Talking Caller ID is a shareware program that actually talks to you, telling you who is calling before you pick up the phone. It also includes a full featured answering machine. You must subscribe to the caller id service from your local phone company and have a caller id capable modem or other supported caller id computer hardware device. The program supports Telephone Applications which lets you share your modem with other programs that use your modem. It can also work with 2 phone lines at the same time.

The program can also notify you via pager or e-mail of calls received. There is no need to run over to your caller id display to see who is calling. The program uses the new Microsoft Agent technology with animated talking characters and a very nice text-to-speech engine which pronounces the name and/or number received from your caller id service. A window pops up showing you who is calling. You can configure this window to be minimized, normal size or maximized to the largest font which will fit on your screen. You can record a custom greeting in your own voice for each caller that the program will say on your speakers whenever you receive a call from that person. You can attach a photo or text file to any caller which will be displayed whenever a call from that person is received. The program even supports speech recognition when the free speech recognition engine is installed. With the optional free speech control panel you can modify the pronunciation of any words that you want. You can train the speech recognition for your voice for higher accuracy.

Talking Caller ID also keeps a database containing every person who has called containing their name, phone number, date, time and number of rings. The main screen shows this list of callers with the most recent at the top. You can also view an alphabetized phone directory of all of the callers. It shows how many times each person has called and if there is a custom greeting or photo associated with this number. You can also print out this database and the phone directory. You can dial anyone on the list by simple double clicking on their name.

Talking Caller ID can send caller id information to your pager, email, or text messaging on your cellular phone. You can select to have all calls received forwarded or just calls from certain people that you put into the database. It supports both Numeric and Alphanumeric pagers. With Alphanumeric pagers, the persons name, number, date and time are transmitted to you. It also supports PCS digital cellular phones with text messaging service. The paging features automatic retries if the page does not go through the first time for both Numeric and Alphanumeric pagers. You will find that the paging performance of this program is unsurpassed.

Talking Caller ID works with both name and number caller id service and number only service. The program has the ability to look up names that you store in a database. This feature allows those with number only caller id service to see and hear the name of the caller. It also allows the name and number to be sent to your pager. This feature also works with name and number caller id service. The program can show a different name than the name sent by the phone company.

Talking Caller ID can display a picture of the person who is calling. All you need is a bitmap file for each person you want displayed when they call. Just highlight the person you want, go to Edit, Import Photo or Sound and point to the bitmap file you want associated with that phone number. From then on, that person's bitmap file will be displayed when ever they call.

Call blocking (by number or by name) has been added to screen out unwanted callers. There is a database in which you can add people from whom you do not want to accept calls. When any of these people call, the modem picks up the line and hangs back up. The program announces to you that the call was a blocked call and tells you who was trying to call.

Talking Caller ID can announce the State and major cities from which a long distance call is originating. You can now keep notes when people call and pop them back up when they call again. The program also supports international phone numbers and dates. .

The E-mail notification feature can send E-mail to any internet mail address when you receive a call. You can send this to multiple E-mail addresses. This is great if you want to be notified of calls when you are away from home and have E-mail access. The program also supports Dynamic Data Exchange so you the program can pop-up records from any program that supports Dynamic Data Exchange which includes most of the major program including Microsoft Office applications. Talking Caller ID 32 includes Telephone Applications "modem sharing" support so you can run other TAPI compliant programs at the same time. For example, you can dial out to the internet while Talking Caller ID is still running. You could also run other programs such as fax or answering machine programs at the same time.

The kids will love the free "Say What I Type" game included with the program where you can type a phrase and the talking character will read it to you. The pitch and speed can also be changed. The talking animated characters can also read the contents of the clipboard, tell jokes, sing songs, introduce themselves and move around the screen. They even support speech recognition.