larus@ucbvax.ARPA (James Larus) (10/17/84)
Below are a collection of messages that I received in response to my query about phone answering machines. Many thanks to everyone who sent mail. /Jim uucp: ucbvax!larus arpanet: larus@berkeley -------------------- Return-Path: <ihnp4!houxm!hou2g!js3471> From: ihnp4!houxm!hou2g!js3471 Message-Id: <8410112006.AA24175@UCB-VAX.ARPA> Date: 11 Oct 84 14:22:33 CDT (Thu) To: houxm!ihnp4!ucbvax!larus Subject: Re: Info on Phone Answering Machines Wanted References: <2473@ucbvax.ARPA> >I am going to buy a phone answering machine and would like to know of people's >experiences with various brands and model. Which features are truely useful >and which are just advertising gimicks? If you had to do it again, which >model would you buy? Jim: I recently bought a Phone Mate 940. It was originally ~$160. on sale for ~$90. Good features are: dual cassette voice activated 2 or 4 ring answer call screening beeperless remote For the price I think I got a good deal. The beeperless remote works from a one digit code from a touch tone phone. The problem is that anyone who realizes that I have beeperless remote can repeatedly call my number and try each digit to find the one that rewinds the machine and plays the messages. Regular remote might be more secure if you are concerned. (You just have to carry around the beeper.) Aside from that, when I play my messages remotely I seem to lose the first one when I replay them at home. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, although I don't think I am. The 'Record-A-Call' brand also was on sale, but I liked the Phone Mate better. You can't change your messages remotely from these models (who wants to) and you can't plug your phone into the Phone Mate. (Don't know about the other brand). You need a T-Connector ($3) or another jack in another room as I have. It doesn't bother me to have the answering machine separate from the phone, although I did buy the T-Connector. I'm glad I have the machine. It is worth it for me. Like getting mail another way! -------------------- Return-Path: <ihnp4!uw-beaver!tektronix!barbara@shark> From: ihnp4!uw-beaver!tektronix!barbara@shark To: tektronix!uw-beaver!cornell!vax135!houxm!ihnp4!ucbvax!larus Return-Path: <barbara@shark> Date: Sat, 13 Oct 84 13:33:19 pdt Message-Id: <8410132033.AA03239@shark.TEK> Subject: Re: Info on Phone Answering Machines Wanted In-Reply-To: your article <2473@ucbvax.ARPA> We have the CodeAPhone 2540. We have previously used Radio Shack top-of the line and Phone Mate not so top. The features I find useful are remote calling (the code a phone uses a regular touch tone phone rather than a special beeper), and the date and time of the message left.. The code a phone doesnt do that automatically (although it does have a message counter and a number of calls made whether or not there was a message left), but my husband connected a small talking clock to do so. The expensive Radio Shack has the date and time Another nice feature of the CAP is the Vox activation of the message leaving capability. This means that you don't need to sit thru long silent messages or dial tones. This is really nice. Good luck (I have also had occasion to use the record your conversation feature, especially when getting directions or taking a message for someone else in the household) Barbara Siefken tektronix!shark -------------------- Return-Path: <voder!gino> Date: Mon, 15 Oct 84 12:14:07 pdt From: voder!gino (Gino Bloch) Message-Id: <8410151914.AA03903@voder.UUCP> To: larus@ucbvax.BERKELEY Subject: Re: Info on Phone Answering Machines Wanted In-Reply-To: your article <2473@ucbvax.ARPA> Truly useful features in a phone machine: 1. Answer after several rings (not just 1) Then you can leave it on all the time, and won't forget to turn it on when you leave (or even take a shower or wash the dishes!). 2. Voice actuated Then you don't get 30 sec of dial tone from people who hang up; also you can get the whole message - I've had messages end with `... my phone number is 415 32 CLUNK' 3. Separate and replaceable incoming & outgoing cassettes. -------------------- Return-Path: <ulysses!alice!rabbit!hania> From: ulysses!alice!rabbit!hania Date: Sat, 13 Oct 84 00:32:51 edt Message-Id: <8410130432.AA06034@ulysses.UUCP> To: alice!allegra!ulysses!ucbvax!larus Subject: Re: Info on Phone Answering Machines Wanted References: <2473@ucbvax.ARPA> I just bought a phone answering machine. Here are the features I decided to get, and the reasons for the decisions: The machine is the simplest and sheapest voice-activated (VOX) beeperless remote model that I could find. Remote means that you can retrieve your messages by phone, rather than having to be physically present at the machine. I feel this is a necessary feature for the machine to be useful during prolonged absences. Different models allow you to do increasingly more sophisticated things remotely. The machine I have allows you only to listen to your messages, and skip over messages. At the end you have the choice of either letting new messages accumulate at the end of the ones you've just heard, or erasing the ones you've just heard and restarting the tape from the beginning for new messages. I feel that is an important