July 1, 2004

Manufacturer: Parliant
Price: $199.95
Requirements: Mac OS X 10.1.5 or higher, QuickTime 6.3.1 or higher, USB port, analog phone line

For many years Mac users have been looking for a decent telephony solution to allow their computers to manage voice mail, caller ID, and faxes. With OS X Apple reintroduced fax capabilities, but voice features have been missing. How can a Mac truly be a digital hub without these options?

Parliant’s PhoneValet resolves these missing capabilities. Using this hardware/software solution, small businesses and individuals can use their Macs as a telephone communications hub.

The PhoneValet package includes:

• a USB Phone Adapter that plugs into a Mac and a phone line (RJ-10 plug, standard household)
• a USB cable
• software on CD

Installing PhoneValet is simple and takes under 5 minutes. The USB Phone Adapter should be first plugged into your telephone line and into your Mac with the included USB cable. Install the software from the CD and things are ready to go.

PhoneValet is capable of voice mail, remote control of your Mac from a phone, phone call recording, and sharing one telephone line for voice and fax capabilities. The software breaks these capabilities down into three basic functions all accessible from a menu in the menu bar.

Software Setup

The first step after installation is using the Preferences, Voice Mail Preferences, and Remote Control Preferences to determine how the software should work. Setup is extremely easy, and while the printed manual gives easy-to-follow instructions the software was self-explanatory and the manual was not needed.

The basic PhoneValet Preferences provide options for long distance, announcement of incoming calls with caller identity, message recording quality, email options (including email notification and emailed phone messages), management of multiple Phone Adapters for multiple phone lines, and fax handling.

Fax setup offers a two options, to either use OS X’s built-in fax abilities or PageSender (separate shareware software).

The Voice Mail Preferences contain settings for the number of rings before call answer, management of voice mailboxes, and greeting and phone menu options. The phone menu and individual greetings can be custom recorded or OS X’s Speech used to read text announcements.

All of the voice mail options worked predictably, but the automated OS X Speech did not translate as well as expected. This is not due to problems with PhoneValet, but because standard phone lines are limited in their signal range and the computer voice was less legible. Even so, the use of the automated speech achieved the positive effects of scaring off telemarketers and peaking interest of legitimate callers.

One of the more interesting features is the ability to administrate a Mac by remote control using a phone. The Remote Control Preferences setup special codes to run AppleScripts. Four example scripts are included which give an idea of the possibilities. The most useful of these is reading iCal’s daily schedule back to you over the phone, definitely a neat feature.

Besides the uses for Remote Control, AppleScripts can be triggered based on PhoneValet status. For example, iTunes can be automatically muted during incoming phone calls, and Caller ID reverse-lookup can load a webpage for caller information.

Additional Configuration

According to Parliant’s documentation, additional phone lines can be managed on the same computer by adding more hardware Phone Adapters. We were unable to test this feature because we only had one phone line and one Phone Adapter for testing.

While the only thing needed for basic functions is plugging the phone line into the Phone Adapter, to get full capabilities a slightly more complex setup is needed. We used a 3-way-splitter ($5 from most stores) that divided the phone line into three lines to take advantage of all features:

• Split 1: PhoneValet Phone Adapter
• Split 2: regular telephone
• Split 3: Mac built-in modem to receive and send faxes

Phonebook and Call Log

The Phonebook/Call Log can import names and numbers from Apple’s Address Book. The import can be for the entire Address Book contents or just for specific information. As welcome as this feature is, it is disappointing that the PhoneValet Phonebook is not dynamically interactive with Address Book’s data.

Once numbers are added, they appear in the Phonebook. Double-clicking on a number places a call, which only requires that a phone on the same line be picked up and the number will be dialed.

The Call Log automatically records all information about the phone line usage. This includes outgoing calls (even ones placed without using the computer), answered calls, unanswered calls, and messages. Messages can be accessed from the Call Log without loading the separate Message Center application.

Even without a specific PhoneValet application running, during incoming calls a dialog appears automatically displaying Caller ID information . Unfortunately, this feature only lists the identity of numbers already listed in the PhoneValet Phonebook. If specified in the Preferences, the number and identity is also verbally announced using Speech.

The reverse lookup AppleScript included with the software brings up a webpage, but this information proved to be too slow to determine if calls from unknown numbers should be answered. It would be extremely helpful if the software could perform this task automatically as is common with other Caller ID devices.

The only odd thing experienced during software evaluation was that when the Phonebook/Call Log application was running, our computer would not fully restart and would hang in the process. This did not occur with the other applications in the PhoneValet application suite, nor did it occur when the PhoneValet services menu was running in the Menu Bar.

Message Center

As with the other features, the message center is straightforward and easy to use. Calls are recorded in the standard format specified, including 3GPP, AAC, or WAV. The Message Center allows for more detailed management of voice mail messages.

Call Recording

These days almost everyone is recording us during typical telemarketing, sales, and customer service phone communications. Unfortunately, the average person doesn’t have a similar opportunity to record the misinformation that may be presented by the often unscrupulous people and organizations at the other end of our phone line. While this may seem paranoid, many of us have experienced situations where we just wish we had a copy of a phone conversation to prove something.

PhoneValet solves this problem simply and easily. Any phone call can be recorded, whether dialed from the computer or manually. The recorded messages are legible and available in the same formats specified in Message Preferences, so these same messages can be archived or even emailed if needed.

Results: Excellent

PhoneValet is an extremely reliable and easy-to-use product that works exactly as advertised. The straightforward interface makes the manual almost unnecessary, something Mac users have come to expect from the better products available. Thankfully the software imports contacts and info from Address Book, and for larger organizations the system is scalable for multiple phone lines with the purchase of additional Phone Adapters.

The only negatives experienced were minor compared to the overall high quality of the product. It would be highly useful if the PhoneValet Phonebook was dynamically integrated with Apple’s Address Book and a plus if there was direct display of Caller ID reverse-lookup within the PhoneValet software. These criticisms are minor, and overall the PhoneValet system is an great solution.