Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!netsys!vector!nobody From: comdesign!ivucsb!steve@apple.com (Steve Lemke) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Telephone gizmo for one-line customers Message-ID: Date: 16 Jan 89 21:47:11 GMT Sender: chip@vector.UUCP Lines: 40 Approved: telecom-request@vector.uucp X-Submissions-To: telecom@bu-cs.bu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.uucp X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 18, message 2 In article soley@ontenv writes: }In article , black%ll-micro@ll-vlsi.arpa (Jerry Glomph Black) writes: }: I just read a short review in PC Week about a $400 gizmo which }: answers your phone, then issues a robot-voice announcement to the }: caller requesting that the (hopefully touch-tone-equipped) person }: press the '3' button. The caller is then connected to your voice }: phone, which rings as usual. If '3' is not pressed, the gizmo }: box assumes that a fax or modem is calling, and your data }: equipment receives the incoming call. Seems like a good way to }: get double use of one line. }: }: The $400 seems overpriced for what you get } }I think what you were reading about is a product called Watson, in }addition to doing what you say it also is a modem and comes with }voicemail software for the PC (a little rudimentary, but workable) }considering this the price is quite reasonable. Actually, I was just at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and I think that what you're after is a neat new device I saw there called The Eliminator - Autoswitch TF-300, made by Command Communications, Inc. Their number is (303) 750-6434, and they also have another device called the Autoswitch TF-500. The Autoswitch TF-300 will handle a FAX machine, answering machine, and normal voice telephone, and the Autoswitch TF-500 adds modem handling. The details of how these devices work is a bit too complicated to mention here (and besides, I'm not feeling well and don't feel like typing it all in) but it was discussed on page 22 of the November, 1988 Radio Electronics and is described in detail on the product brochures available from the company. I believe the prices were $195 (TF-300) and $295 (TF-500) but I'm not sure. They'll also be coming out with a TF-400 which is like the TF-300 but works with a modem instead of a FAX machine. ----- Steve Lemke ------------------- "MS-DOS (OS/2, etc.) - just say no!" ----- Internet: steve@ivucsb.UUCP CompuServe: 73627,570 ----- uucp: apple!comdesign!ivucsb!steve GEnie: S.Lemke ----- Quote: "What'd I go to college for?" "You had fun, didn't you?"