50-hour work weeks.
For each download, Gadala-Maria receives 70 cents but will not be paid until he makes $150 in sales.
Gadala-Maria’s biggest challenge during the development process was getting each area code and city in the United States.
He plans to update the application with a feature to organize contacts into categories and hopes to have the update available by January.
To download the application, search for Social Stingray in the Apple App Store.
