One of the cool new features of Mac OS X Yosemite is the Phone Call function. You can receive and make phone calls from your Mac or iPad as long as you are on the same Wi-Fi network as your iPhone. So, let’s say you are in the living room browsing the net on your Mac and your iPhone is charging in the bedroom. Your mom calls. You will see that, in addition to your iPhone ringing in the bedroom, your Mac (and in my case, my iPad, too) is also ringing. If you want to talk to mom, you can answer from your Mac using the built-in speakers and microphone or use a set of earbuds or headphones. If you want to tell mom to call back later you can decline with a text message or set a reminder to call back.
You can also initiate a call with FaceTime. Here you have the choice of audio or video calls. Your calls will be routed through your iPhone and the recipient hears normal ringing. For incoming calls from people in your contacts, you can set customer ringtones so you will know immediately who is on the line.
Other benefits of this new feature are that you have automatic Call Waiting and the ability to Merge Calls (say mom and your sister call at the same time). You can also Handoff the call to your iPhone at any time, for example, if you were on your Mac and about to walk out the door you could hand off to your iPhone to continue the call.
These are the benefits but what if it is driving you batty when your Mac and your iPad ring every time your iPhone rings? How do you turn this off? It is a bit hidden but easy to do. You simply need to open FaceTime, open FaceTime preferences and in the settings panel, uncheck the box that says “iPhone Cellular Calls”. I leave mine on because I like these features but I have some friends that can not stand the multiple ringing so that is how you turn it off.