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Home Phone System That Syncs To Computer?

Posted by timothy on from the not-where-the-action-is dept.

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?'

6 of 405 comments (clear)

  1. Huh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    What's a "landline"? :-)

    1. Re:Huh? by digitalhermit · · Score: 4, Funny

      I have a landline in my house. It has an answering machine [1] attached to it. Attached to the answering machine is a telephone [2] with a spiral cord [3] connecting the handset to the base. No seriously. On the side of the handset there's a volume knob [4] and a switch that selects between "Pulse" and "Tone" [5].

      [1] An answering machine is an ancient device that records incoming messages onto a "cassette tape".

      [2] A telephone is a device that connects via a "landline" to the switching station or the operator or something like that.

      [3] A spiral cord is a strange cord that is perpetually tangled. Used to connect a telephone base to the handset.

      [4] A volume knob is an analog electric device that increase or decreases the volume of the earpiece speaker.

      [5] Pulse dialing used a series of pulses to generate the digits in a telephone number. Many phones had a place for a "label" where one could insert a written (or typed) phone number list.

      God. I feel old.

  2. Re:The Tech That Oughtta Be by natehoy · · Score: 5, Funny

    Understandable. He was pissed off.

    --
    "This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
  3. Re:The Tech That Oughtta Be by natehoy · · Score: 5, Funny

    Dang, I just noticed. I wasted post number 30 million on a bad pun. Sorry about that, folks.

    --
    "This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
  4. Re:Regular phones are so backwards... by ebh · · Score: 4, Funny

    More bonus points if the handset still smells like cigarettes even though no smoker has used it in 25 years.

  5. Re:The Tech That Oughtta Be by Bai+jie · · Score: 4, Funny

    About 400.