PocketMail

FTLComm - Tisdale - Friday, June 8, 2001

For those of you who read Ensign you already know about the handy dandy means of communication we are all come to rely upon and that is e-mail. E-mail is simple and gets the message to the receipient and in many ways beats the heck out of telephone tag and voice mail. Derek Stanley is the new president of the Canadian Wildlife Federation and this role is putting him on the road a lot so he needed a simple way to keep in touch and to have people keep in touch with him. While travelling in the states this winter he and his wife Carole noticed other travellers using this amazing device and the rest is history. Derek and Carole can use any telephone, payphone or analogy cell and collect their messages and send their replies. It takes only seconds and the messages are sent and received. There are several devices you can get including an attachment that goes on a Palm Pilot to work with the system but Carole and Derek are using a Sharp device that sells for around $100US and does the trick for them. The service is provided by PocketMail and comes in two versions $149 US a year for a larger 12MB mailbox and $129US for the smaller 4MB mailbox economy service. With this you can call toll free from anywhere in North America and stay in touch. One excellent review of the product and service was done by Stephanie Bernhagen as she tells about both the good and bad things she found using this service. The company's home page is definitely worth a visit and you can check out the cost of the equipment and service at their sales page.