Not entirely DIY question...

[Huge]

Wow. I doubt we've have 5, ever.

[Michael Chare]

A BT Converse 2300 will do what you want. It is mains powered, but you can make a call without power.

[Blanco]

Not clear how long the tablet battery will last with it being charged full time.

Or how many can handle a USB phone either.

Some phablets will work in that config but again, not clear how long the battery will last and not all that many with user replaceable batteries now.

And not many with very solid USB charger cables either. Some with inductive charging, but in that case the phablet may well get lost pretty easily unless its in some form of protective case with a security cable.

I assumed he meant it shows you the name of the valid calling companies and you just ignore the calls from operations that Google can't put a name to or even just have those auto blocked although that may be a bit risky if it happens to be the doctor who has just moved his surgery etc.

[polygonum]

I guess in my workplace, only a very small office, we get around five a day there. But the numbers do vary. Most seem to be PPI, phone switchers and fuel switchers.

[alan_m]

As a matter of interest how does truecall handle an _automated_ message that you may want but have no prior knowledge of the caller number being used or the number changing between calls?

I'm thinking of fraud prevention calls from credit card companies. I've recently had an call from Amex (corporate card) where they suspected fraudulent use. An automated message was left on my answer phone and on contacting the card supplier the usage was identified as fraudulent. It's not a type of message that I would want to block, or miss.

In the past few years I've had a few similar automated messages resulting in stopping fraudulent use of cards - or in one case stopping the cancellation of the card because the usage was genuine. (Don't tick the charity giving box when buying on Ebay as this results in two transactions at the same time with two different recipients which can trigger anti fraud measures at the card company).

[Roger Mills]

It depends how you've set it up. One option for unrecognised numbers is to ask the caller to press a particular key - 5 (say). In that case, your automated call would get blocked because the calling device wouldn't be able to comply with the instruction, whilst a human being would.

But another option is simply to ask the caller to say their name. They won't, of course, but trueCall will hear them say something and will ring your phone and tell you that you have a call from {whatever it was they said}. If you don't answer, they will be asked to leave a message. Their automated message will carry on regardless through all that, of course, and a lot will get lost but with a bit of luck *something* will get recorded which gives you a clue as to what it's all about.

[F]

If only.

[Reentrant]

Our Truecall is set up to reject withheld and international calls, and that catches 99% of nuisance ones. (You can see them listed on the website control panel). Friends/family calling from abroad know the breakthrough code. For all UK calls it just acts as a normal answerphone if we're not in.

I suppose we might lose a few calls from UK PBX's that don't present caller-id but we know the important ones (eg doctor, council offices, workplaces etc) get through OK.