Docking the Casbah - cell phone at home?

May 2, 2008 11:42 AM

Any good options to connect a cell phone into a residential phone?

So, I'm moving into a new apartment and miss having the convenience of a residential phone. Which is to say, the phone that will ring that I will hear even if I am 2 rooms away. I'm debating about just plugging my nice landline phone into a Skype adapter, and that'd be cool, but really only works for calling out.
What would be even -better- is if there was a way to plug my cell phone into the residential phone to make and receive calls, like a docking station. Any ideas?

posted by msamye to technology (12 answers total)

the phone that will ring that I will hear even if I am 2 rooms away

Can't you just make your celphone ringer louder?
posted by jozxyqk at 11:47 AM on May 2, 2008

Check this baby out
posted by Mr_Chips at 11:48 AM on May 2, 2008

Are you thinking of something like this? (Looks like the waxess.com domain name is expired at the moment...) But it's basically a cordless cell phone/landline phone in one, with a slot for your SIM card. I've been using one at home for over a year now and haven't had any problems with it.
posted by flod logic at 12:00 PM on May 2, 2008

I think Mr_chips has the right idea, but that particular system seems way too expensive. Google bluetooth cordless phone and you'll a lot of alternatives. Note that this assumes you have a cell phone with Bluetooth, but almost all phones do these days.
posted by EatenByAGrue at 12:01 PM on May 2, 2008

Hilariously, I wasn't logged in and got to see an adsense ad for this. Seems to be just for what you're looking.
posted by General Malaise at 12:07 PM on May 2, 2008

Dock and Talk was actually the system I was going to suggest, but that Panasonic systems looks pretty intense ( and pretty expensive)
posted by Mr_Chips at 12:12 PM on May 2, 2008

I swear I just saw this on ask.mefi a few weeks ago, but I can't find the post.. It's there somewhere though!
posted by majikstreet at 12:31 PM on May 2, 2008

This was actually just covered on the show Tekzilla, so if you have a moment, check out last week's episode. One of the best solutions they had and from my rummaging on the internet was from Panasonic (this assumes your cell phone has Bluetooth).

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00138AJPO
posted by cgomez at 1:07 PM on May 2, 2008

Grandcentral seems worth mentioning here.
posted by philomathoholic at 2:30 PM on May 2, 2008

Grandcentral would require an invite from a current Grandcentral user, or Grandcentral. I'd love to try it, it looks really useful and might solve my problem.
posted by msamye at 4:15 PM on May 2, 2008

GrandCentral sadly wouldn't solve the problem since people would have to be calling your GrandCentral number to ring multiple phones.
posted by cgomez at 4:30 PM on May 2, 2008

I just bought a phone that does exactly what you want, its a portable phone that came with two handsets and if your cellphone has bluetooth you can set the base station up to connect to your cell phone and make the handsets ring, you can even chose to use the landline or the cellphone when making calls too.
I got it from ebay for around $100 dollars or so.
UNIDEN BLUETOOTH CORDLESS PHONE 5.8 GH ELBT 595-2
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300196955444
I mainly got it because the portable phones handsets can be used with bluetooth headsets. It was pretty much the only portable homephone that can do that.
posted by Iax at 7:06 PM on May 2, 2008