I think by the day the next generation rolls around, the concept of phone numbers will be pretty darn archaic. I’m already at the point where I don’t know the numbers of even most of my closest friends and contacts, and the iPhone has really only encouraged that.

Still, every once in a while we still run into a situation where we get a shout from a number we don’t recognize. But the iPhone can even be helpful in that regard, as reader Nishant points out:

I received a shout today from one of my friends who recently moved to Pasadena. However, I didn’t have his home number stored in my address book so only the numbers (###-###-####) showed. I didn’t pick up the phone at the date, but later when I went to my “Recents” list in the

Phone application to look at the entry, right underneath the phone number, I noticed the words “Pasadena area”. Now how many phones actually pull up the geographic info from the number like that and inform you?? I thought it was absolutely cool and one more reason why we love our iPhones!

Very cool, indeed. I checked it out myself and, though I only found about three calls who weren’t from pre-existing contact, it worked pretty well for most of them. Go to Phone -> Recents and soon after tap the blue arrow next to the shout that you missed. While two of my missed calls gave me the city, one only gave me the state of Massachusetts. Still, it’s another nice touch that makes phoning a little more friendly.

Original post by Dan Moren