Abstract: A method is disclosed for automatically adding a received phone number and name of an incoming caller to a list of existing contact phone numbers on a smartphone of a called party.

Abstract: The present invention relates to an electronic mail (e-mail) delivery system and more particularly to a method and apparatus for selecting a specific e-mail message from a visual list of stored e-mail messages, selecting an advertisement from a plurality of advertisements stored in an associate database, and then downloading the selected e-mail message to a recipient's e-mail receiving device and inserting the selected advertisement into the e-mail message, preferably in the e-mail message header or between the header and body (text) or after the text, as it is downloaded to the e-mail receiving device which receives and displays the downloaded e-mail message with the inserted advertisement in response to receiving a selection signal from the e-mail receiving device indicating that the recipient wishes to read the selected e-mail message.

Abstract: The method of the present invention allows a voice mail recipient to activate an automatic callback to a previous caller whose calling telephone number and recorded voice message have been left in the voice mail recipient's mailbox associated with a voice mail system coupled to an end office switch which serves the voice mail recipient. More particularly, the method of the present invention automatically delivers to the previous caller's busy or idle station caller identifying information (i.e.

Abstract: The method is implemented using a control program shown in FIG. 1 running on a host-based or a Local Area Network server which receives incoming electronic mail (e-mail) messages over a network, which is connected at least periodically to a Wide Area Network or Internet, and stores the e-mail messages in a recipient's private mail box. The server is responsive to a send list signal from the recipient for sending a summary list of brief headers of the e-mail messages to the recipient so that the recipient can select a specific e-mail message to read. The recipient selects the specific e-mail message to read by sending a selection signal to the server which then makes a decision to determine whether the recipient is an opt-in customer who has given approval to receive e-mail messages with advertisements introduced within the e-mail messages.

Abstract: An apparatus and method are disclosed for accessing telephone or cellular originating central office equipment to control the disclosure of a calling party directory telephone number or, if applicable or available, directory telephone number and name to a called party who subscribes to a Custom Local Area Signaling System (CLASS) service including Caller Identification (Caller ID), which discloses the calling party directory telephone number or directory telephone number and name to the called party, by performing a desired one of a plurality of automatic and/or manual operations.

Abstract: An apparatus and method are disclosed for accessing telephone or cellular originating central office equipment to control the disclosure of a calling party directory telephone number or, if applicable or available, directory telephone number and name to a called party who subscribes to a Custom Local Area Signaling System (CLASS) service including Caller Identification (Caller ID), which discloses the calling party directory telephone number or directory telephone number and name to the called party, by performing a desired one of a plurality of automatic and/or manual operations.

Abstract: This invention relates to apparatus and method in conjunction with a service wherein a called caller identification (caller ID) customer is provided a promotional message such as “We Are Talking Chevrolet”, rather than a conventional privacy message such as “anonymous caller”, during a silent interval between intermittent ringing signals or after a call waiting (CW) tone when a calling party or a local switching office of the calling party has invoked a privacy option to prevent the delivery of the calling party's directory telephone number with or without a corresponding name (DN) to customer premises equipment (CPE) of the caller ID customer. In accordance with this invention, when the calling party's DN is received at a local switching office (LSO) of the caller ID customer flagged as “private” indicating that the DN may not be disclosed to the caller ID customer, the LSO sends the intermittent ringing signals or the CW tone to the caller ID customer.

Abstract: An apparatus and method are disclosed for accessing originating central office equipment to control the disclosure of a calling party directory telephone number and/or name (hereinafter sometimes referred to as “DN” or “directory telephone number with a corresponding name”) to a called party who subscribes to Caller ID service or to any other Custom Local Area Switching System (hereinafter sometimes referred to as “CLASS”) service which discloses the calling party DN to the called party by performing a desired one of a plurality of automatic and/or manual calling operations. The apparatus and method are also for receiving, displaying and storing to memory a calling party DN sent from terminating central office equipment via a voice channel of a called party busy or idle telephone line in response to the receipt of the calling party flagged “public” DN sent from originating central office equipment to which the calling party telephone line is connected.

Abstract: An enhanced telephony call-waiting with caller identification and three-way conversations feature is provided wherein identifying information related to a third party wishing to converse with a first party already engaged in a conversation with a second party is provided to the first party and then, in response to the first party entering a predetermined digit on its apparatus based on the third party identity, the third party is connected to the first and second parties for three-way conversations between the first, second and third parties.

Abstract: An automated directory assistance call completion and calling number delivery system is disclosed which allows a party to call a telephone or a cellular company directory assistance operator, request a phone number of a person to be contacted and asks that the call be completed automatically. The system is responsive to a predetermined code keyed-in on a keypad of the calling party pushbutton phone, or to a voice response from the calling party, for automatically completing the call to an idle or an in-use telephone station of the person to be contacted, and for disclosing the calling party directory telephone number with a corresponding name to the person to be contacted. The person to be contacted is then in a position to decide whether or not to answer the call based on the identity of the calling party.

Abstract: A telephone system is disclosed for remotely obtaining from a selected local telephone station audible synthesized speech representative of directory telephone numbers and/or names of previous callers stored digitally or alphanumerically in a data memory of a Caller ID interface unit at the local telephone station. The stored directory telephone numbers and/or names were previously sent to the local telephone station from terminating central office Stored Program Controlled Switching (SPCS) equipment responsively to the telephone line of the local telephone station having Caller ID service and/or other Custom Local Area Signalling System (CLASS) services which discloses a calling party directory telephone number and/or name to a called party.

Abstract: A process for a telephone lotto number system and service is disclosed which allows a lotto player to use a touchtone phone, which is connected directly or indirectly via a RJ11 jack and telephone lines to telephone company central office equipment, to dial a conventional and dedicated inward calling phone number, e.g. "213-XXX-XXXX", to access and interact with a lotto computer, which is connected via a modem and telephone lines to telephone company central office equipment, to purchase and automatic or manual select a lotto selection ("6" lotto numbers) from a plurality of lotto numbers which are stored in the lotto computer's memory, and charge the dollar amount for the purchase of the lotto selection to a credit card. If the touchtone phone is used to dial an enhanced service phone number, i.e.

Abstract: A process for a telephone system is disclosed which is associated with customer premises equipment, such as a telephone set or other receiving equipment which has a built-in or attached dual-tone multifrequency (DTMF) receiver-decoder chip connected to an alphanumeric memory chip which is connected to a liquid crystal display (LCD) counter, connected via a RJ11 jack and telephone lines to central office equipment, which allows an incoming caller directory telephone number or any keyed-in telephone number or name initiated by the incoming caller to be transmitted over a called customer busy line (i.e. without call-waiting service), idle line (i.e. with or without call-waiting service) or an in-use line (i.e. with call-waiting service) and received to the called customer premises equipment, which is screened and stored to the equipment's memory for later recall and or redialing.

Abstract: A system for producing an editing control signal for a video tape recorder at the beginning of one or more television commercial messages and which continues for the duration of the commercial messages. The system incorporates a detector circuit for automatically detecting each transition in a received television signal between the program itself and the commercial messages and for producing a control pulse indicating such transition. The video tape recorder receives a television signal, after the television signal has been delayed a predetermined time interval to permit a decision to be made as to whether or not a portion of the television signal is to be deleted and the duration of the deletion.