TidBITS#699/29-Sep-03
=====================
Are you bothered by how stupid telephones still are, after all
these years? Adam is too, but thanks to Parliant's PhoneValet, his
telephone is more usable than ever before. Also this week, we note
the cyclical nature of the industry and welcome two new sponsors,
Aladdin and CS Odessa. In the news, we cover the releases of
AirPort Extreme 5.1.3, Mailsmith 2.0.2, and PopChar X 2.1.2,
along with the announcement of the Adobe Creative Suite and
a few corrections.
Topics:
MailBITS/29-Sep-03
New TidBITS Sponsors: Aladdin Systems & CS Odessa
TiVo Series2 Wishes and Getting Our Bears Straight
Mac OS X 10.2.8 Comes and Goes
PhoneValet, Can You Get That?
Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk/29-Sep-03
<http://www.tidbits.com/tb-issues/TidBITS-699.html>
<ftp://ftp.tidbits.com/issues/2003/TidBITS#699_29-Sep-03.etx>
Copyright 2003 TidBITS Electronic Publishing. All rights reserved.
Information: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Comments: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
---------------------------------------------------------------
This issue of TidBITS sponsored in part by:
* READERS LIKE YOU! Help keep TidBITS great via our voluntary <------ NEW!
contribution program. Our thanks this week to Jerry Friedman,
Dennis Taugher, and Susana Herbert for their generous support!
<http://www.tidbits.com/about/support/contributors.html>
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and the authors of this book share a wealth of important
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* FETCH SOFTWORKS: $5 off Fetch, the original Mac FTP client, only
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* Aladdin Systems: NEW & IMPROVED STUFFIT DELUXE 8.0 NOW SHIPPING! <- NEW!
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* ConceptDraw V: The new standard for business and technical <------- NEW!
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Try ConceptDraw V Beta Free! <http://www.conceptdraw.com/>
---------------------------------------------------------------
MailBITS/29-Sep-03
------------------
**AirPort Extreme 5.1.3 Firmware Update** -- Apple has released
a firmware update for AirPort Extreme Base Stations, boosting
security and improving performance. The revision should better
handle network attacks that may be directed at an AirPort Extreme
Base Station, including denial-of-service attacks, and help
maintain Internet connectivity (we hope this will address
situations where AirPort Extreme Base Stations required frequent
resetting). Setting up the Wireless Distribution System (WDS)
has been made easier, USB printing has been improved, and
administrators can now set up a DHCP range when NAT (Network
Address Translation) is on (good for avoiding IP range conflicts
with ISPs that use NAT internally). The firmware update is a
1 MB download. [JLC]
<http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=120249>
**Adobe Checks Into the Creative Suite** -- Adobe today announced
major upgrades of their professional print and Web publishing
applications, together dubbed the Adobe Creative Suite. Available
later this year, the suite will include the next versions of
Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, and GoLive. Like its rival
Macromedia, Adobe has abandoned easily understood version
numbers (such as Photoshop 8 or InDesign 3) in favor of marketing-
inspired letters (Photoshop CS and InDesign CS). Behind the names,
however, lie some significant upgrades. For example, InDesign CS
incorporates nested styles, the capability to preview color
separations before a piece hits the press, and a Story Editor
where you can edit text independent of its layout (a feature
present eons ago in PageMaker). Each application will be available
separately, but Adobe hopes that the full Creative Suite will be
more appealing, thanks to the addition of Version Cue, a version
tracking and project collaboration framework that operates between
the applications. The entire suite will be available in a premium
pack for $1,230, which includes Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign,
GoLive, Acrobat 6 Professional, and Version Cue; a standard pack,
at $1,000, will remove GoLive and Acrobat from the mix. The suite
is expected to ship by the end of the year. [JLC]
<http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/main.html>
<http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/newfeatures.html>
**Panther-Prepared PopChar Published** -- Ergonis Software has
released PopChar X version 2.1.2, an update to Gunther Blaschek's
well-known utility for easily entering non-ASCII characters. This
version fixes several bugs and is ready for Mac OS X 10.3 Panther;
it is highly recommended that all current users download it,
especially if you already installed version 2.1.1, which was
quickly pulled because of a potential startup problem. Panther
does sport an improved Character Palette, but PopChar X retains
some advantages, such as working with non-Unicode fonts and non-
Unicode-savvy applications like Microsoft Word. This update is
free for users who purchased PopChar X within the last two years.
