HomeSeer Phone First Look
By Rick LaBanca 8/21/00 Page 3

What can't it do! Tied to HomeSeer, HomeSeer Phone can...

• Answer the phone as an answering machine, prompting for a voice mail box. Options allow special callers in the phone book to get special messages base on caller ID.
• Answer the phone and when code is entered, go into command mode, where all homeseer voice commands are active.
• Answer the phone from inside the house and go directly into command mode. It does that with the # key pressed from any phone if you have the box.
• When in command mode from your house phone, you can speak "dial john doe" and it will do it, and connect you.
• Mailboxes can be set to forward a message when it comes in as a wave file attachment in e-mail, or call your cell phone or pager.

Since the commands are tied to homeseer you can do just about anything. HomeSeer Phone has specific phone scripting commands.

With scripting, you can replace the logic for answering with all of your own, and control just about everything. I don't have a list of commands, but I know you can get touch tone input, play and record messages, control the phone line, make all the homeseer calls etc. Rich's open design is sure to perpetuate a bunch of useful scripts.

While this isn't a review and it's a very early product, I'll give my impressions anyway... mainly because I'm very impressed. While many readers may think me a HomeSeer sycophant, the enthusiasm is earned from experience using it. This early cut of HomeSeer Phone is at that same level. During early testing, Rich was very responsive. He takes those ideas from people and actually puts them in. That's a rare thing to find.

So far, I haven't let it do much phone answering, I was waiting for a way to just jump into a box without box prompting (like a plain old machine). That feature is actually in now but I didn't have a way to play back from the handset yet (first beta should), and that is a must for my household. But the in house control is excellent, once I figured that my cordless isn't a good source for voice recognition. All the wired phones ran great.

I was most worried about the box initially. Would it have a bug and tie up my line mistakenly, or would HomeSeer Phone do the same? Happily it never did, no matter what I threw at it. The firmware seems... firm.

Now my quest will be a cordless phone(s) that will work well. Mine is just plain shot I think!

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