QOTW: Could you easily give up your mobile phone for a week?

[jimmiesinferno]

I reckon I could but it would be inconvenient more than anything

[Saracen]

It seems odd seeing people saying they are using their landlines.....I unplugged the phone from mine a while ago and haven't looked back.......the only person who was "put out" by the action was my mother.....although she now understands not to bother ringing it.

There are plenty of options and apps to block calls on mobile, geo-location based, contact group based, time based etc. You can set your mobile up so that it isn't an annoyance.

I'd like to see you find an app for that for my mobile phone .... which I think Fred Flintstone threw out when he ladt upgraded. Geo? Not a chance. App? LOL. Contact group? Does a 10-entry phone book count?

As for home line, there's a neat little box monitoring incoming calls. International, ID-blocked or other calls without user-ID just get a message saying such calls are blocked, enable user-id. And if user-id is enabled, ONLY those already whitelisted get through unless the user also knows a bypass PIN. Anybody gets is required to leave a message and the blocker then rings the housephone and plays the message. I can then accept call, accept and whitelist, reject, or reject and blacklist. NO unsolicited caller gets through, autodiallers don't leave a message so my actual phone doesn't ring (see note), and very, very rarely do sales callers bother wasting their time leaving a message because they know full well what the presence of such a call screening service means.

In short, this device has returned control to me and I very, VERY rarely get even get a message from one, and NEVER do they get through to actually talk to anyone in the house.

Oh, and all done without risking handing out any personal jnfo, like geo data, to Google, or anyone with the right app permissions. Horses for courses, shaithis. Each to his own.


Note - unknown callers are given an opportunity to leave identifying info. If there's no response, that's detected and they're given chance 2 .... of 2. If no voice is detected, they fet a third recirding telling them such calls are not accepted. This is all completely silent to me. I only know it's happened if I check call stats.

[crossy]

As for home line, there's a neat little box monitoring incoming calls. International, ID-blocked or other calls without user-ID just get a message saying such calls are blocked, enable user-id. And if user-id is enabled, ONLY those already whitelisted get through unless the user also knows a bypass PIN. Anybody gets is required to leave a message and the blocker then rings the housephone and plays the message. I can then accept call, accept and whitelist, reject, or reject and blacklist. NO unsolicited caller gets through, autodiallers don't leave a message so my actual phone doesn't ring (see note), and very, very rarely do sales callers bother wasting their time leaving a message because they know full well what the presence of such a call screening service means.

In short, this device has returned control to me and I very, VERY rarely get even get a message from one, and NEVER do they get through to actually talk to anyone in the house.

Note - unknown callers are given an opportunity to leave identifying info. If there's no response, that's detected and they're given chance 2 .... of 2. If no voice is detected, they fet a third recirding telling them such calls are not accepted. This is all completely silent to me. I only know it's happened if I check call stats.

That sounds like a fantastic piece of kit (probably expensive too?). CallerID is handy for filtering some of the obvious idiots out (e.g. "Out of area") and the answering machine can also be pretty handy.

What's bugging me on the landline is the automated "We'd like to make you aware of a government-backed scheme" calls that force you to listen to their entire drivel before being offered the option to opt out. Ofcom would get a big "attaboy" from me if they forced those companies to adopt the same opt-out option, since with some it's "press 8", others "press 9", and had one where it was "press 5".

Of course, what I'd really, really like is the telephone equivalent of Goldeneye's "spike" button that Boris Grushenko had.

[Saracen]

There are a number of broadly similar devices, crossy, and I looked at several. They ranged from about £30 to £100, and though they appear to do the same job, the one I use just appeared more .... polished .... in operation. More versatile in configuration. After a lengthy chat with the company that make them, it appeared to meet my needs. And it did. And yup, it was the £100 end of the market. Worth every penny to me, too.