Xfinity Readable Voicemail

I got a service announcement email from Xfinity the other day that they added a new feature to their voice phone service called Readable Voicemail.  It basically takes a voicemail that has been left, converts it to text and sends it to you in an email message.

To enable this feature:

1. Sign in to XFINITY Connect
2. Click on the Email button
3. Click on the Preferences tab in the top navigation bar
4. Click 'Notifications' from the Preferences box on the left
5. Input your email address into the email notification box
6. Check 'Send transcripts via email'

The first time I tested it it sent me an email saying that the audio quality was to low to convert but it has been working pretty good since then.  You also can have the emails sent to multiple addresses.  Pretty cool.

 

Comcast / Xfininy Provides Free Calls to Japan

Comcast announced today that they will be providing free calls to Japan from March 11 through April 10th for all Comcast Voice Customers.  Nice to see a big corporation like Comcast stepping up to help people keep in touch with their loved ones during a tragedy.  Kudos Comcast!!!!

Comcast Outage Board - Network Health

I was recently browsing around the Comcast help pages and noticed a link to something called the Outage Board. Follow the link and you get a page that looks like this:

Apparently the page is updated with the current status of various network components for a particular user/area. You seem to need to be signed in to your Comcast account to see your status. Some of the items are pretty obvious like Internet Connection, SmartZone, Video Services and Digital Voice. But there are a couple items on the list that I have no idea what they mean, things such as: Provisioning, Commercial, CSA Abuse/Security Issues and Other Features/Services. The page is currently showing that I have an outage alert in Other Features/Services since November 16, 2009. There are no links to explain what these things are, even a google search provides no answers.


Might be a useful page to see what is going on if I am having trouble with my service but then again if my Internet is down I won't be able to get to the page. If anyone can shed any light on the Comcast Outage Board post a comment.

Comcast Universal Caller ID

In various places over the past few years I have seen Comcast advertisements about the ability to see incoming calls on your TV. A couple months ago I got an email from Comcast about a new feature coming soon called Universal Caller ID. This product allows you to see incoming calls on your TV or your PC. At the time the product was not available in all areas and apparently my area was one of the areas that it was not available in, as it was not working.

To enable the cable TV caller id you need to go into the interactive menu. A few months ago when I tried to do this I had no interactive menu. They must have since released a new version of the Guide software, when I went in yesterday a menu selection for Interactive TV was there. So in a few seconds I went in and enabled Caller ID. We tested it out today and it works as advertised. A box comes up at the bottom of the screen with the name and number of the person calling....see below

The second piece of this feature is Caller ID to PC. In order to get this to work you need to install some software. After the software is installed you need to log in using your Comcast account and you get an icon running in the lower right hand corner if your PC. It works pretty much the same as the TV version. See below:

The PC software and additional info can be found at the Link below:

http://www.comcast.net/callerid/

Of course you need to have Comcast Digital Voice in order to get this feature to work. I though the feature was pretty cool but my wife wasn't impressed. I asked if she wanted the software installed on her laptop and she told me no....when I inquired "why" she told me the phone is right next to her laptop she can just look at who is calling there. Oh well, I still think it is cool.

One disappointment was that it did not work on my TV where I have the Comcast TIVO software installed. This is where we do 95% of our TV watching. No info on the site regarding whether they will be updating the TIVO software to include the feature anytime soon.

I continue to be impressed by the new "free" features that Comcast continues to add to their product line. I love to see the products integrating and working together. The features probably will not impress the masses buy we geeks out here really appreciate them.