Outstanding Reviews!

The PowerDialer has been reviewed by many prestigious publications including Popular Electronics, U.S. News & World Report, and The Boston Globe. 

They agree. The PowerDialer is an amazing machine.

Popular Electronics - "New Products"

Playboy - "Wired"

TeleConnect - "Editor's Choice"

U.S. News & World Report - "News You Can Use"

The Boston Globe - "Shop Talk"

POPULAR ELECTRONICS
Busy-Signal Buster

Specifically designed to redial phone numbers that seem to be constantly busy, the PowerDialer from Technology Arts can repeatedly dial as quickly as the telephone company can process the calls - as fast as 25 times per minute. When busy signals or "all circuits are busy" recordings are encountered, the PowerDialer immediately hangs up and tries again. When the call finally goes through, an alarm sounds to let the caller know.

The device can be used to call to order tickets for popular concerts or sporting events, to enter radio contests, to make golf tee-off or tennis court reservations, or to get through to technical support lines and computer online services and bulletin boards. The PowerDialer can be set to periodically retry unanswered phone numbers. It also features the ability to store numbers in memory, advanced tone detection, and a built-in speaker for hands-free monitoring.

The PowerDialer is much faster than the automatic redial services offered by many phone companies. Those services are as slow as one call every five minutes; the PowerDialer can dial a busy number 125 times in five minutes.

[top]

PLAYBOY
Wired - Wild Things

At last, an easy way to get through to Ticketmaster. The PowerDialer, a gadget by Technology Arts that connects to any phone or modem, redials busy numbers - as many as 25 times per minute - until a connection is made. When the call goes through, an alarm sounds, signaling you to pick up the phone. We'll take two tickets to the Soul Asylum concert, please.

[top]

TELECONNECT
Dial 'em to Death! Technology Arts PowerDialer Will Get You Through
by John Jainschigg

Once a week, I go to the movies. Each Friday, around 7:00 PM, I call my local theatre to learn what's playing, and get showtimes.

It's always busy. So I do what any self-respecting telecom genius would do - I hang up, and hit REDIAL. Again and again. Until I get through.

At least, that's what I did before I glommed one of Technology Arts' nifty little PowerDialers. Tech Arts specializes in making enormously-clever, simple, easy-to-install, cheap phone stuff - we've reviewed several of their products, including distinctive-ring detectors and message-waiting lights for network voice messaging.

The PowerDialer is a new, more sophisticated twist on the old-fashioned "demon dialer" - a circa-1980, microprocessor-based tool that picked up a bad reputation for being a favorite of phone system hackers. Unlike a demon dialer, the PowerDialer doesn't permutate the end of a dialed-number string, so it's useless for breaking into voicemail and call-through systems.

But it's GREAT for getting through busies and ring-no-answers! The PD is a little box, about the size of a half-sized external modem. There are two RJ-11 jacks on the back, one for your line, the other for your phone. A set of DIP switches let you configure the box to use different methods of busy-tone detection, vary the number of ringdowns to an unanswered number, etc. Two buttons reside on the front of the box - one marked "Redial Unanswered," the other, "Redial Busy." Power comes from an included adapter.

It's a smart little box, so it's simple as heck to operate. When you dial a number, the PowerDialer listens to the tones and remembers them. If you get a busy, just hang up and hit the "Busy" button (or terminate the dialed number with '**'). The PD redials forever, waiting each time just long enough to hear the busy, before hanging up and trying again. If it gets through, it rings back to the attached phone, telling you to pick up. If you don't pick up before the other party answers, it holds the line open (and keeps ringing) - giving you that extra second to run in from the bathroom and snatch the receiver off the hook.

In "Unanswered" mode (press the appropriate button, or terminate the dialed number with '**'), PowerDialer modifies its algorithm slightly, letting the phone at the other end ring between five and 15 times before recycling (depending on programming).

PowerDialer can remember up to ten phone numbers; the can be dialed by entering a sequence like '*4*' (to dial the fourth number in "Unanswered" mode).

Useful? You bet. Tech Arts says it is selling a lot of these boxes in Japan, where people are using them to dial into golf clubs and make appointments. For sure, they're great for business travel departments (dial into ticketing and customer-service lines), MIS folks (dial into technical support lines), anybody who calls government agencies (Ever try to raise someone at DMV?) or for people who go to a lot of movies.

[top]

US NEWS & WORLD REPORT
Technology Arts PowerDialer

Can't Get through to a ticket line, golf reservation office, your computer manufacturer's technical support staff or other constantly busy number? PowerDialer redials a local number 15 to 25 times a minute - the rate depends on technical factors - and sounds an alarm when it connects. Redialing may slip a notch on long-distance calls or when a call is "answered" but is followed by a busy, as can happen when calling ticket agencies.

Hookup is simple - your phone to one jack, a wall phone outlet to a second jack. Interesting side note: A Federal Communications Commission rule, imposed because of concern over tying up lines, bars automatic dialers from making more than 15 consecutive calls to one number. So every 16th call, PowerDialer dials a single digit, hangs up and starts over.

[top]

THE BOSTON GLOBE
Shop Talk: Redialer will get through to them

Tired of redialing when you try to reach the likes of ticket services, tech support reps, or radio contest lines? Technology Arts, Inc., another tiny Waltham outfit, makes and sells PowerDialer for the person who absolutely, positively must get through. The device repeatedly dials busy telephone numbers at a rate as fast as 25 times per minute, then sounds an alarm when it successfully makes a connection.

[top]

home