At the tone the time will be . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

[Bluebear]

Alas, the march of time never stops. Only now it just got a little bit harder to tell exactly what time it actually is. Well, for some of us, anyway. That's because AT&T is finally putting out to pasture its so-called "POPCORN" time service, the automated system you could call any time of day to hear the robotic pre-recorded voice of a woman tell you the current time. It was called 'POP' because 7-6-7 (P-O-P) was one of a few prefixes that dialed the service, no matter what four numbers followed.

The system has been around since the 1930s, relying on manual drums of track recordings to determine and play back the current time. It was most often used to set your clocks by -- especially after power outages. But these days, with the clock displays on cell phones that are always correctly set (as long as the phone is connected), the need for such a service has declined. In fact, until now the service had been discontinued in every state except California and Nevada. As of September 19, even those old holdouts are calling it quits. POP is officially extinct. And in California alone, the freed up prefixes will create 300,000 new phone numbers.

So, RIP "At the Tone" lady. Perhaps you and the paper airline ticket system will become fast friends in tech heaven.

http://www.switched.com/2007/08/29/at-the-tone-the-time-will-be-up/

[dipsydoodle]

1. In the UK

ours originally was TIM. It was later changed to 123. Still works - just tried it,,,,,,,,at the third stroke it will be.......

[Bluebear]

2. Truthfully, I had NEVER heard of "popcorn", but certainly about the time lady.

When we were kids we envisioned some lady at the other end just reading the time hour after after hour :)

[dipsydoodle]

3. There's an old joke

about a guy making an obscene 'phone call and finally saying "And will you STOP telling me the time" :)

[bananas]

4. Will her audio digits become public domain?

So much is copyrighted now...it would be nice if there was a standard public domain set of audio digits.

[SalmonChantedEvening]

5. "And 50 seconds...BeeP"

RIP TI6 1212

*sigh*

[CurtEastPoint]

6. For some Jane Barbe (the telephone lady) nostalgia...

listen to these!

http://www.dmine.com/phworld/sounds/misc/janebarbe.m3u