PopChar X is $30 ($20 for Classic PopChar owners). [MAN]
<http://www.macility.com/products/popcharx/>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06827>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06891>
**Mailsmith 2.0.2 Makes Minor Fixes** -- Bare Bones Software has
released Mailsmith 2.0.2, incorporating numerous minor feature
enhancements and bug fixes into the company's industrial strength
email program (see "True Confessions of a Mailsmith Switcher" in
TidBITS-690_ for a review of Mailsmith 2.0). Also included in the
upgrade is SpamSieve 2.0.1, the current version of Michael Tsai's
Bayesian spam filter, which integrates with Mailsmith, along with
other email programs (see "SpamSieve 2.0.1 Improves Accuracy" in
TidBITS-698_). Mailsmith 2.0.2 is a free update for registered
users; it's a 14.7 MB download. [ACE]
<http://www.barebones.com/products/mailsmith/>
<http://www.barebones.com/support/mailsmith/current_notes.shtml>
<http://www.barebones.com/support/updates.shtml>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07289>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07361>
**Avondale Photoshop DVD Giveaway** -- Photoshop 7 won't be
current much longer, but our friends at Avondale Media want to
give TidBITS readers an early crack at free copies of their DVD
"Secrets of the Photoshop Masters." The DVD contains 93 minutes
of tips and techniques about Photoshop 7 from Photoshop experts
Katrin Eismann, Martin Evening, Jeff Schewe, and Steve Broback
(who is also a founder of Avondale, and with whom we worked when
he helped run Thunder Lizard Productions). Follow the first link
below to order the DVD. There's a $7 shipping and handling charge
for U.S. delivery (check the chart at the second link below for
international destinations). [JLC]
<http://www.avondalemedia.com/freepsm03.html>
<http://www.avondalemedia.com/help.html#international>
**Listen to Adam on Inside Mac Radio** -- Want to listen to my
informal take on what's going on in the Mac world every week?
Scott Sheppard has started producing a daily Macintosh radio show
you can listen to on the Internet or download in MP3 format for
later listening in iTunes or on your iPod. I'll be talking with
Scott on a regular basis, and you can check out the first show
at the link below. Earlier in the month, I did an interview with
Chuck Joiner on the online-only User Group Report, and with the
promise of Scott's Inside Mac Radio Daily appearing regularly,
I'm curious to hear on TidBITS Talk what you think of these
online radio shows, and if you'd like us to link to interviews
with TidBITS staffers on a regular basis. [ACE]
<http://insidemac.macupdate.com/imrd030925.mp3>
<http://www.osxfaq.com/radio/>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07322>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2076>
**Digital Photography Cruise in January, 2004** -- Arthur Bleich,
who contributes to TidBITS on digital photography topics, tells us
that he'll once again be leading an eight-day digital photography
workshop cruise, this time to the Caribbean on 24-Jan-04. Space
is limited to 30 attendees. [ACE]
<http://www.dpcorner.com/cruise/>
New TidBITS Sponsors: Aladdin Systems & CS Odessa
-------------------------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
We live in a cyclical world, though it's sometimes hard to look
past the quickly turning wheels of weeks and months to the slower
yearly revolutions. A month ago, in writing about how we were
trying some new revenue sources due to reduced revenues from our
long-standing corporate sponsorship program, I noted that we might
be seeing a rebound in the final quarter of the year. It has been
particularly gratifying to have called that one accurately, and
I'm happy to announce two new long-term sponsors this week,
joining our existing crop of Small Dog Electronics, Bare Bones
Software, and Fetch Softworks (whose $5 discount offer ends
Tuesday, by the way!).
