Telehelper 1600 - Let Your Fingers Do Less Walking

 
I've been using Google Voice for a week or so now, and I love it. It's one of those things that delivers on the promise of the computer... to make life easier. Of course, free phone calls aren't bad either. The system has an interesting approach to working with your existing telephone. You type out the phone number you want to call via Google Voice, the system calls your telephone, and after you pick up it rings through to your party. Very slick, and I didn't have to do anything at all to change my conventional phone service.

I imagine that people would prefer to dial directly, but I sort of like the delay. It reminds me of big bosses behind massive desks in old movies smashing down the intercom button to bark out, "get the Prime Minister on the line for me!". That idea is from a time when your job could actually include looking up and dialing a number for your boss - so he doesn't have to.

Somewhere between cigar chomping chiefs of old and Google Voice came devices like the Telehelper 1600. It's a desktop device that "records" phone numbers so that you can speed dial one at the push of a button. Of course this facility is built into many desktop phones and even cell phones today, but back in 1983 you'd have to plunk down about $65 to get the sophistication and convenience of one touch dialing.

Such high prices were the norm in those early days of phone service deregulation in the US (an answering machine from the same product line fetched more than $200), but it wasn't long before speed dial buttons on phones lightened the load on harried secretaries everywhere.

related:

PhoneMate Model 500 - voicemail in the early 1970s
TeleQuest Fiero Plus Phone
Another Sparkfun rotary mobile phone