VoIP Showdown: Phone Valet 3 versus Phlink 2

My supervisor at work just switched to VoIP at his home, and he enjoys telling me about all the fun he's having with his new toy. I've been hesitant about the whole thing (read: old dog + new trick), but this article referenced at The VOIP Weblog has me intrigued.

In an article for Macworld Magazine, author Ted Wallingford (also of VOIP Weblog fame) compares Phone Valet 3 and Phlink in a head-to-head showdown. Each ships with a USB dongle for connecting your Mac to a phone line, though Phone Valet requires the use of an additional adapter if you want your computer and phone to share the same physical line. They handle contact management quite differently, too. While Ted found Phone Valet's built in contact manager to be "...rather cumbersome," he was pleased to see that Phlink simply uses Apple's Address Book.

Aside from that, each offers all sorts of fun scripting options, customizable ring tones, call logging, voicemail and so on. The overall winner? Phone Valet, for its multiple mailboxes and highly configurable message recorder. Read the full article here.

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Source: http://www.macworld.com/2005/10/reviews/phonevalet30/index.p…

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My supervisor at work just switched to VoIP at his home, and he enjoys telling me about all the fun he's having with his new toy. I've been...

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Mister Ken

I spent some time with the Phone Valet folks at Macworld since the product really sounded great for our small firm. This may have changed (I don't think so..), but neither of these systems answers the phone and records a message if you are on the telephone line. You would need to purchase the phone companies 'hunt' feature and install another line to get either of these programs to function like a true messaging service. At that point the cost ratio becomes questionable. Great idea. Pretty much useless.

October 18 2005 at 11:47 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

C. Buckland

As far as VoIP, no go. However, bringing telephony back to the mac platform after a few years they both do a smashing job. I echo Nigel's comments. It would be interesting to use VoIP with these products for automatic call transfers to cell phone, or two number simultaneously.

October 18 2005 at 8:56 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Nigel Hall

These aren't VOIP solutions. They work with a regular telephone line. Might be interesting to use Applescript and one of these products to route an incoming voice mail message, using VOIP, to a cell phone if you're out of the office.

October 18 2005 at 12:25 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply