Abstract: A caller makes (302) a telephone call to a second telecommunication system (108) from a telephone port (202) in a first telecommunication system (104). The first telecommunication system then ascertains (304) whether the second telecommunication system is a type for which receiving music on hold is appropriate. The first telecommunication system disables (308) music on hold for the telephone call, in response to ascertaining that the second telecommunication system is not the type for which receiving music on hold is appropriate.

Abstract: A wireless tag (102) is mechanically attached to a product. The wireless tag includes a product freshness detector (204) and a communicator (208) coupled to the product freshness detector for communicating the freshness to a user. The wireless tag also includes a wireless power supply (202) coupled to the product freshness detector and coupled to the communicator for powering the wireless tag from a wireless energy source. A reader (104) powers the wireless tag and includes a transmitter (702) for generating wireless energy for powering the wireless tag. The reader also includes a user interface (708) for providing control of the reader by the user.

Abstract: A message sender (120, 700) and an output controller (110, 600) having an output configuration recover from a configuration error in a communication system. The output controller defines (404) a current output configuration tag (220) for identifying a current output configuration (212) in response to the output configuration being changed to the current output configuration. The message sender sends (506) to the output controller a recorded configuration tag corresponding to the output controller, in response to having a message to send to the output controller. The output controller and the message sender cooperate (512) to recover from the configuration error produced when the recorded configuration tag is different from the current configuration tag.

Abstract: A communication system (100) encodes and decodes information utilizing at least four modulation levels for transmitting the information as symbols representing symbol bits in symbol bit positions. At least one of the symbol bit positions exhibits an error rate higher than that of another of the positions. A processor (204) encodes (702) the information into an even number of code words and transmits the code words as an interleaved data stream. The processor (204) rearranges (706, 708) the transmission order of the code word bits in a predetermined way to form a modified transmission order such that the code words are transmitted (710) with substantially equal error rates. A receiver (110) receives and demodulates (712) the interleaved data stream to derive the code word bits, and then reorders (714, 716) the code word bits to undo bit modifications resulting from the modified transmission order, thereby restoring the code words. The receiver then decodes the code words to recover the information.