Home Phone System That Syncs To Computer? 405
An anonymous reader writes 'In comparison to the advanced technology in today's smart phones, the standard home phone is painfully backwards. My current setup is a Panasonic system that has 4 cordless phones over one base station. Setting the time on one phone changes the time on all the phones; however, this is not the case for the phone book. Each entry must be manually copied (pushed) to each handset. Is this as far as home phone technology has come? What I would like is a phone system that I could sync to my computer so I could update the phone book over all the units (if not sync with Address Book or Outlook), keep a log of caller IDs, or even forward me new voicemail notifications. Does anyone know if such a system exists?'
The Tech That Oughtta Be (Score:2, Interesting)
CLX475 (Score:3, Interesting)
I have a Uniden CLX475 ... it does pretty much everything you ask ...
http://www.uniden.com/products/productdetail.cfm?product=CLX475-3
Works with Siemens dect (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Regular phones are so backwards... (Score:1, Interesting)
I don't know about the parent, but I had a rotary phone forever. I loved it.
It was over 30 years old, still worked, and most people I talked to always asked who my cell phone carrier was ("Your voice sounds really clear!").
Additionally, the land line never went down. Power out? No Heat? Need to call someone to plow your out? Cell phone towers swamped with callers? Land line worked perfectly.
The only reason I don't have one any more is the land line was going to cost me 10 more dollars than the cell phone and honestly, I'm a cheap bastard. I've also moved 3 times in 2 years, so I need a mobile number so that work and friends can get a hold of me.
Even so, if I got roommates willing to split the landline again I'd get one in a heartbeat.
Re:no. it does not. (Score:3, Interesting)
Most people dont want to pay hundreds for a cordless phone. THAT is why.
My Engenius cordless has a 2 mile range (real 2 mile range not fake marketing crap) and it cost me $325.00 for a single handset+basestation and antenna. I have never met another person that owned an engenius phone because of the cost.
Google Voice (Score:1, Interesting)
Just keep your contacts in your Google account and use Google Voice. Works with SIP (Gizmo5), POTS, and cell phones. Additionally it delivers SMS and voice mail messages (transcribed) into your email so you no longer have to deal with additional places to check messages.
A Chain of Problems, Asterisk is not the Answer (Score:5, Interesting)
Having set up Asterisk a couple of different places AND attempting to integrate most of the things discussed, I can tell you there are a whole chain of problems.
a phone system that I could sync to my computer so I could update the phone book over all the units
Meaning a single address book shared/synced at all phones? You would need phones with *some* kind of open client interface. Of which, there are exactly zero.
(if not sync with Address Book or Outlook),
Please, dear Lord. No. This is another binary jail. But it looks like you want your home computer's Outlook client to be somehow involved. Which, is another programming mountain to climb separate from the first feature.
keep a log of caller IDs
This, Asterisk can do. A more flexible solution requiring some coding is Freeswitch. As others have mentioned, you have to plug the POTS line into your PC. Is there a GUI that can render the results to meet your satisfaction? Maybe.
or even forward me new voicemail notifications.
Asterisk and Freeswitch can do this too. But, there are numerous details that drive people away. Do the hard/soft phones you end up using have ways to implement call forwarding? How about controlling call forwarding at the server only? Is there a GUI available to meet your standards of usable? I haven't worked with Asterisk in a long time though maybe there are prettier ways of doing things now.
Dog forbid you want to integrate your mobile phone into the fray.
BTW, there's a whole forest of patents on voicemail notification alone. Even *if* something was made, it probably violates patents. http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=98808 [lightreading.com]
Vonage (Score:3, Interesting)
Vonage keeps track of all numbers you dialed or called you, along with voicemail you can dial into, access via email, or access via their web interface.
I don't know about updating phone books for cordless phones, but since I switched to Vonage I have better control over my voicemail and list of phone numbers via the web interface and it emails every voice mail entry to my address along with a speech to text of the message.
Vonage uses a CAT5 Ethernet connector and then any POTS phone. As long as you have the Internet with an Ethernet port (Like a Wireless hub with Ethernet ports in it) you can use the Vonage box. Plus it has free Long Distance to the USA and 60+ foreign nations. My wife and brother-in-law use it to call family in Thailand for free. About $33 a month after taxes.
The other thing is Google Voice but that is still in beta testing.
The thing is cordless POTS phones never caught up with cell phones yet, but that is a good business to get into and develop smart POTS phones that sync up phone lists, etc.
Re:Contemporize, man. (Score:1, Interesting)
"nobody asks, "Is Bobby home?" when I answer it"
And you have no idea that your kid's circle of friends changed dramatically about two months ago.
Re:no. it does not. (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:no. it does not. (Score:3, Interesting)
Tit is because of the phone company monopolies on wired service and their ridiculous pricing and rules structures that don't seem to have changed much since the 50s
This shows that capitalism works when not tampered by a monopoly.
The same companies that we buy the land line service from are also doing the cell phones service. The difference is the amount of competition.