phone messages to pc

April 19, 2007 8:01 AM

Cordless phone machine that can download messages to a pc?

I'm seeing a bunch of 'em with USB connects, but it seems they only transfer phone numbers and screen backgrounds. That, or they run on the pc and require it to be turned on to operate.

posted by StickyCarpet to computers & internet (5 answers total)

If you've got an affordable long distance plan you might find it more economical to just forward calls to K7.net.

Otherwise the only thing I am aware of is Asterix
posted by phearlez at 9:07 AM on April 19, 2007

I am not 100% sure I have your question right, but when I wanted to save a copy of messages which were on my cell phone's voice mail I used a DynaMetric device and audacity and it worked like a dream. It would also allow you to tape a call live, if that was what you were looking for.
posted by shothotbot at 9:45 AM on April 19, 2007

To clarify: I'm looking for a stand alone answering machine and wireless phone combo, that has the ability to transfer the messages to a computer.

Someone here mentioned they used such a thing, so supposedly it exists.
posted by StickyCarpet at 10:20 AM on April 19, 2007

You might just reverse the equation and go with a service like Grand Central. I just signed up for it a little while ago on the strength of David Pogue's NYT review, and I really like it so far. All your v-mails _start_ as digitally downloadable files, but you can check them from any phone.

You can even monitor messages that are being left as they're being recorded and jump in. About the only thing you'd lose is being able to automatically screen calls over the little answering machine speaker.
posted by LairBob at 2:08 PM on April 19, 2007

You're not referring to the defunct Cybergenie systems are you? I believe they required you to run a service on your PC (win2k only).
posted by datacenter refugee at 5:09 PM on April 19, 2007