Orange County Register

AT&T wants a bigger piece of your home and today unveils the new AT&T HomeManager, a tablet computer-like gadget that is part Internet appliance, part PC and part speakerphone. It’s going to be available in nine markets, including Orange County, for $299 plus restrictions (see below).

The wireless device, built by Samsung, is really a phone  with an impressive menu of features — at least for a phone. It has a 7-inch touch-screen display, SD memory card slot, Wi-Fi and a separate handset for folks who prefer a traditional handset (pictured on right).

The main menu is heavy on the phone features — call log, voice mail, address book and Yellow Pages. It’s a VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) phone so it needs high-speed Internet, from AT&T of course. But beyond phone service, it also offers access to traffic, weather, recipes and more.

The company showed me a demo of the HomeManager when I stopped by its Anaheim office on Friday.

While it looks a lot like Samsung’s ultra-portable computer, the much-cheaper HomeManager must be a bare bones version with simplified hardware and a proprietary operating system. It’s also more like a netbook, the current craze in computers. Such smaller, lower-priced PCs are less powerful than laptops and are geared to people who just want an Internet machine.

More pics below the jump:

But even though the AT&T HomeManager needs Internet access, you won’t get the full web with this. You’ll get a special portal of features AT&T has chosen for customers such as recipes, weather and traffic.

I only saw the device for a few minutes so I can’t offer a thorough review. It’s definitely an interesting area for AT&T to delve into. Recipes? And by type of food (appetizers, beverages, breads…)? AT&T is apparently going after the homemaker.

Other features included but I didn’t see, according to AT&T’s press release:

• Sync home phone and mobile phone address book with AT&T Mobile Backup.
• Access to AT&T Yellow Pages. Touch screen to call, map addresses and send information to both mobile phones and e-mail accounts.
• Visual Voice Mail. See and listen to messages. Compatible with AT&T U-verse Voice and AT&T Unified Messaging.
• Digital Picture Frame. View your favorite photos on the frame as a slide show or screen saver. Photos and videos are easily loaded from an SD memory card, USB device or email attachment.

HomeManager isn’t available to all AT&T customers. You must be a new or existing AT&T high-speed Internet and home-phone customer. U-Verse TV customers are included. Plus, it’ll cost you a one-time fee of $299, but there is no monthly fee. A two-year contract for AT&T’s Internet or U-Verse plus home-phone service is required.

Other markets getting the HomeManager include Chicago; Atlanta; Austin, Texas; San Antonio; Houston; Dallas; San Francisco; San Diego and Los Angeles.

More on AT&T’s HomeManager:

Samsung Manager, new VoiP for AT&T? (CellPhoneSignal)

More AT&T-related stories:

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