wildfire

Here is some information about Wildfire (now owned by Orange), which used to use as my voice activated personal assistant, service provided by Virtuosity. Note that this web page refers to a very old version of Wildfire (V1.6 1996?) and many of the issues I list below have been fixed with the latest version.

Note: I'm now trying Linx instead.

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My new lifetime personal phone number is +1.781.648.1500. This means you no longer need to:

• Maintain my current cell phone number. (I change providers every year or two.)
• Think about where I am when you try to call me. (Also, my cell phone often does not work from home or work-- sigh.)
• Maintain a list of all of my other phone numbers (which change).

When you call me, a Wildfire session could go like this:

• "Hello. You've reached the office of Paul English. Please say your full name."
• "Please say put my call through or take a message."
• "OK, I'll try to find him for you."
• "I'm still looking." (It only says this if it is taking a while to find me.)
• "I'm sorry, I'm not getting an answer at the number he left. Would you like to leave a message?" (You only get this message if it can't find me, such as when I'm someplace where my cell is out of range, or turned off since I'm someplace where I can't talk on the phone such as at a concert etc.)
• "Ok, first I need your area code and phone number. Say the digits one by one, or use touch tone." (You won't need to do this on any followup calls.)
• "[Repeats your phone number] Is that correct, yes or no."
• "Now leave your message, then hang up or press pound. Go ahead."

If Wildfire recognizes your name, she will say "Oh Hi!" in a cheerful voice, and won't ask for your phone number again.

If you want the above session to go a little bit more quickly, as soon as Wildfire starts to talk, press 7. Wildfire will still ask for your name, but will then immediately try to connect to me.

I love Wildfire. What do you think? Here is some more info:

• WildCard (tips foldout for wallet)
• Issues list - my prioritized list of issues with Wildfire V1.6 (old version), along with responses from Wildfire/Virtuosity...

A cheap Verizon alternative to Wildfire is:

1. Call waiting caller id (so you can see who is calling)
2. Call intercept (so anonymous callers need to announce themselves)
3. Ultra call forwarding (so you can forward your number to wherever you are) [800-747-9285 to enable after ordered; then 800-414-9898 to redirect]

What this cheap Verizon alternative is missing from a real Wildfire service:

1. Caller ID. If you forward from your home office to your cell, when people call your home office, it will forward to your cell, but your cell will show the call coming from your home office instead of the caller id of the actual caller. :(
2. Voice mail return. As you are going through your voice mails, return calls directly from voice mail without having to hang up and dial the number.
3. Schedule. Ability to store and update a default schedule, so your number automatically forwards to different places based on time of day. (Wildfire also lets you change this easily at any time via the "I will be" and/or "Create itinerary" commands.)
4. Central voice mail, in one place, no matter where the last forwarding attempt failed.
5. Voice managed phone book usable from any phone.

Linx is another provider of virtual assistant services. I have now switched from Wildfire to Linx for the following reasons, although note that the newest version of Wildfire also has many of the items below (but I don't think items #1,3,5,8):

1. Frequent callers do not have to announce themselves each time they call me if incoming callerid matches my entry for them in my address book. This is a big deal, as frequent callers hated the ~53 seconds it took to connect with Wildfire, where it takes only ~11 seconds in Lynx.
2. Linx shows the actual callerid of the caller is shown on my phone for incoming calls.
3. Linx can try up to four of my numbers in parallel.
4. Linx accepts faxes, which I can then read (via TIFF files) from any PC.
5. Linx has web-based management, including changing my numbers, listen to voice mail, get faxes, update profile, etc.
6. Personal operator available for callers by pressing 0, which will forward to the number I setup.
7. Voice mail options including change volume, speed, pause, fast forward and rewind.
8. Can leave messages for people without answering machines, Linx will keep trying to call them to play them the message you left for them in Linx when you first tried to call them.
9. Cheaper, only $25 setup and $20/month.