Embarq is adding an address book feature to its home phones, allowing people to look up an entry and dial it by speaking a name into the handset.
Embarq also is testing a text-messaging function for home phones in some markets. When a text message is sent to a land-line number, the home phone rings, converts the message into audio, and plays it back. The land-line phone user can reply with an audio message or press a button to send a standard text response.
You have to admire Embarq's efforts to add features to landlines that are standard for mobiles. You also have to wonder how well address books, which are personal, and text messages, also personal, are going to translate into a "public" setting, which most landline phones represent.
One-person households won't have that problem, of course. "Public" and "personal" are the same, in such cases. But it will be an interesting test.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Address Books for Landlines?
Labels:
cord cutters,
Embarq,
landlines,
mobiile use,
personal communications,
SMS,
text messaging,
wireless only
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
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