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From: ron@brl-sem.ARPA (Ron Natalie )
Newsgroups: net.consumers
Subject: Re: Telephone answering machines
Message-ID: <454@brl-sem.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 25-Oct-85 14:06:51 EDT
Article-I.D.: brl-sem.454
Posted: Fri Oct 25 14:06:51 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 26-Oct-85 19:17:59 EDT
References: <1518@vax3.fluke.UUCP>
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab
Lines: 33

> Rumor has it that this news group recently carried a
> discussion on telephone answering machines.  I missed

Actually, I asked a couple of times, but I did not get any response.

I was looking for the following features:
	1.  Remote, Beeperless message pickup
	2.  Date and time stamp recorded on each message.
	3.  Intelligent remote control handling.
	3.  No endless-loop cassette.

Well, the closest I came is the new top of the line PhoneMate.  It has
a little voice chip that records the day of the week and the time after
each message.  It is also used to tell you how many messages it has for
you when you activate the message pickup, and it gives you a little voice
menu after playing the message.  It uses two standard micro-cassettes.
It comes in two models.  One which is just the answering machine, and another
with an autodialling telephone.

DRAWBACKS:  Even with the special batteries (expensive) installed it still
seems to forget the time and stored telephone numbers on a regular basis.
The things ring sensor is very sensitive to any transient and just unplugging
it and plugging it back in will make it ring.  There is no skip to next
message feature on either the machine nor the remote.

WARNING:  Of all the beeperless machines I was looking at, the security on
the remote is lousy.  The Phonemate detects only on touchtone as it's access
code.  The Record-a-call  just sense one row.  I am not impressed.  The only
machine I saw with a full touchtone decoder and setable access code was the
Panasonic Easaphone which has two rotary switches on the bottom to allow you
to set a two digit code to any combination of the 12 buttons.

-Ron