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07326>
But what hammered home the cyclical nature of the Macintosh
industry is an article I wrote almost exactly five years ago,
just as the industry was coming out of the slump caused by Apple's
near-death spiral. Steve Jobs put an end to those problems with
the iMac and his renewed emphasis on design and innovation, and
in early October of 1998, we saw the results of the industry's
recovery reflected in several new sponsors joining us. It seems
now we may be back where we were five years ago, with the fortunes
of the Mac world once again on the upswing. Let's hope both that
I'm not hallucinating and that the recovery continues.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=05117>
**Aladdin Systems Sponsoring TidBITS** -- We're pleased to welcome
back as a sponsor Aladdin Systems, makers of StuffIt Deluxe,
Spring Cleaning, the Ten for X collections, and DragStrip, along
with some older Mac OS 9-only utilities like FlashBack and
ShrinkWrap. With Connectix selling Virtual PC to Microsoft and
Casady & Greene declaring bankruptcy, Aladdin's longevity is
even more pronounced. Few Macintosh developers have lasted so
long or given as much to the community, ranging from continued
development on the free StuffIt Expander to its annual charity
drive and supporting groups like TidBITS. Through the end of
October, TidBITS readers can also take advantage of a special
offer on StuffIt Deluxe 8.0 that drops $30 from the list price
of $80; upgrades remain $30. See the sponsorship area above
for the link. [ACE]
<http://www.aladdinsys.com/>
<http://www.aladdinsys.com/company/pressroom/releases/aladdin/
091103-3rdannualdonate.html>
**CS Odessa** -- Also rejoining us this week as a sponsor is the
Ukrainian software company CS Odessa, makers of the intelligent
diagramming and business drawing program ConceptDraw (see "Make
the Connection with ConceptDraw" in TidBITS-553_ for a review
of an earlier version of the program). ConceptDraw V is in
public beta right now, so if you want to see what it's like
to create a document in which graphical objects understand
their relationships to one another, it's definitely worth
a download.
<http://www.conceptdraw.com/>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06179>
TiVo Series2 Wishes and Getting Our Bears Straight
--------------------------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sometimes we wish we could rewind life as easily as rewinding
television programs recorded by TiVo. In last week's issue, Alex
Hoffman's article "TiVo Series2 Improves on Original" discussed
how the digital video recorder could organize recorded programs
in groups when perusing the Now Playing list. In the article,
this is mentioned as a wishlist item, when in fact the Series2
does include the feature. Chalk up the error to a TidBITS editor
who wishes his original TiVo could support that excellent way
to browse shows: Jeff's punishment will be to categorize and
alphabetize all his DVDs and VHS tapes.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07366>
<http://www.tivo.com/>
While we're acknowledging our errors (which we're told is good
for the soul, even if it makes us feel the fools), Adam biffed his
analogy of the 15-inch PowerBook G4 to Mama Bear in the children's
story The Three Little Bears. Although there's some thought that
alternate tellings may exist, most sources seem to agree that the
porridge, chair, and bed that were "just right" belonged to Baby
Bear. Adam's punishment will be to read The Three Little Bears
at bedtime until Tristan makes him stop.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07363>
<http://w8r.com/kidsbook/bears.html>
Finally, in our hurried testing of StuffIt Deluxe 8.0 in the hours
before publishing last week, Adam said that Mac OS X would prompt
you about changing filename extensions when using StuffIt Deluxe's
Archive Via Rename feature. However, it turns out that if you turn
off "Always show file extensions" in the Finder preferences (which
is necessary for Archive Via Rename to work), Mac OS X doesn't in
fact prompt for each rename action. It makes sense; if you can't
see filename extensions, you might not realize you're changing
something, whereas if you can see them, it's reasonable to assume
you know what you're doing. For this mistake, Adam's penance will
be give all the cryptically named PDFs on his Desktop better
names.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07365>
Mac OS X 10.2.8 Comes and Goes
------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Last Monday, as Geoff Duncan was preparing the TidBITS issue for
distribution, Software Update notified me that I could install Mac
OS X 10.2.8. It was late, I was tired, and I let it download and
install without really thinking about the consequences. (Bad Adam!
