On 6/5/19 12:30 PM, Liam Proven via cctalk wrote: > On Wed, 5 Jun 2019 at 18:27, John Labovitz via cctalk > <cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote: > >> >> I do recall a little handheld device with a touchtone keyboard that you >> could fit over the microphone of a normal handset. It wasn’t automated, but >> at least you didn’t have to use the rotary dial. > > This was a built-in feature of the Psion range of PDAs. The address > book app could dial any number in the address book, merely by holding > it up to the phone mouthpiece. > > It blew people's minds at the time (very early 1990s). >
Why? Handheld touchtone generators were very common in the the early 90's. Even the late 80's. I bought mine in Radio Shack. They were often needed if your employer used an in house private phone network (like MMDS where I worked) or a phone accessed Email system (like IBM's PROFS) because the phone company had this habit of turning off the keypad on payphones after the first connection. bill
