Abstract: A telephone, or a telephone add-on device, is disclosed comprising data receiving means, and control means responsive to data received by the data receiving means. The control means is adapted to recognize any instruction code embedded in the data which is then processed in accordance with the nature of the code, the processing including storing in a memory. This allows a telephone to be downloaded with information, such as, for example, special service codes, identification or priority callers, and the information downloaded can be tailor-made for an individual rather than being standardized and pre-stored.

Abstract: A caller-ID device and/or an integrated caller-ID and answering machine device which is configurable 1) to play a pre-recorded announcement for the user when the caller-ID information received over the PSTN corresponds to stored information indicating an important caller; 2) to play a pre-recorded "block-the-blocker" outgoing message for the caller when a blocked-caller-ID code is received; and/or 3) to play a pre-recorded "reject call" outgoing message for the caller when the caller-ID information corresponds to stored information indicated an undesirable caller. Also disclosed are an economical method and apparatus for displaying caller-24 ID information for a call-waiting caller simultaneously with the caller-ID information of a present caller and a method and apparatus for enabling a caller-ID device to selectively dial the last seven digits of a phone number, the area code and the last seven digits, or a "1", the area code, and the last seven digits of a phone number.