Anyone with a cellphone is familiar with
this scenario: You come home, take your jacket off, and
set your purse or briefcase down near the door. A few
hours later, you get your cellphone out of your bag to use
it, only to find that you've missed three calls because
you weren't close enough to hear your phone ringing.
Cellphones rule in lots of places -- we
can call for car help when stranded along a highway, find
friends in a crowd, and be nagged by co-workers or spouses
at any time and place. But the old-fashioned wired phone
wins at home. When someone calls your house line,
extension phones all over the house ring, and can be used
to answer the call. With a cellphone at home, you have to
schlep it everywhere you go.
RCA Cell Docking System
by Thomson Inc. -- $149.99/ www.rca.com
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As more and more households continue to
trade in their landlines for cellphones with better
calling plans and free long distance, the inconvenience of
toting a single cellphone around the house gets more
annoying.
So, this week we took a look at two
products that aim to solve that problem by tying your
cellphone into your wired home phone setup. They allow you
to use your home phones, including extensions in every
room, to place and receive calls through your cellphone
and your cellphone calling plan.
The two products are the RCA Cell Docking
System from Thomson
Inc. and the Dock-N-Talk Universal Cellphone Docking
Station from Connecticut-based Phone Labs Technology Co.
Each costs $150.
Both work by directing your incoming
cellular calls to a wired phone -- and allowing outgoing
calls to be made through your wireless network using these
telephones. The RCA product comes with a special cordless
telephone that links to a cellphone docking station, while
the Dock-N-Talk is a small box that connects any corded or
cordless home telephone to your cellphone. To use the RCA
system in multiple rooms, you need to buy additional
cordless handsets for $70 each that work with the RCA
system.
These products also allow users to toggle
back and forth between a landline and a cellular line,
though we tested it only in a house where cellphones had
already eliminated the need for a landline. The RCA's
included cordless telephone has buttons labeled Home and
Cell to answer or initiate calls using either line.
With Dock-N-Talk, you can also use a
landline or your cellphone line by adjusting a switch on
the box and buying splitters for your phone jacks. House
phones attached to line one will ring for landline calls,
and phones plugged into line two on the splitter ring for
cell calls.
![[Docking Station]](image/articlepics/wsjdnt.jpg)
Dock-N-Talk Universal
Cellphone Docking Station by Phone Labs Technology
Co. -- $149.99/www.phonelabs.com
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Because cellphones use many different
types of connectors, these products are compatible only
with phones for which adapter cables exist, or which can
be connected using Bluetooth wireless networking. The RCA
Cell Docking System comes with cellphone adapter cables,
but these work only with 57 models from three
manufacturers: Sony Ericsson (a joint venture of Japan's Sony
Corp. and Sweden's Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson), Motorola
Inc. and Nokia
Corp.
The Dock-N-Talk is a bit more versatile,
but instead of using adapter cables that come with the
device, you must buy them separately; most cost about $20
each. These cables are compatible with 418 different
cellphone models from six different companies. If your
cellphone has Bluetooth, a separate $80 Bluetooth adapter
can be plugged into the side of the Dock-N-Talk for use
with 267 cellphones from 24 different brands.
We took these devices home and tried them
in real-life scenarios. The RCA device wasn't compatible
with either of our cellphones -- a Palm Treo 650 and a
Samsung SCH-A670. The Dock-N-Talk is compatible with the
Treo 650 using Bluetooth.
The RCA device needed 16 hours for its
cordless handset's battery to charge, like most cordless
phones. (This handset also functions as a regular phone,
in case you ever stop using it with the cellphone docking
system.) Thomson lent us a Motorola V551 cellphone for
testing, and we used an included cable to plug it into the
dock -- a clear plastic cradle where the phone can rest.
We called the cellphone's number, and as
it's designed to do, the cordless handset rang. We picked
up the handset phone, and the connection sounded fine.
Using the Dock-N-Talk was rather
straightforward, too. We connected it to a cordless home
telephone and used the same Motorola V551 cellphone for
testing. After setup, the Dock-N-Talk box had four cords
running from it: a short phone cord running to the
cordless phone, a longer phone cord running to a phone
jack on the wall, a power adapter plug running to a wall
socket, and a cellphone adapter cord attached to our
Motorola.
We called the cellphone and it and the
attached cordless phone both rang. We also plugged another
phone into a wall jack in a room down the hall --
remember, this was in a house with no landline -- and both
house phones and the cellphone rang without a hitch.
We also tested the Dock-N-Talk's
Bluetooth adapter, a small, flat piece that plugged in
where the cellphone cable had been. Our first Bluetooth
attempt with a Treo 650 failed -- we never got to the
pairing step for some reason that we think has to do with
the Treo itself. However, we tried our trusty Motorola
V551 cellphone once more, as it has Bluetooth capability,
and it "discovered" and "paired" with
the Dock-N-Talk. Calling the cellphone worked just as it
had with the cable -- the cell rang, as did the two house
phones.
These devices have a practical use in any
busy home where cellphones are used. One issue that might
arise is the fact that in many homes, each family member
has his or her own phone. The solution to serving multiple
cellphones is to buy a different device for each phone,
which could get pricey.
Though the RCA Cellphone Docking System
includes a separate cordless phone and cellphone cables,
its compatibility is very limited. It can work only with
its own handsets, while the Dock-N-Talk works with various
handsets. Dock-N-Talk also works with more cellphones, and
is Bluetooth compatible.
If you're looking for a smart solution to
stay connected with your cellphone without the need to
keep it in your pocket at all times, the Dock-N-Talk is
the way to go. It stands out because it will work with
more products, including house phones that you already
have. Just be sure your cellphone is compatible before you
make the investment.
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