Keeping in touch.....
Written: Oct 10 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Inexpensive, SO easy to use
Cons: No access to the internet, cannot receive attachments
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| hikini's Full Review: Earthlink Cidco MailStation |
I love to travel, but one of the things I enjoy the least is not being able to keep in touch while I am away. I don't have the need to do a lot of 'work' while I am on vacation, but I do like to keep a journal. So while looking for the best solution, I stumbled across Cidco's product called Mailstation.
At Office Depot it was $99.00. I took it home and called the 800# provided to connect the service. You have the option of choosing a monthly plan, which is $9.95 per month, a yearly plan is a small savings and a two year plan is a bit bigger savings. I chose the monthly plan since I didn't know how long I would like this new 'toy' and give in to buy a laptop.
The support person gets everything set up, including your email address, your billing option, your credit card number to pay for your monthly service, etc. Plan to be on the phone with them for about 15 minutes.
Once the service was up and running I began to play around with it and I was immediately surprised at how easy it was to use, and felt it would be a great device for a novice emailer. Some older folks simply don't want to have to deal with a computer, learning all the little tricks of the trade, but wouldn't mind being able to send and receive emails. This mailstation in my opinion is the perfect solution for those kinds of folks.
Operation is simple as I have already mentioned. You can use it on batteries, or with an electrical plug in. You have to connect to a phone line when you wish to send or receive your emails. Simply turn on the machine and 5 windows come up. You can press the navigation key below the window you choose and it takes you into that mode. You can write your email and send it to a 'save' box. This way you don't tie up your phone line every time you want to send an email. I have found that I like to write a few and then click the 'get email' button and when it logs on, it not only receives the emails, it sends the emails I have saved in my outbox. The sending and receiving takes only a short time, maybe up to one minute, depending on how many you are sending and receiving.
Mailstation is now fortified with Yahoo! So you can set your preferences to receive information that you would like to know. For example, you can set it to receive the 5 day weather forecast for your zip code. You can have it give you the headlines for the top news stories of the day. You can have it give you your daily horoscope and the sports scores for your favorite teams. You have several variables there; you need to choose what you want by going to Yahoo's site once you have your service activated.
You are given a booklet with access numbers in it, for cities all over the USA and Canada. With more to come all the time. If you do not find the access number in a city you are in, you can call technical support and they will give you a number to use so that it isn't a long distance call for you every time you log on.
I love the Mailstation for those times when the computer is busy and I need to send an email. I like to take it with me and compose emails when I am away from home and then when I have access to a phone line, I plug in and send those I have composed.
The keyboard is small, but not too 'scrunchy'. I adapted to it very quickly and can type as fast on it as I can on my regular keyboard. It just takes a little getting used to. There are edit and delete buttons so you can correct any mistakes you may make. There is also a spell checker, which leaves little excuse for sending an email full of mistakes!
We recently took a few days of R & R and this is the first real test for the Mailstation. I am happy to say it was everything I had hoped it would be. I was able to keep in touch with friends and family, sending and receiving quick little emails whenever I felt the need. I had my email accounts forwarded to the Mailstation and was able to keep on top of them instead of coming home to dozens upon dozens of them.
Is this 'toy' necessary? No, not at all. It's merely for my convenience as well as entertainment. In this day and age, for some reason, most of us feel that we just have to be up to date all the time. This enables me to do that without having to buy a laptop.
There are some downsides. One is that it does not receive attachments. Another is that you do not have access to the internet. If you receive an email with a link on it, you will not be able to use the link. I simply forward those to another email account and go to the link from my computer.
This is strictly an email machine, not a computer. I feel it is an inexpensive alternative to a laptop, if email is your main concern.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 99.00
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Epinions.com ID:
hikini
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Location: Seattle, WA
Reviews written: 218
Trusted by: 207 members
About Me:
Taking a long sabbatical.
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