Every bloody gadget in the house is ringing. Thanks, EE "Do not think your house is a hide-out, it is a telephone," complained Ted Hughes in his poem Do Not Pick Up The Telephone, and EE is helping bring that dystopian vision to life. The mobile giant today launched a virtualised number service called Smartnumber, which can transfer calls intended for your primary mobile number to …
Don't be silly, that's how mobile operators work. They change the amount charged by decimal places to make as much money from us peons as they can. I used to work in the mobile industry and saw it first hand. There aren't many people that calculate their bills to the penny.
Can you really hand off a POTS call made (formerly known as Skype out) from one device to another? Sounds useful. I have noticed Google now has POTS calling in the UK / Europe and it seems to be cheaper than Skype. These days with huge call allowances and calling through whatsapp I don't use normal telephone calls enough to worry much though
At least you still have online billing in some form.
I'm on a very old Orange Value Plan tariff (the old Virgin EQ tariff that replicated the Virgin Mobile pay monthly plan of the early naughties - no line rental just pay for calls i.e. Pre-pay charges but with monthly billing instead of top-ups). It's an old number that I want to keep going at the lowest cost possible (I pay about £3/month for a few texts and voice mail calls) and it's handy to give to companies who demand a number as it means they don't disturb my main number. Inexplicably EE turned off the Orange online portal back in January and pushed me back to paper bills by post. How's that for progress?
From the EE blurb this appears to be different as it is an extension of the wifi calling and uses your existing EE mobile number. There is no additional cost to either the subscriber or the person phoning them, outbound calls coming out of your allowance or at your standard rate.
Apple has provided a similar hand-off between devices on the same wifi for a while. It annoyed the hell out of me when the iPad rang for phone calls so it got turned off sharpish.
(I have no connection to EE)
"We've had customers (patients) giving us these numbers to contact them on - they cost a fortune to use"
Oh the irony. Presumably phone numbers left on the premium rate contact system after navigating a maze of "Press 5 now" options for 20 minutes only to be told nobody is available to take the call right now because they only answer phones from 10am to 10.30am.
Being built into toasters, fridges, light bulbs and sex toys right now :)
That last one's interesting. If the thing's already vibrating, would an incoming call be signalled by regular pulses of increased intensity?
"OhmyGod, yes, yes, YES!!! Errr, I mean.... Bagshot 1234, hello..."
Thanks, but NO thanks.
I reserve the right to receive calls on ONLY one cellphone. And most certainly won't like it if every single gadget decide to give me a tinkle in order to let me know that person X want to talk to me.
Chances are it'll be either a cold caller, telemarketer or spammer.
One device is easy to manage - just put it on silent and ignore its frantic buzzing. A whole host of beeping and whirring devices? Not so simple...
I wonder if this will extend to working on two phones. Just got a Gemini and not sure if it will be pratical for calls but would love to be able to use it to send texts on my main number. If I have to have a second contract sim and use the internet allowance to send and receive SMS on it, then it's less useful.
So it's 'an operator-specific version of Apple's FaceTime, which will make every connected iDevice in your home (Watch, iPad, iPhone or Mac) "jar out a karate screech".' - which currently only works on iDevices. That, as noted, already have FaceTime.
What genius thought up that idea? They really needed to have an Android version of this at launch.
Not quite....
This adds the ability for my iPad (which is on o2 as it happens) to be able to make and receive calls to/from my EE number, even when my iPhone is not on, not connected, not on the same network.
So if you say had a BT Landline and called my mobile number, and I had run out of battery on my iPhone, but my iPad was still good, if it had connectivity (cellular - not needing to be EE... or wifi), my iPad would ring and I could take the call. For example on Saturday my iPhone was at home, I was 15 miles away and my iPad let me take a call from a non-facetime user.
You could previously do this but only if the iPhone was connected/nearby the iPad - so the scenario I describe didn't work.
However, a few clarifications...
EE web site suggests this works for texts - so far, it does not work independently of the iPhone - you could already, on watch and iPad send an SMS but it would relay via iCloud and send to the iPhone to send for you - likewise receiving it. This is STILL the case now - but it's implied in various places by EE that won't be the case - but neither my watch (cellular or wifi) or my iPad can relay or receive SMS if my iPhone is not on and connected - so nothing has changed in SMS terms[1]
[1] not to be confused with imessage which does work regardless but obviously is only of use if the other party is also an imessage user.
Quote: "...can transfer calls intended for your primary mobile number to any compatible internet-connected device..."
NEWS ROUND UP - JUNE 2020
Bristol Local News
Today a Bristol News reader contacted us about a phone call from their video enabled front door bell. This was forwarded first to the garage door and then to their refrigerator. The refrigerator COMPLETELY misunderstood the message. The refrigerator was programmed to ensure that various items were kept in stock. Thanks to the original misunderstanding, the result was that Sainsburys delivered two hundred tubs of Rum and Raisin ice cream.
The reader has contacted Nest, the garage door vendor, the refrigerator vendor and Sainsburys to try to sort out the mess -- without success!
Urk! I tried that once, maybe twice. A most horrible experience. Have phone, have contacts, have messages. All fine. Then have an almost indescribably bad app that's unstable, ugly, hard to use and has a different set of bloody contacts, call history and messages.
I deleted the app, and probably deleted it from my app/play store account as well just to make doubly sure.
Re: Marketing company, Survey you say, Connecting you to the toilet now
Have you ever wanted to scream at some stupid or annoying caller and then hang up ?
But you're on the bus or in a colleagues office ?
You need Hangup by numbers
just press hangup and choose from 9 (nine) numbers that play sounds before hanging up.
Someone giving you the poos, then give them the flush hangup with a number 2;
Got some annoying spam or junk caller give them the barking dog 0
What about your loved ones how about a cloud9 hang up after a delightful conversation
Use the inbuilt sounds or load in your own. get the yap today !!!
That would be good, but I have actually done this: responded to the telemarketer (who had called many times previously), saying, "Hold on while I get my father. He's been wanting to get [whatever the telemarketer was selling - heating duct cleaning, I think]." Then set the phone down. The TV was going in the background, so the caller knew the phone had not been hung up.
I checked the phone two hours later. The call had ended, and he never called again. I wonder how long the telemarketer waited....
Ah, the fun you can have when you're retired.
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