THE YO-YO TELEPHONE MANAGER.
The Yo-Yo Telephone Manager is a small, sleek ivory box that supercharges your phone. Linking to your PC or Macintosh computer, it sits quietly, its green light silently indicating that it is at work. When a call comes in, the Yo-Yo checks the incoming number (using Caller ID), and displays the caller's name and associated information you've previously entered into your Yo-Yo ÒPhoneBookÓ, including address, phone, fax, and pager numbers, e-mail address, and notes. You are then prepared to speak with the caller in a more effective way. You can also call out from the phone book. Calls are logged with a record of the calling number, date and time.
Features
But that's only the beginning. Yo-Yo also checks your telephone-company-provided "telephone secretary". If you have a message waiting, because you were on the line or out of the office, Yo-Yo's green eye will be flashing. The phone company provides a stutter dial tone or Òmessage waitingÓ signal when you have messages waiting on your telephone secretary--and Yo-Yo detects either one. The eye can be made to flash if you have waiting Caller ID calls in one's phone log as well, even if you haven't subscribed to the telephone secretary service of your phone company.
Since Yo-Yo is monitoring the Caller ID information when your phone rings, it can provide distinct tones on your computer for recognized callers, unrecognized callers, and masked callers (who have their Caller ID blocked). It can run a script, for example to retrieve a complete customer record from a contact manager such as ACT. It can send an e-mail message to a specified address in response to a call. What is more, Yo-Yo can selectively block calls from specific numbers, from out of the area, or from particular area codes and prefixes. Conversely, it can mark similar items as Ònever blockedÓ, with all other calls blocked during particular time periods. This feature is handy to permit specific personal calls through after business hours, while blocking others. When a call is blocked, Yo-Yo can either suppress the phone ring (such calls will then go to one's telephone secretary), or ring once (to announce the call and ID) permitting one to pick up the phone if one wishes, without the disturbing multiple ring of an unanswered call.
Yo-Yo's niftiest trick, though, is to call your paging service when you have an unanswered call. It can access both numeric and alphanumeric paging services, and display the calling phone number (if it has Caller ID) as well as a code to indicate that the page is forwarded by Yo-Yo. Most national paging service numbers are built in--and you can tell Yo-Yo your personal pager number or the number of a national service and your unique pager ID. If you have alphanumeric paging, Yo-Yo can send the name as well as the calling number. A variety of Òalways page meÓ and Ònever page meÓ options are available for classes of calls (no Caller ID, out of area, particular numbers).
Recommendations
Since we've started using Yo-Yo it has become an indispensable part of our office telecommunications. Highly recommended. Yo-Yo is available from Big Island Communications Inc., of Cupertino, CA. (408) 342-0500.
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