PocketMail Provides Simple E-Mail Where Others Can't By Sascha Segan - Frommers.com (April 16, 2004)
It's a very 20th-century solution to a 21st-century problem. While you may have heard a lot about wireless e-mail, it's still tricky and techy, and a lot of people can't be bothered finding Wi-Fi hotspots, tracking down cybercafes or configuring balky mobile phone-based e-mail systems.
Enter Pocketmail. They're providing e-mail to seventy-something RV-ers, to long-distance truck drivers, to hikers on the Appalachian Trail, and to wanderers in the Australian outback. And they're doing it cheaply, cleanly, and in an easy way that appeals to non-techies.
The key is the Pocketmail Composer, a $99 gadget about the size of a small day planner. The mandatory subscription plan starts with a minimum three-month contract, with monthly fees running from $9.95 to $16.65 depending on how long you're willing to commit.
The Composer is a very simple computer, with a respectably-sized rubbery keyboard and a clear screen sporting large type face. Using a technology popular in the 1980s, it can download your e-mail from any pay phone, hotel phone, land line or GSM mobile phone by "kissing" the receiver and, essentially, talking out loud in computer-ese.
We tried the Composer and were impressed by its simplicity. Pocketmail has toll-free phone numbers in the US, Canada, Australia and 12 European countries. Dial the number on any phone, "kiss" the Composer to the receiver, wait a few minutes, and you'll have your e-mail.
The Pocketmail Composer has a few frills. You can send (but not receive) text-only faxes, for a nominal charge. There's also a simple address book, date book and alarm clock on the unit.
But simplicity is the key here. That's why this machine is for folks who can't use fancier methods of mobile e-mail. You can't send or receive attachments, photos, or very long letters. You can't browse the Web or use Pocketmail as a modem for your PC. You can send and receive simple text e-mails and faxes, that's it. But that's enough for a lot of people.
The Pocketmail device holds 294 messages or 512 kilobytes of text. You can organize your messages into four folders, and set it up to "roll" old messages off the unit when it's full. But it shouldn't be relied upon if you get dozens of messages a day and need to access a big back catalog of mail.
Pocketmail gives you an e-mail mailbox that you can use with the unit or access through the Web, but you can also automatically dump e-mail from various other services (including Yahoo!, but not Hotmail) into your Pocketmail mailbox. Our e-mail came over smoothly. Alas, so did our spam -- tons of it. Pocketmail has a pretty good spam filter, though. We slowed the tide of spam by setting the spam filter on high and telling Pocketmail to only download the subject lines of messages; we then picked the non-spam messages we really wanted, dialed back in and the Composer got the full messages.
At $99, the Composer is the cheapest, simplest way to get your e-mail on long trips. If your needs are simple and your travels far, it's a great option to have. It's available online at www.pocketmail.com and also at many camping and RV stores around the country.
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