AP Reviews AT&T’s ‘HomeManager’

I wrote about the AT&T HomeManager when I first discovered this intriguing device. I still haven’t held one in my hands, but AP has a mixed review today:

As if it were a cell phone, the HomeManager is a touch-screen device that taps into the Internet to monitor e-mail, dig up the latest news and sports scores and access other Web favorites. Yet HomeManager does all that while connected to a home phone line.

The result is a crisp device that’s surprisingly easy to use and fairly handy. Indeed, it’s like an iPhone for your landline. The problem, though, is that AT&T is introducing the gadget at a time when even basic cell phones allow users to access similar information on the go . . . 

The Internet is also the device’s biggest failing. Users are confined to the menu options built into the device, and there’s no way to access a Web browser or other pages not already linked to the software. AT&T calls the system perfect for “Internet snacking” but I’d rather have the option for a full meal.

There are also more fundamental problems that have nothing to do with HomeManager’s design.

Image credit: AP

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