NEW YORK-JVC Company of America, Wayne, N.J., and PocketScience Inc., Santa Clara, Calif., have teamed up to provide a portable e-mail system that is both complementary to and competitive with wireless services.
At a news conference Sept. 16, Neil Peretz, a co-founder with Scott Fullam of three-year-old PocketScience, said they developed the technology in response to their expensive and complicated attempts to access e-mail while on vacation in Europe.
By early November, JVC expects retailers to have available its HC-E100 PocketMail, a handheld device using an acoustic modem that can send and receive text e-mail messages. The $129 device, which operates on AA alkaline disposable batteries, also can send faxes and text messages to any e-mail-enabled pager.
The calculator-size unit includes a small lithium battery to maintain system memory during battery changes. The HC-E100 can store up to 128K of information, including 100 messages of up to 4,000 characters each and an address book. There is an in-box/out-box for message management. It also has a full QWERTY keyboard and a back-lit panel for ease of use.
JVC is the first licensee of PocketScience’s PocketMail mobile e-mail service, which works with cellular phones, pay phones and office and hotel private branch exchanges. However, it does not always work clearly with personal communications services handsets.
The device sends messages through a speaker and a patented sliding microphone boom, which can extend or retract to the length necessary to couple with tiny cell phones and traditional wireline handsets. The boom is covered by a rubber cap to secure connections and eliminate ambient noise.
“At $9.95 per month, the PocketMail mobile e-mail service offers the first practical alternative to … relying on spotty and expensive wireless services and makes it possible to communicate by e-mail without a computer,” PocketScience said.
“Unlike laptop computers, PocketMail devices are simple to use, highly portable … and don’t need a telephone jack to send and receive e-mail. Unlike two-way pagers and similar wireless technologies, PocketMail inexpensively sends and receives full-length messages anywhere there is a telephone.”
The $10 monthly fee allows users unlimited incoming and outgoing e-mail messages and includes toll-free access to the service via an 800 number. Faxes cost 25 cents per page within the United States and $1 outside its borders.
“Portable computers cost thousands of dollars and often require long-distance phone calls. Wireless services have high initial and recurring costs, with two-way pagers costing upwards of $300 and wireless modems costing more than $500,” PocketScience said.
“In addition, monthly service charges for wireless services run anywhere from about $30 to more than $100 per month, depending on the volume of messages. A few digital cellular phones offer the ability to send and receive short messages, but they cost in excess of $500.”
PocketScience can provide its customers with new e-mail addresses or tap into their corporate or Internet service provider e-mail addresses while leaving copies of messages retrieved and sent on file for later review. The device and the system also allow customers to block spam, or junk e-mail.
Subscribers also can opt to receive summaries of incoming text messages and attachments in order to speed their review. The system and the device are not designed for full viewing of attachments, which can be stored for later retrieval by computer, said David Kline, general manager of strategic planning for JVC.
