New Toy: Phone Labs Dock-n-Talk
Aug. 29th, 2009 05:12 pmWith the recent sale of my Rover (which still hasn't been picked up by its new owner), I had a little extra cash in my budget. I didn't really buy much of anything at Floating World, and my side-trip to New York with Fox didn't impact my finances as much as I anticipated, so I decided to get myself a little something. I haven't really spent any money on myself in months, so I decided to get something I've been desperately wanting ever since I first learned of its existance back in February: A Bluetooth cellphone-to-landline dock.
As I've mentioned before, one of the things I dislike most about cellphones is that, when it comes to their primary intent (making calls), most of them kinda suck, due to a combination of poor audio quality (both transmitting and receiving) and being very uncomfortable to use for very long. My fabulously purple Samsung, as much as I really do like it, is no exception to these, and it's one reason why I prefer to use my VOIP line for long calls. On top of that, the cellphone reception in my apartment is abysmal, with average signal strength hovering around 1 or 0 bars. There's one single spot in the whole place (I checked) where I get 3-4 bars, but it's right by the door, and thus does me no good because that's never where I am. Also, cellphone speakerphone is a joke compared to the one built into my commercial-grade desk phone, which I use regularly on my VOIP line and people seldom notice the difference.
Thus, enter this magical device, from the realm of "why isn't this more common?". It's a small little electronic box, with LEDs that are far too big and bright for the purpose they serve (status indicator and Bluetooth indicator), but it serves an important purpose. Simply pair your cellphone with it via Bluetooth, connect some landline phones to it, and voila! Your cellphone now feeds a landline circuit! As far as the landline phones are concerned, the process is completely transparent, since the dock emulates a landline/VOIP phone system seamlessly. Things get a little odd while trying to do voice dialing, but aside from that, you can dial your phones normally, they ring normally when calls are received, call waiting functions the same way it normally would, and caller ID works pretty well. It supposedly even emulates the voicemail indicator tone like a landline would, though I haven't had any voicemail since setting it up.
Now, there are a couple cordless landline phone models on the market that do this, but the concept is flawed because they don't do this level of emulation (the cordless handset emulates a cellphone rather than the cellphone emulating a landline), and you can only use it with that specific landline phone system (usually a mid-grade model at best). This dock system allows you to use it with anything you want, including phones you already have, and connect it to the phone wiring in your house as a second phone line.
So yeah, I'm quite thrilled. I've been literally dreaming about this concept for years, and desperately wanting this device ever since I first saw it on Sprint's accessory page (where they want WAY too much for it). And, now that I have it, it's the most awesome communication accessory I've ever purchased. The audio quality is great, the functionality is like a dream come true, and it's not obscenely expensive for what it does (especially since I got it for $60 below retail and with free shipping). My only lingering question is, why is this such an obscure idea? I've yet to meet anyone who genuinely thinks a cellphone sounds better and is more comfortable to use than the average landline phone, and a lot of people have coverage issues in their home, so it seems like something like this would be flying off the shelves. Seems obvious to me; we can dock our cellphones with headsets, computers, and even our cars, so why not dock them with our houses too?
Anyway, that's my fun for today. In case it wasn't obvious, I highly recommend this device to anyone, because it's downright brilliant. And, here's some pictures of it, along with my cellphone's new charging location (in the "hotspot"). It's by the door now, since I no longer have to answer the phone directly, and I can just tap the connect button when I get home :-)
( Click for Techie Toy )
As I've mentioned before, one of the things I dislike most about cellphones is that, when it comes to their primary intent (making calls), most of them kinda suck, due to a combination of poor audio quality (both transmitting and receiving) and being very uncomfortable to use for very long. My fabulously purple Samsung, as much as I really do like it, is no exception to these, and it's one reason why I prefer to use my VOIP line for long calls. On top of that, the cellphone reception in my apartment is abysmal, with average signal strength hovering around 1 or 0 bars. There's one single spot in the whole place (I checked) where I get 3-4 bars, but it's right by the door, and thus does me no good because that's never where I am. Also, cellphone speakerphone is a joke compared to the one built into my commercial-grade desk phone, which I use regularly on my VOIP line and people seldom notice the difference.
Thus, enter this magical device, from the realm of "why isn't this more common?". It's a small little electronic box, with LEDs that are far too big and bright for the purpose they serve (status indicator and Bluetooth indicator), but it serves an important purpose. Simply pair your cellphone with it via Bluetooth, connect some landline phones to it, and voila! Your cellphone now feeds a landline circuit! As far as the landline phones are concerned, the process is completely transparent, since the dock emulates a landline/VOIP phone system seamlessly. Things get a little odd while trying to do voice dialing, but aside from that, you can dial your phones normally, they ring normally when calls are received, call waiting functions the same way it normally would, and caller ID works pretty well. It supposedly even emulates the voicemail indicator tone like a landline would, though I haven't had any voicemail since setting it up.
Now, there are a couple cordless landline phone models on the market that do this, but the concept is flawed because they don't do this level of emulation (the cordless handset emulates a cellphone rather than the cellphone emulating a landline), and you can only use it with that specific landline phone system (usually a mid-grade model at best). This dock system allows you to use it with anything you want, including phones you already have, and connect it to the phone wiring in your house as a second phone line.
So yeah, I'm quite thrilled. I've been literally dreaming about this concept for years, and desperately wanting this device ever since I first saw it on Sprint's accessory page (where they want WAY too much for it). And, now that I have it, it's the most awesome communication accessory I've ever purchased. The audio quality is great, the functionality is like a dream come true, and it's not obscenely expensive for what it does (especially since I got it for $60 below retail and with free shipping). My only lingering question is, why is this such an obscure idea? I've yet to meet anyone who genuinely thinks a cellphone sounds better and is more comfortable to use than the average landline phone, and a lot of people have coverage issues in their home, so it seems like something like this would be flying off the shelves. Seems obvious to me; we can dock our cellphones with headsets, computers, and even our cars, so why not dock them with our houses too?
Anyway, that's my fun for today. In case it wasn't obvious, I highly recommend this device to anyone, because it's downright brilliant. And, here's some pictures of it, along with my cellphone's new charging location (in the "hotspot"). It's by the door now, since I no longer have to answer the phone directly, and I can just tap the connect button when I get home :-)
( Click for Techie Toy )