The Wednesday Schill

I’m not much of a gadget guy – I do have a Palm Pilot, but it’s a 2001 model. When I broke it last year I didn’t upgrade, I just went to Ebay and bought the exact same model (even though it hadn’t been made in 2 years). My international colleagues mock my phone, saying, “My grandmother owns a newer phone than that.” (In a foreign accent of course) So, when I do find some gadget that works for us, I’m really happy.

We have the Uniden 5.8Ghz phone, and it rocks. We’ve gone through several phones, and nothing even comes close. Here’s why:

5.8 GHz signal – We have a wireless network, and our old phones made the network useless when either of us was on the phone. Plus the signal is strong enough that we have no problems with the base being in our 3rd floor office, and an extension in the basement. That’s the kind of range we need.

Expandability – We need phones in almost every room, since our house is so vertical. I’d die if I had to run up & down stairs for every phone call. You can just keep adding phones to the network (up to 10).

Paging – You can use the phone to page any other phone in the house (or all phones). Betsy can be on the third floor working, and reach me while I’m goofing off down in the basement. We don’t use this function as much as I had expected, but when you need it, it’s very handy.

Room Monitor – You can monitor any phone from any other phone, which turns these phones into a whole-house baby monitor. I am a baby monitor freak, so this was a great thing to have. We can put Maggie into a swinging seat somewhere, and not worry about her waking up and us not hearing.

Speed dial/Directory – Every phone has one of these, but with this phone you can share your directories across all the units with a few taps. Really great when you program into one phone and you need the number in the other phones.

Multiple lines – We use Vonage, so having the extra fax/long distance line is key.

Do Not Disturb – When it’s nap time, you can turn all off the ringers on all the phones by pushing one button on the base.

There’s all sorts of other great functions (like being able to name each phone rather than have it “Phone #1”, “Phone #2”, etc, and all the fun Caller ID stuff), but for us, the ones I mentioned are what really make us love this phone.

OK, enough schilling already!