The Palantir were used to communicate with each other, but Gandalf talked about using them to see things in the past, like the workings of the mind of Feanor, and seeing
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"To see far off, and to converse in thought with one another ..."
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And then regarding the Orthanc-stone;
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"But alone it could do nothing but see small images of things far off and days remote."
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"... turn it where I would - to look across the wide seas of water and of time to Tirion the Fair, and perceive the unimaginable hand and mind of Feanor at their work, while both the White Tree and the Golden were in flower!"
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Anyway, my point about Saruman using the Palantir as a tool for it seems a little iffy anyway, and closer reading revealed that for the most part, his gaze in the Palantir was on Barad-Dur, and it took massive force of will to take it away, because Sauron drew all who looked into it there through his own Ithil-stone.
But Saruman could crush wills anyway ... his voice ... his essence.