option to have; I've seen one model which insisted on erasing the messages you have retrieved remotely. In particular, it is important to me that, if I get disconnected before I finish listening to my messages, they don't get erased. A feature which I don't have allows you to change the outgoing message remotely. I don't ever see a need for this feature for personal answering machines, although I can see a need for business use. The idea behind that feature is this: suppose that you're going somewhere, and you won't know how you can be reached until you get there. Then, when you get there, you can call back your answering machine, and change the outgoing message to describe how to reach you. This feature is useless for home amchines, because it would necessitate admitting that you're not home -- something that you should NEVER do. (It is NOT the case that whenever an answering machine is on, people (read: burglars) assume that you're not there). On the other hand, for businesses it might be a useful feature. I've lived with a friend's machine for about three months, and never found it necessary to change the outgoing message, either remotely or otherwise. Beeperless means that, if you have access to a touch-tone phone, you don't need to carry around a gadget to talk to your answering machine -- you do it using the touch pad on the phone. If you don't have access to a touch-tone phone, the beeperless machines still give you a gadget that you can use. The disadvantage of my model is its low security: you only have to touch one key to get it to review the messages. Thus, it's really easy for anyone who wants to to retrieve my messages. On the other hand, I don't care whether anyone listens to my messages, and it would take maliciousness for someone to erase them. (That's of course possible, but I hope unlikely). To prevent a caller from "accidentally" retrieving my messages, the machine insists that you hold the specified key for at least two seconds. A very weak attempt at security, if you ask me. I don't know whether more expensive models require that you key in codes longer than one digit. Voice-activated means that the recording of each caller's message starts when he starts speaking, and ends when he stops. Without voice activation, each caller gets 30 seconds or so. What that means is that, when you listen to your messages, you have to sit there for 30 seconds (or press fast forward) every time a caller just hangs up. That's a DRAG! (Again, from experience with my friend's machine). The voice-activated machine that I have allows you to limit each speaker to something like 20 or 30 seconds, if you want. Other features include letting you set the number of rings it takes becfore the machine answers the phone. Mine has two choices: answering after one or four rings. I feel this is too limited. However, my machine has one other nice feature: you can set it so that it answers after four rings for the first caller, and after one ring for all subsequent callers. The advantage of that is that, when you are a long distance away, you can find out that you have no messages without paying for a toll call (i.e. if the machine takes more than one ring to answer, you would be the first caller, so you can just hang up). Virtually all machines (including mine) allow you to "screen" calls, which means listening to them before deciding whether you will answer or not. Useful if you're trying to avoid someone... That's all I can think of. My machine is Record-O-Fone model 5500. It cost $99 at Crazy Eddie. I am sure you can get it slightly cheaper if you shop around. The list is somewhere around $140 or $150. Hania -------------------- Return-Path: <decvax!genrad!bolton!garry> Date: Mon, 15 Oct 84 14:15:29 edt From: decvax!genrad!bolton!garry (Garry Baer) Message-Id: <8410151815.AA23934@bolton.UUCP> To: genrad!decvax!ucbvax!larus Subject: Re: Info on Phone Answering Machines Wanted In-Reply-To: your article <2473@ucbvax.ARPA> I bought a CODE-A_PHONE and am very happy with it. It uses 2 tapes, one for announcments and one for messages. The tapes are MC-60's which are used in many office-type recoders. The remote security allows me to dial from afar and before it answers, I know wheather anyone has called, (1 ring as opposed to 4 rings). It costs app 230.00 but wuold do it again after all the horror stories ive heard from friends with the cheep brands. Garry Baer GenRad INC. Bolton Mass. (617)779-2811 alias "The Baer" -------------------- Return-Path: <ihnp4!inuxc!inuxd!linda> From: ihnp4!inuxc!inuxd!linda Message-Id: <8410121444.AB13281@UCB-VAX.ARPA> Date: 12 Oct 84 09:25:47 CDT (Fri) To: inuxc!ihnp4!ucbvax!larus Subject: Re: Info on Phone Answering Machines Wanted References: <2473@ucbvax.ARPA> We bought a Panasonic whose model number I forget just 2-3 weeks ago. After asking around, we looked for two features in particular -- remote access, so that we don't have to be at home to get our messages; and vox -- voice-activated -- this means that the beep to begin talking comes immediately after your message is heard -- the caller doesn't have to wait out the full 30 seconds or whatever before hearing a beep. I believe this works the other way too. When yo --------------------