E-mail growing more tenacious
by Alan Zisman
(c) 1999. First
published in Toronto Computes,
June
1999
With the explosion in cell phones, pagers, and other
telecommunications
services, many people are reachable by phone 24 hours a day. Now, the
same
thing is happening with e-mail-- in fact, much of the same technology
is
being used to make sure that there's no escape. Wherever you are, your
messages will follow.
Some examples:
Rogers Cantel-ATT is offering Email2go-- a $3.95 per
month service for
subscribers with a standard alpha-numeric pager. The price gives you a
new e-mail address, based on your pager number, and lets you receive
e-mail
sent to that address right on your pager.
With its tiny screen, the pager displays the first few
lines of the
message-- generally enough to let you know what the message is about.
You
can set up the system to automatically redirect your messages to your
main
computer's e-mail account for reading and responding later. Or you can
set it up to automatically fax the message to you. While you can't
respond
with your pager (at least, not yet), an automated response can go out
to
anyone that e-mails you.
The $3.95 gets you the first 300 messages, with a
$0.10 charge for each
additional e-mail.
Bell Canada and BC Tel Mobility subscribers can get a
similar service
if they're also Sympatico Internet customers. Only $2.95 per month, it
gives you half the characters shown in Cantel's service.
Also working with Cantel is Infowave for the Net, a
new service from
Burnaby BC's Infowave Software (www.infowave.com). It builds on
previous
products that provided wireless e-mail connections to laptop users, and
extends the service, allowing users to connect to secure corporate
intranets
and the Internet.
Not to be left out, Microcell Solutions, who market
cellular services
under the Fido brand name, have introduced FidoPro. This service
includes
Fido E-Mail, which they claim is Canada's only two-way e-mail service
on
a wireless handset-- though I can't quite image typing in responses on
a typical cell phone handset. (Am I missing something here)? Text
messaging
enables users to send and receive text message via the Fido Web site.
The
cost for this plus other FidoPro services is $8 per month.
Finally, if you're living in that wireless universe,
you may want to
look at Omega's Jabra EarSet-- microphone and speaker in a unit that
fits
in your ear, permitting comfortable hands-free use. It can also be used
with many cordless phones, and with computers for voice recognition.
$60
(1-800-668-7881)