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TalkPlus: Hello From Anywhere |
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Hello from Anywhere
Playing "Where's Waldo" with TalkPlus
Pat Meier-Johnson
I've always had delusions of grandeur, of having offices all over the country. Well, I do now. I hung out my shingle in New York and Los Angeles in just a few minutes without leaving my desk in Northern California, or so it appears to anyone with caller ID. TalkPlus is a service that lets you add a multiple lines to your mobile phone to make and receive calls. You can mirror your existing office or home number on your mobile phone plus select and add secondary numbers from pretty much anywhere in the US and make calls on your mobile through a TalkPlus web page, making it appear as though you're calling from those other locations.
It's almost too easy.
I installed TalkPlus on my Treo 650 then went to the TalkPlus site to
choose a state and phone number. I selected New York, rolled the dice
on the TalkPlus site till a New York phone number came up that "felt
good." Opened an office in LA within the next couple of minutes as
well. I also chose one that mirrors my real Northern California office
landline number when I'm actually using my mobile phone.
To the
outside world anyone with caller ID it appears that I now have a New
York office my Northern California or Southern California office
slaving away when really I just might not be.
TalkPlus has
some amazing privacy features. I can apply screens to people I know
who are trying to reach me. If I don't want someone to get through, I
can assign their number a fast busy signal (such as when the network is
busy), or allow someone I choose to always ring through even when I've
set my phone to "Do Not Disturb." These are obvious benefits for
business, but imagine someone with an, uh, expansive social life. The
mind reels.
When someone calls, I get an SMS advisory on my
phone. I can pick up and play their voicemail from my email or from my
account page on the TalkPlus site and can sort, delete, or lock any of
my messages for any of my numbers for re-listening.
A few notes.
You need to have a data plan with your carrier to make outgoing calls.
The TalkPlus Pro plan lets you up to 10 secondary numbers and do
conference calls with up to 10 participants. The TalkPlus basic plans
start at $8.99 per month and works with Cingular, Sprint and T-Mobile.
The TalkPlus numbers you get won't be in any directory, though that might be an option in the future.
Next year TalkPlus plans on expanding beyond the US and will be available in over 30 countries, including Mexico.
So I thought I'd put it to the test:
At
the end of the day I pulled up in our home driveway and dialed my
husband from the car using my mirror number that showed my office
number on his Caller ID. "Hi sweetie," I said. "When are you coming
home?" he asked. "I am home," I giggled. "No, you're in the office," he
said, probably wondering if I was working a bit too hard and becoming
disoriented. "Look outside. I'm in the driveway," I waved at him from
the car.
Neat trick, eh?
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