Always back up right before installing a major upgrade!) While all
40 MB were coming in, Jeff Carlson and I made the decision to post
an update on the TidBITS Web site the next day rather than try to
squeeze it into the issue. I'm glad we chose to put it off, since
the update proved troublesome for many users. I lucked out; the
update just moved the menu bar to my secondary monitor, confusing
Classic and requiring a second restart, after which everything
has worked fine.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07368>
Others weren't so lucky. We received numerous reports of problems
from people who upgraded to Mac OS X 10.2.8 right away, including
kernel panics at boot. In particular, we verified that Mac OS X
10.2.8 was incompatible with some drivers for external FireWire
audio devices for recording and producing audio. Many other users
experienced the loss of Ethernet on Power Mac G4s. If you've been
impacted by the Ethernet problem, there's a reported fix posted
on Apple's discussion boards that involves reverting to a previous
AppleGMACEthernet.kext file. Obviously, this solution is not
endorsed by Apple, and we at TidBITS have not confirmed it.
<http://discussions.info.apple.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]
@.5999d9d9/10>
Needless to say, Apple pulled the 10.2.8 update quickly, but
the company hasn't given any indication when a replacement
will arrive. If you downloaded Mac OS X 10.2.8 but haven't yet
installed it, toss that file and wait for the replacement. If
you're one of the unlucky people who have had troubles, you'll
have to decide if you can work through them or if reverting to
a backup is a better option. Remember that you can hold down the
Shift key at boot to perform a Safe Boot that disables all non-
Apple kernel extensions and drivers. That will probably help those
experiencing kernel panics at boot, but I can't see it helping
with the Ethernet problem.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07369>
<http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=120245>
What was in the update? Mac OS X 10.2.8 included a number
of Bluetooth improvements (partially to enable support for
Apple's new wireless keyboard and mouse) as well as unspecified
enhancements to the Safari Web browser. It also included security
updates for the Unix applications sendmail and OpenSSH's sshd,
support for USB 2.0 devices (even if you added USB 2.0 ports
to a Mac using a PCI card or PC Card), and a fix for a problem
mounting external FireWire drives.
<http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61798>
PhoneValet, Can You Get That?
-----------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
As a computer person, I find myself continually frustrated by
the limitations of the hard-coded devices that surround us in
the real world, and one of the most irritating areas for this
is the telephone. Why can't my telephone announce who is calling
before I pick up the phone? Why can't I easily tell how much
time I've been on the phone? And why do I still have telephone
numbers - sometimes several per person - cluttering my brain?
A Canadian company called Parliant has taken it upon themselves
to solve many of these irritations with a new $130 product called
PhoneValet. It's a combination of a USB device that connects your
phone line with your Mac and Mac OS X software that handles call
announcing (assuming you have caller ID service), call dialing,
and call logging. (Note that it does not currently act as an
automated attendant with multiple voice mailboxes or anything
like that.) PhoneValet 1.0 works as promised, although it suffers
from haphazard caller ID information from the phone company and
a variety of minor problems common in 1.0 releases.
<http://www.phonevalet.com/>
**PhoneValet Parts and Pieces** -- The physical guts of PhoneValet
are ensconced in a translucent purple box about half the size of
a deck of playing cards. One side has a single RJ-11 phone jack;
included in the package is a standard phone splitter so you can
attach both it and your phone at the same time. The other side
has a USB port; Parliant also includes the necessary USB cable for
connecting to your Mac. No power is necessary, nor is a modem, but
PhoneValet currently works only with analog phone lines, sometimes
referred to as POTS (Plain Old Telephone System) lines.
The software side is held up by the PhoneValet application,
which provides the primary interface, and a variety of smaller
applications that work behind the scenes to track incoming and
outgoing calls, dial the phone, and more - all so that the main
PhoneValet application doesn't have to be running for call
announcements and logging to take place.
The PhoneValet application is, at least on the surface, a model
of simplicity and interface elegance. It provides two main tabs:
a Phonebook tab that lists all your stored names and numbers, and
a Call Log tab that lists each placed, answered, or unanswered
call. A Notes field lets you add free-form text notes to any
phonebook or call log entry.
