Hey, Watson, who's calling?
August 12, 2011 12:17 PM Subscribe
Is there a cordless phone/answering machine combination that would allow me to call screen and hear incoming messages, not just at the base station but also at any of the remote handsets as the call comes in? I'm in the U.S. if that makes a difference.
If you have the flexibility to use a different incoming number (or jump through some serious hoops to get your landline ported), you could use Google Voice for this. It has a call-screening option built in.
posted by jozxyqk at 1:38 PM on August 12, 2011
posted by jozxyqk at 1:38 PM on August 12, 2011
Google Voice forwarded to your home phone number would give you the same ability. It'll announce the caller and let you listen in on the voice mail in process.
posted by COD at 1:39 PM on August 12, 2011
posted by COD at 1:39 PM on August 12, 2011
Response by poster: Interesting Google suggestions, but the need is to be able to hear the message as it comes in, no matter what room I'm in, thus the wish for a remote handset with speaker that can shout it out in real time, rather than me having to manually connect to the base unit to retrieve recorded messages.
posted by paphun123 at 1:55 PM on August 12, 2011
posted by paphun123 at 1:55 PM on August 12, 2011
I have this Panasonic phone which does what you want. It's also generally good phone with usable menus, excellent battery life, uses standard AAA rechargeables. You can buy additional handsets and charging cradles.
Some of the newer Panasonic phones also have "talking caller ID" which you might like.
posted by mbrubeck at 3:14 PM on August 12, 2011
Some of the newer Panasonic phones also have "talking caller ID" which you might like.
posted by mbrubeck at 3:14 PM on August 12, 2011
You can use Google Voice to do this with any cordless phone that you carry with you. You would need to manually "answer" the phone to listen to the message being left, but you wouldn't ever need to visit the base station to do anything.
posted by pwb503 at 3:58 PM on August 12, 2011
posted by pwb503 at 3:58 PM on August 12, 2011
Response by poster: pwb503: has the audio quality of Google Voice improved? Last time I tried the service it was plagued by voice lag beyond what many people can tolerate.
posted by paphun123 at 5:54 PM on August 12, 2011
posted by paphun123 at 5:54 PM on August 12, 2011
Nthing Panasonic. I own a similar, older model and it's been great.
Mine doesn't even have answering machine buttons on the base station. You do it all through the phone and its in-built broadcast speaker on the back of the handset.
posted by Georgina at 5:59 PM on August 12, 2011
Mine doesn't even have answering machine buttons on the base station. You do it all through the phone and its in-built broadcast speaker on the back of the handset.
posted by Georgina at 5:59 PM on August 12, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
hers do as well.
posted by TruncatedTiller at 12:26 PM on August 12, 2011