Make all your phones ring at once

May 30, 2007 11:53 PM

GrandCentral: Have a cell phone, a work phone and a business phone? This free service gives you one number that will ring all of them at once. Reviews: Slate, NYT, CNET
posted by Pater Aletheias (22 comments total)

As a bonus, all messages now land in a single voice mail box. You can listen to them in any of three ways. First, you can dial in from any phone (a text message arrives on your cellphone to let you know when you have voice mail). If you call in from your cellphone, you don’t even have to enter your password first.

You can also play your messages on the Web, at GrandCentral.com, and download them as audio files to preserve for posterity. You can even ask to be notified by e-mail; a link in the e-mail message takes you online to play the voice mail.--from the NYT review
posted by Pater Aletheias at 11:55 PM on May 30, 2007

This has been around for almost a year. Its one of many phone services....Why is this a good Mefi post? Seems a bit Pepsi Blue-ish.
posted by vacapinta at 12:11 AM on May 31, 2007

Lawnmower Man!
posted by interiority at 12:15 AM on May 31, 2007 [1 favorite]

I heard about, tried, and gave this up a long time ago, and you're posting it just now?

Regardless, have you heard about that new search engine? It's called google, I think.
posted by justgary at 12:19 AM on May 31, 2007

What i really need is something that works the other way round. One phone that has multiple numbers. That way you could combine your work, home and mobile phone in one unit.
posted by FidelDonson at 12:29 AM on May 31, 2007

Just as long as we are pimping companies we like, you should check out woot.com . It's nifty.
posted by bigmusic at 12:36 AM on May 31, 2007

One phone that has multiple numbers.

Yeah, I wonder why Nokia and other companies that sell phones aren't eager to sell you one phone instead of two or three?
posted by pracowity at 12:48 AM on May 31, 2007

I've never understood why "Grand Central" (a train station) is equated to lots of phone calls. Did Grand Central have a busy switchboard?
posted by zek at 12:58 AM on May 31, 2007

And am I behind the curve, still thinking inside the box, if I don't understand what the difference is between a work phone and a business phone?
posted by imperium at 1:00 AM on May 31, 2007

What imperium said.
posted by ztdavis at 2:17 AM on May 31, 2007

I'm reading the NYT review. So far, the principal selling point sounds like elaborated call forwarding. I already have access to call forwarding, can switch off forwarded calls when I don't want to receive work calls on my mobile, I don't have to circulate Yet Another Phone Number, and it doesn't cost me extra.

Some of GrandCentral's other garnishes also come free with my existing phone service. But a few of the features are nice, like the voice mail maze which will make personal callers feel like they've made a wrong number into a corporate phonebank until they get used to my new, improved personal detachment.

Despite all my snarking and the shiny Web2.0-era 'Beta' in the Web2.0-era gradient starburst (and the dotcom-era practice of concatenating common verb phrases and trademarking them), they still offer enough for me to be interested. However, the website can't tell me if the service is available where I live (the NYT article implies not), and unless I can know that without setting up a test account they're a total loss.
posted by ardgedee at 3:29 AM on May 31, 2007

I have the service, and I like it. Being able to get voice mail on the web is great, and so is the ability to record calls. The other thing I like is being able to get a number from anywhere in the country. (Let me direct your call to my L.A. office, babe.)
I also like maintaining lists of who can access me and when - I do have a few clients that like to think I'm on 24 hour retainer, but I don't want to have to turn off my phone, or screen every call, or even reach for it to check the caller ID.
posted by bashos_frog at 3:57 AM on May 31, 2007

No numbers in Alaska, Hawaii, and Maine ("the other non-contiguous state")
posted by rusty at 4:52 AM on May 31, 2007

Yeah... it should be "have a bunch of phones and live in the contiguous United States? Then yes, member of 1% of 1% of the world's population, this product is for you!"
posted by GuyZero at 6:50 AM on May 31, 2007

And am I behind the curve, still thinking inside the box, if I don't understand what the difference is between a work phone and a business phone?

Work phone: for talking to your coworkers about what morons your clients are

Business phone: for talking to your clients about what morons your coworkers are
posted by katillathehun at 7:22 AM on May 31, 2007 [1 favorite]

As someone who always gets numbers assigned that have 1s and 0s in them it's fun to dig through the numbers they offer you until you get a number that spells something neat.

I'm just giddy I can tell someone they can reach me at ***-look-hot.
posted by mikesch at 7:45 AM on May 31, 2007

...one number to ring them all... would have been a better headline.
posted by Webbster at 7:48 AM on May 31, 2007

This is awesome. Thanks!
posted by wemayfreeze at 11:20 AM on May 31, 2007

God, I hope nobody tells my mother about the existence of this.
posted by jenfullmoon at 1:17 PM on May 31, 2007

Have a cell phone, a work phone and a business phone? This free service gives you one number that will ring all of them at once.

Oh my god! The horror!
posted by sour cream at 2:24 PM on May 31, 2007

THIS WHY I INTERNET

DO YOU INTERNET?
posted by humannaire at 9:09 PM on May 31, 2007

I must say I'm kinda lovin' this service. Block annoyance calls, record calls, voicemail, etc.. Good stuff. Thanks, Pater.
posted by hojoki at 8:24 AM on June 1, 2007