A toolbar at the top of the window provides five buttons and
a Quick Search field. A Dial button dials the phone number
associated with the current entry (whether it's a phonebook or
call log item), a Delete button deletes the current entry, and a
Details button displays a drawer on the right side of the window
that shows a few more details than are in the list, and lets you
edit names and numbers. An Add Number button lets you add the
phone number from a received call to your phonebook. Lastly,
a Report button brings up a dialog that lets you query the call
log database, displaying the results in a Call Log Report tab
that appears next to the Phonebook and Call Log tabs. Similarly,
if you use the Quick Search field to search in either the Call
Log or Phonebook tabs, the results appear in either the Call
Log Report tab or another Phonebook Report tab. In a nice touch,
you can continue to search within the report tabs to narrow the
results. Oddly, you can't edit an entry in the Details drawer
if you select it from one of the report tabs.
PhoneValet also puts an icon in the menu bar that provides a
number of menu commands that enable you to control voice dialing.
**Populating the Phonebook** -- You add names and numbers to
PhoneValet's phonebook in one of four ways:
* Click the Add Number button with nothing selected to add a name
and number manually in the Details drawer. It's easy, but more
work than is necessary most of the time.
* Select an entry in the call log and click Add Number to add it
to the phonebook. Much of the time you must enter or edit the name
so it looks (and sounds, for voice announcements) the way you
want.
* Import from Apple's Address Book. PhoneValet doesn't integrate
with Apple's Address Book because Address Book is both limited
to a single user at a time and isn't available when no user is
logged in. However, it's trivial to import from Address Book,
and Parliant will be tightening the connection between the two
in a future release.
* Import from a tab- or comma-delimited file that you've exported
from your contact database. Parliant fixed a bug that stymied my
initial imports, but it's still a somewhat finicky process.
In using my contacts in PhoneValet, I realized that I use
only about 1 percent of the more than 2,000 entries in my full
Now Contact database. I imported just selected contacts into
PhoneValet, but even still, it turns out I call a rather small
set of people on a regular basis. The main downside of importing
more contacts into PhoneValet is that the list becomes unwieldy
(voice recognition accuracy may suffer as well), but the more
entries you have, the more likely PhoneValet will be to announce
a caller's name correctly based on caller ID information.
**Placing Calls** -- To make an outgoing call using the
PhoneValet, you select an entry associated with a phone number
(either a phonebook or call log entry) and click the Dial button.
A dialog appears on the screen showing the name and number that
will be dialed and instructing you to pick up a phone to dial.
Parliant deserves points for this interface - it just seems very
right to instruct the computer to dial and then have it wait until
I'm ready, rather than it dialing instantly while I scramble to
put on my headset.
If you have voice dialing enabled and an appropriate microphone,
you can also just say, "Call Mom," for instance, to have it dial
the number associated with your mother. PhoneValet uses Apple's
built-in speech recognition, which was quite accurate in my use.
Only a few times did I find myself having to repeat myself or
try again because it understood me incorrectly. Once PhoneValet
recognizes the name, it dials the phone just as though you had
clicked the Dial button.
Of course, you can also dial your phone (or any extension on the
same line) using the telephone's keypad. PhoneValet still sees and
records the number you've dialed, tracking the time and duration
of the call in the call log. If the person you've dialed is in
your phonebook already, the call log displays their name as well
as the number dialed.
I found the voice dialing feature exhilarating - finally, a
situation where the Mac actually listens to me talk and does the
right thing! But I also found it rather frustrating, for reasons
that are out of Parliant's control. I'm using one of Apple's new
iSight cameras as the microphone connected to my Power Mac G4, and
there appears to be a bug in Mac OS X related to FireWire-based
audio input whereby Apple's speech recognition stops working after
the Mac is brought out of sleep, at least until I toggled voice
dialing off and then on again in the PhoneValet system menu.
Irritating, since I was continually forgetting to toggle voice
dialing in the morning after waking my Mac up until it didn't
work the first time I tried to place a call.
Even more troublesome (and it took quite some testing to pin
this one down) was the fact that if Apple's speech recognition
is turned on, iChat AV audio chats always fail. It's confusing
too, since the error message in iChat AV just talks about how no
packets were received in 10 seconds. However, I've now confirmed
that I can leave voice dialing on, turn it off before initiating
or accepting an audio chat, and then have the chat with no
troubles. The solution to this problem will have to come from
Apple; since iChat AV already knows how to pause and restart
iTunes playback for audio chats; it should also toggle speech
recognition off and on again.
