Casio PhoneMate to Offer Mail Call Service With New IT-380 E-Mail Link, for Total E-Mail Access Solution.NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 16, 1998-- Strategic Marketing Agreement with Mail Call Inc. Means IT-380 Users Get Free Time on Innovative Remote E-Mail Service See Internet e-mail service. Telecommunications pioneer Casio PhoneMate Inc. Tuesday announced at PC Expo A trade show for resellers, corporate managers and technical professionals from CMP Media LLC, a subsidiary of United Business Media. First held in New York in 1983 with 120 exhibitors and 9,600 attendees, the show grew from the personal computer's early years to 550 vendors and more than that it will couple its new IT-380 E-Mail Link phone with the Mail Call text-to-speech remote e-mail phone service from Mail Call Inc. In signing a strategic marketing agreement with Mail Call, Casio PhoneMate allows IT-380 users to take advantage of a special in-box offer that waives the initial fee for the first month, providing 30 minutes of free service. At the same time, Casio PhoneMate announced that it will begin shipping the IT-380 E-Mail Link to consumer electronics outlets nationwide in July. The IT-380 is the first combination telephone answering device to let users check their electronic mail, much as they now do with voice messages. The IT-380 -- which also integrates an all-digital answering machine and speakerphone -- uses a three-line, 18-character liquid crystal display liquid crystal display (LCD) Optoelectronic device used in displays for watches, calculators, notebook computers, and other electronic devices. Current passed through specific portions of the liquid crystal solution causes the crystals to align, blocking the passage of light. (LCD) to inform users about their new, unread e-mail, without requiring that they boot-up a computer. The IT-380 displays header information on up to 40 messages. Mail Call, a subscriber-based service, extends the IT-380's e-mail access by providing secure, automated full-text access to e-mail messages from any telephone, anywhere in the world. "By bundling the IT-380 with Mail Call, we're offering a comprehensive remote e-mail solution, through a service that complements our product perfectly," said Stephen Knuth, president, Casio PhoneMate. "The entire concept behind the IT-380 is that you needn't be on a PC to check e-mail. Our unique remote e-mail access solution lets you review e-mail messages and listen to the text of selected messages from wherever you happen to be." When combined with Mail Call, Casio PhoneMate's IT-380 enables users to access all incoming e-mail messages and hear those messages deemed urgent or important, without booting up See boot. a PC and logging on to an ISP (1) See in-system programmable. (2) (Internet Service Provider) An organization that provides access to the Internet. Connection to the user is provided via dial-up, ISDN, cable, DSL and T1/T3 lines. . Mail Call also allows users to respond to e-mail in the following ways: by triggering one of three pre-programmed responses; by entering a phone number on the touch-tone keypad A small keyboard or supplementary keyboard keys; for example, the keys on a calculator or the number/cursor cluster on a computer keyboard. See programmable keypad. to which the recipient can call back, with a customized response configured on the Mail Call Web page (or by speaking a reply -- in the user's own voice -- directly into the phone). Mail Call customers can choose to save a message, delete a message or have a message faxed by choosing options from the telephone keypad A telephone keypad is a keypad that appears on a “Touch Tone” telephone. It was standardised when the Dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) system was introduced in the 1960s, and replaced the rotary dial. . "E-mail has become an indispensable part of business today, so people can't afford to be out of touch -- and now, there's no reason to be," said Ron Schnell, president, Mail Call. "The reality is, notebook computers A laptop computer that weighs in a range from five to seven pounds. The term originated when laptops were routinely more than 10 pounds, and those that became lighter were placed in a special "notebook" category. In practice, notebook computer and laptop computer are synonymous. and handheld devices simply aren't as convenient or as accessible as the phone. With Mail Call and the Casio PhoneMate IT-380, e-mail is always just a phone call away." Mail Call users can choose from six different voices and three pitches for their responses. Mail Call reads with inflection inflection, in grammar. In many languages, words or parts of words are arranged in formally similar sets consisting of a root, or base, and various affixes. Thus walking, walks, walker have in common the root walk and the affixes -ing, -s, and and comprehends abbreviations (such as "rd" for "road"). Mail Call also understands that the same word can have different pronunciations depending on context (such as "I am content" vs. "the content of a memo"). The IT-380 is available in specialty retail, consumer electronics and computer stores nationwide for an estimated street price of $149.95. About Mail Call Inc. Mail Call was founded in 1997 with a mission: to develop useful text-to-speech e-mail products. Mail Call Service was introduced in January 1998 and is a subscriber-based service that gives users quick and easy access to e-mail messages from any telephone in the world. No PC is necessary. Mail Call is available over the Internet and through strategic partnerships with companies such as Casio PhoneMate. See www.mailcall.net for more information. About Casio PhoneMate Founded in 1968, Casio PhoneMate is a leader in the development and design of telecommunications products for home, home/office and small business consumers. The company has consistently introduced industry "firsts," including one of the first commercially available telephone answering devices (TAD), the first TAD with integrated cordless telephone A cordless telephone or portable telephone is a telephone with a wireless handset which communicates via radio waves with a base station connected to a fixed telephone line (POTS) and can only be operated near (typically within 100 meters or 328 ft from) its base station , the first implementation of synthesized voice prompting A recorded message that is played by auto attendants, interactive voice response (IVR) systems, message-on-hold systems and other voice processing tools. The "prompt" is a request to input some data; a recording that does not ask for feedback is more properly called a voice "message." and time/day stamp, the first all-digital TAD, and the first cordless telephone with Call Waiting Caller ID A telephone company service that sends the caller's telephone number between the first and second ring of the call. If the calling number is not blocked, the calling number is displayed on the handset or base station of the called party. display. Based in Torrance, Calif., Casio PhoneMate continues to pioneer high-quality, reliable and cost-effective communications solutions.
CONTACT: Casio PhoneMate Inc., Torrance
Dennis Cox, 310/618-9910
or
Edge Communications Inc., Calabasas, Calif.
Ken Greenberg, 818/591-1173
|
|
||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion