Vacation Over

So, I took another long vacation without telling my adoring fans (*crickets chirping*).  Anyway, the results on my first test are in, and after two weeks of waiting… only one person who searched with one of my adjectives came to the site.  “Unexplained thing in the air” is not at all interesting either.  As a matter of fact, this person could have searched “ufo” to say the same thing.  Uggh, failure.  Hopefully my second test will yield more satisfying results.

To make matters worse, two bad things happened to me recently.  First off, the power adapter to my laptop stopped working while I was on vacation, trying desperately to find a wireless internet connection to hijack.  According to my girlfriend fiancee, there was a spark; I only heard a pop and fizzle behind me.  This post is being written at work after hours– how pathetic.

Secondly, there is a boa on the loose in my building.  The upstairs tenant says he went missing a couple days ago, and that he might be getting hungry.

The Smart Phone

I know you have all been eagerly awaiting my Smart Phone idea for a while now (yeah, I know, no one really cares).  So here it is, the ultimate home office/small business phone.  Just keep in mind that this is just an idea I came up with, not an actual prototype or anything.  I could never afford to actually build one, though I believe all the technology is out there.

My original idea: a phone that is useful to the home office or small business owner and has the same power as a large corporation’s answer system plus a ton of more features and personalization options.

Features:

• Usability as a normal, run of the mill, house phone
• Ability to hook up with any computer with installed software and a USB port
• All phone features are also capable of being accessed on computer including answering (which enables phone’s speakerphone), holding calls, forwarding calls, call waiting switch, switching lines, sending to answering machine, turning off phone’s ring or switching volume levels 
• Caller ID LCD screen and the power to save a list of all calls with time stamp on your computer (and a list of most recent calls on phone itself if not connected).  List viewable on computer and phone.  Caller ID can show on computer itself.
• Phone is capable of making calls through Skype
• Can use a non-DRM protected MP3 as phone’s ringer as well as several built-in rings
• Can be connected to other Smart Phones through LAN
• Can use computer software for several answering options including: regular answering machine that plays recorded message and stores messages on phone or on computer, a text-to-speech translated “robotic” answering machine that reads from a text file off your computer that can then forward the call to another line, a touch-tone enabled phone answering system, or a combination of any of the above ideas.
• Waiting music comes from a set playlist if enabled
• Call forwarding easy for transferring a call to cell for when you need to leave
• Dialing gets easier with keyboard shortcuts
• Finding numbers gets easier with phone company Caller ID lists and on line directories both integrated
• Of course, phone still functions when computer is off

Now you can see why I added the Creative Commons license yesterday.  I’d be honored if someone actually made this phone, though.  If you take the challenge, let me know first.