A variety of preferences control how PhoneValet should dial your
phone for local and long distance calls so it can understand what
area codes count as local, if local calls require 7, 10, or 11
digits, what prefixes are necessary long distance dialing, and
so on.
**Receiving Calls** -- Whenever you receive a call, PhoneValet
notices it, and if possible, reports the name and phone number
of the call both visually in an easy to read pop-up dialog that
appears briefly in the center of your screen, and audibly via Mac
OS X's speech synthesis. PhoneValet also starts an entry in the
call log, recording the name and number if available, the start
time, and the call duration. If you have multiple phone lines,
which requires multiple PhoneValet boxes, PhoneValet also tracks
which line the call used.
I waffle with "if possible" and "if available" in the above
paragraph, because there are numerous caveats to PhoneValet's call
monitoring capabilities. You must have caller ID service from the
phone company for it to work at all. Even if you have caller ID,
though, PhoneValet can only pick up the information if it's being
reported, and many large organization phone systems (such as the
ones used by both Apple and Cornell University) don't necessarily
relay that information. Individuals can block caller ID as well,
and I found that PhoneValet failed to pick up caller ID
information on many occasions as well.
In fact, I'll tell you exactly what happened, since I think
it's instructive both from what kind of information I was able
to extract from PhoneValet's call logs, and just how caller ID
service can be flaky. I asked PhoneValet to display all the calls
I've received and saved the report to a tab-delimited text file,
which I then opened and converted to a list in Microsoft Excel.
Since the end of July, I've received 171 calls, 131 of which have
come through with no caller ID information - that's over 75
percent! Since I have all unanswered calls forwarded to my cell
phone, which also does caller ID, I've noticed that the cell
phone is much better about picking up caller ID information,
often displaying it properly when PhoneValet misses it entirely.
(See "Rejiggering Personal Voice Communications" in TidBITS-593_
for the story of how we set up our cell phones.)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06528>
Bothered by this poor performance, I checked into it more. Kevin
Ford, Parliant's president, said that the quality and content of
caller ID sent to your phone line does vary, but he was surprised
at the performance I'd seen. Then I called Verizon Repair, and the
repair guy who visited confirmed that the phone company equipment
was working properly, but when he tested the internal wiring in
my house, he found a short that he said could account for the
lost caller ID information. I'm not looking forward to tracking
down the short, since our house has something like 15 phone
jacks, many of which are daisy-chained together in unknown
configurations. The repair guy also said the short could stem
from too many phones connected. We normally have about eight
devices plugged in, which might well be too many. A traditional
telephone handset is considered as one ring-equivalency number
(REN), with five RENs as the maximum for a standard home. Modern
phones may have RENs lower than one, apparently, so I might have
been okay, but I've unplugged two phones and our outgoing-only
fax machine to see if that helps.
Needless to say, I was disappointed that the caller ID feature
didn't work better on my line, since one of my big plans was to
use PhoneValet to announce calls both on my Mac upstairs and
on another Mac downstairs, so I'd receive advance notice of
who was calling even if I wasn't in my office. PhoneValet can
run AppleScript scripts or send email whenever a call comes in,
but I never bothered to figure out how to do it, given that it
would be useful on only a quarter of the calls I receive. Kevin
also said that Parliant plans to enable PhoneValet to announce
incoming calls on multiple computers for just this purpose and
for small offices with multiple analog phone lines, and they're
also looking at enabling caller-specific actions.
Annoyingly, telemarketers almost always block caller ID
information, so if you're trying to avoid them, you must pick
up the phone based only on positive identification of people you
want to talk with. That also points to a piece of advice for those
of you who block your caller ID information - consider yourself
warned that those of us who want to know who's calling are much
more likely to ignore your unidentified calls.
**Problems and Annoyances** -- I said before that PhoneValet's
interface was a model of simplicity and elegance, at least on
the surface. Dig a little deeper, though, and you'll start
finding unwelcome surprises and annoyances.
