(Via Akihabara News)

korean phone operator KT has released two new telephones under it's home phone brand "Ann" which will send you a text message if someone calls you at home and you miss the call.

The phones will also record audio if someone enters the vicinity of the phone.

For now, these are only available in Korea. I'm not entirely sure of the usefulness of this type of idea, especially with the prevalence of answering machines and rise is mobile ownership and use (and a fall in the number of people using landlines as their primary telephone service).

Still, it is interesting to see the convergence of landline and mobile technologies, and how companies are exploring ways the two types of telephony can compliment each other.