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Woodall's Camperways
Ventura, CA
December, 2001
Gadgets & Gear: PocketMail Composer
I love to communicate via e-mail. Unlike telephoning you are not put on hold, don't have to play phone tag with voicemail and pagers or are forced to suffer through long menus before you hear a human voice. Probably, the best benefit of email is that you have an accurate record of your communications. Therefore, I lug around my laptop whenever I travel away from home. But this means having to find a phone jack to plug in my modem and then searching out a local phone number so I am not zapped with long-distance charges.
Well, I recently found a much better way to send and receive e-mails on the road - PocketMail's new Composer. The PocketMail Composer is both a pocket-sized organizer (about 6 3/8 inches by 3 1/8 inches by 1 inch) and an "e-mail appliance" that lest you send and receive e-mail, anytime, anywhere, over virtually any telephone without the need for a phone jack or cable. The Composer, which weighs about 8 ounces, including the two AA batteries, makes sending and receiving e-mails as easy as composing your message, dialing an 800 number, holding the device against the telephone handset and pushing just one button.
Actually, the technology is not new. The PocketMail Service was launched in the United States and Canada in 1998 and has since expanded to Australia, the United Kingdom, Singapore and Hong Kong, with more markets to come. However, past PocketMail products were compatible with land line phones, even pay phones and analog cellular phones, but not with digital cellular phones. This new product now works with virtually any type of phone. The interface between the composer and phone is an acoustic coupler. Many of us old timers will remember acoustic couplers with their squeals and chirps as the original computer modems. While slow compared to today's modem, the acoustic coupler is okay for e-mailing. Of course, you'' have to forego sending long attachments.
I particularly liked the Composer's complete keyboard that is much more user friendly than the tiny keyboards found on other email appliances. Other features of the Composer's organizer, with its 512KB memory include an address book, scheduling calendar with an alarm, calculator, memo pad, anniversary reminder, and to-do list. E-mail management features include message previews and organizing message folders.
The PocketMail Composer includes CompanionLink software for Microsoft Windows, which allows the PocketMail Composer to be synchronized with Personal Information Manager programs including Outlook, Lotus Notes, Act! And Goldmine. Built-in software includes PocketRules filters, SPAM filter and password protection. A 12-MB inbox store on the PocketMail Network lets you store the equivalent of more than 20,000 average-sized 500-character messages.
You can access your PocketMail mailbox using a cellular phone, PCS mobile phone with a WAP browser or any personal computer. The Composer can also be used to send faxes for an additional charge - 25 cents per fax to destinations in the United States and Canada.
The PocketMail Composer's compatibility with just about any phone anywhere makes it a great link to home, friends and family from almost anyplace in the world.
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Media Contacts
USA/Canada
David Marchant
(408) 689 1240
PocketMail Inc.
david.marchant@corp.
pocketmail.com
Media Kits
•PocketMail® Composer™
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