Whenever you edit an entry or add note text to one, you must
explicitly save your work. That usually happens when you select
another entry and PhoneValet prompts you to save. It's an annoying
extra step, and one I ran into often, as I added names or notes to
unidentified entries. Instead, PhoneValet should save all changes
automatically, and if Parliant is concerned about data loss, they
should implement a multiple Undo capability.
The phonebook and call log are just columnar lists, and you can
sort them by clicking the column titles (other than Note; I have
no idea why you can't sort the list by the entries that have
notes). Clicking a second time reverses the sort order, which
is good. Otherwise, however, the lists lack all of the standard
niceties. You can't select multiple items, as you might want to
for deleting a number of unused entries from your phonebook, or
bogus placed call entries from your call log (if you make a
mistake dialing a phone number manually, hang up, and try again,
PhoneValet records both actions). It also lacks any sort of
selection shortcuts, so you can't type the first few letters
of an entry in the phonebook to scroll to that entry, which
would be highly welcome. Future versions will reportedly add
these enhancements.
The inability to select contacts quickly is particularly
problematic if you don't use voice dialing, since there's no other
shortcut for finding and dialing a number from your phonebook.
I'd like to see Parliant add a list of contacts to the system-wide
PhoneValet menu so you could choose a contact from that menu to
dial the associated number. With just a little extra tracking,
they could even offer a separate list, perhaps in a hierarchical
menu, of the contacts you call most often.
That suggestion hints at a deeper problem. PhoneValet actually
uses an SQL relational database from OpenBase, but for the moment,
it seems under-utilized. For instance, why not report, in a
phonebook entry, how many calls you've placed and received from
that person, along with total and average call duration? It's of
course possible to export a report and determine that information
in a spreadsheet or database, but PhoneValet is already using
a powerful database. Or, consider the fact that if you add a name
to a call log entry for which you have only the phone number,
PhoneValet doesn't automatically change the name for all other
call log entries from the same number, even if you then save that
call log entry as a phonebook item. Parliant plans to add more
database-driven features in the future, and third parties can
access the database directly as well.
<http://www.openbase.com/>
**PhoneValet, You're Hired** -- If I had a job that revolved
around the phone, particularly one that involved billing for call
time, I'd consider PhoneValet an essential tool for conducting
business. But despite the fact that I don't really need to track
calls, and despite my problems with identifying incoming calls,
I've become quite fond of PhoneValet, particularly the voice
dialing feature. Other people who will especially like PhoneValet
are folks with multiple kids who receive phone calls, people
overwhelmed by sleazy telemarketers calling during dinner, and
small offices for whom PhoneValet's call logging simplifies
tracking and calling customers back.
PhoneValet is very much a 1.0 application, with various attendant
minor bugs and missing features, but Parliant has released several
small updates since I started using PhoneValet in late July,
so they're clearly committed to improving the product. That
commitment also comes through in their email support, which has
been among the best I've seen of late. Each email message I've
sent has received an automatic response containing a trouble
ticket number, and a support rep has followed up immediately with
help (apparently, it's a full-fledged WebObjects support system).
Several bugs I reported were fixed quickly in minor releases
of the program, and Parliant even built a special version of the
program to help track down some problems I was seeing that seemed
to be in Apple's code and which they couldn't reproduce. Parliant
also pays close attention to customer requests, adding and
prioritizing features based on what people want, so make sure
to ask for any features that would make PhoneValet work better
for you.
<https://secure.parliant.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/ContactPage.woa?dept=
Technical+Support>
PhoneValet 1.0 costs $130 for one phone line, with a $90 expansion
pack for each additional line you want PhoneValet to manage. Since
it relies on hardware as well as software, there's no trial
version, but Parliant does offer a 30-day money-back guarantee.
It works only in Mac OS X (10.1.5 or higher), although Parliant
makes a similar product called Tell A Phone for Windows.
<http://www.parliant.com/>
PayBITS: If Adam helped you take control of your telephone
with this review, why not send him a few bucks via PayBITS?
<https://www.paypal.com/xclick/business=ace%40tidbits.com>
Read more about PayBITS: <http://www.tidbits.com/paybits/>
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by TidBITS Staff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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$$
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