January 25, 2012

“My Apple’s telephone just called up the home office!” (Jul, 1984)

This was the first modem I got for my Apple IIc. I remember being crushed when I tried to log in to a particular bulletin board system and it came back with: “300 baud? Yeah right, come back when you’re at least at 1200.”

“My Apple’s telephone just called up the home office!”

The exciting world of telecomputing. With a Hayes system, you just plug it in! Communicating is so easy with a complete telecomputing system from Hayes. Hayes Smartmodem 300™ is a direct-connect modem for the new Apple IIc. Hayes Micromodem IIe installs easily in an expansion slot in the Apple II, IIe, III and Apple Plus. Packaged with Smartcom I™ companion software, both are complete systems. Best of all, both systems are from Hayes, the established telecomputing leader. Just plug in-and the world is your Apple!
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January 19, 2012

Self-Answering Telephone Thinks and Talks (Mar, 1950)

At a current value of $362 I’m pretty sure you could just get a human answering service for considerably less money.

Self-Answering Telephone Thinks and Talks

By Harry Kursh

“HELLO, hello. This is the residence of Mr. John Smith. Your message is being recorded automatically. Ready! Please speak now.”

Don’t be surprised if that’s what you hear one of these days when you dial the familiar number of one of your friends. For Ipsophone—the robot telephone device with a brain—has been placed on the market and is rapidly coming into use all over the world. Three of these ingenious Swiss inventions have already been installed for the King of Egypt but their cost ($38 per month) will make them practical for even the smallest businessman.
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December 14, 2011

Two Ears Now Can Listen at One Telephone (May, 1929)

Two Ears Now Can Listen at One Telephone

A TELEPHONE attachment which permits the user to listen to a long distance call with both ears, and incidentally allows two people to hear from a single receiver at the same time, has been designed especially for noisy offices. The device is a sound-distributing chamber which slips over the end of the standard telephone receiver and sends part of the sound through a rubber tube ending in a metal cup, similar to that on a doctor’s stethoscope, which fits in the opposite ear of the user. Read the rest of this entry »

October 25, 2011

Wired for Sin – THE VICE RACKET BEHIND THOSE PHONE ANSWERING SERVICES (Feb, 1958)

Wired for Sin – THE VICE RACKET BEHIND THOSE PHONE ANSWERING SERVICES

Bigtown call girls operate freely because slick tele-fronts handle their incoming calls
By JACK MITCHELL

THE TALL, sleeky-dressed blonde got off the hotel elevator and made her way swiftly across the lobby to the telephone booths. Tossing aside a mink stole from her shapely shoulders, she took pencil and notebook from her pocketbook, dialed a number and said softly: “This is June. Any calls?”
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October 18, 2011

You and your telephone (Mar, 1969)

You and your telephone

ON BEING A WOMAN: DR. JOYCE BROTHERS

Trying to reach a friend by phone the other day, I got the busy signal five times in a row. The first few times I fumed—there’s something about that frustrating buzz that sets my nerves on edge—but by the fourth try I was amused, remembering how, just a few days before, she and I had been on the phone at least half an hour, talking about a party we’d both been to. Read the rest of this entry »

October 13, 2011

“I’ve just had my eyes opened… to the fact that some of our business problems were really communications problems!” (Apr, 1965)

Filed under: Advertisements,Telephone — @ 12:19 am
Source: Fortune ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Apr, 1965
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“I’ve just had my eyes opened… to the fact that some of our business problems were really communications problems!”

An active business is constantly changing. It broadens its products, expands its market, hires more people, gains more customers, faces more competition. And with these changes come problems.
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September 29, 2011

No-finger dialing (Apr, 1971)

No-finger dialing

It’s here at last—relief for your throbbing dialing finger. Just slip this plastic card into Bell Labs’ experimental dialer phone and the number is dialed automatically. The card could also be used to transmit information over telephone lines to computers, or even to check bank balances.

September 8, 2011

Call Indicator for Telephone (May, 1931)

Call Indicator for Telephone
THE numbers dialed on automatic telephones can now be recorded on a call indicator device invented by William Green-berg of Portland, Ore. In the center of the regular telephone dial is a space where the numbers being dialed are reproduced, showing what number is being called, and warning immediately of any error. Pressing a small button at the top of the device clears the figures for the next call.

August 17, 2011

“What! No Kitchen Telephone?” (Oct, 1955)

Well, I’m sure that is going to be a great marriage. What’s would the modern equivalent of this line be?

“What! No Kitchen Telephone?”

Of all things, Mr. Bridegroom! Surely you don’t expect that lovely new bride to get along without a telephone in the kitchen!

Maybe there was a time when one telephone seemed enough, just as one radio and one bathroom and one car seemed enough.

But everybody is used to more comfort and convenience these days. And there’s nothing that makes life so much easier as telephones around the home.
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July 26, 2011

Telephone booths on prowl (Aug, 1964)

Telephone booths on prowl

This mobile telephone truck, equipped with six pay phones and a coin changer, can speed to any spot in Washington, D.C., where emergency phone service is needed in a hurry. Its crew just hooks it into existing wires.

While waiting for emergencies to call it into service, the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Co. uses the unit to collect dimes from stationary booths.

July 5, 2011

THE SMALLER THE BETTER: NEW DIMENSIONS IN CONVERSATION (Feb, 1965)

THE SMALLER THE BETTER: NEW DIMENSIONS IN CONVERSATION

In the eye of a needle above is a transistor switch that can turn on or off in ten billionths of a second. It is an example of the micro-miniature devices that Western Electric makes today for the new Electronic Switching Systems now being put into service in the Bell telephone network. Read the rest of this entry »

June 20, 2011

Pushbutton calling / Memory phone (Jun, 1973)

Pushbutton calling

Tired of dialing calls? Here’s an add-on that converts an ordinary dial phone for pushbutton signaling. The 5-1/4-inch sphere also has a memory for 10 frequently used numbers you can call with two buttons. Busy number? Just wait and push one button to repeat your call. Made by Pye in England.

Memory phone

Push one of Touch-a-matic’s 32 buttons and it places prerecorded phone numbers for you. An integrated-circuit memory (foreground) containing 15,000 transistors does the job. To store numbers, you push a “record” button, then the digits. Developed at Bell Labs, the new phones will appear in 1974.

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