Your e-mail now just a phone call away

Nov. 9, 1997

By JIM BROOKS

If you do quite a bit of traveling, either for business or pleasure, you've been faced with the enormous backlog of unread e-mail that's waiting for you on return to your home or office.

As e-mail becomes more important in our business and personal lives, it becomes more difficult to do without it. When traveling, not having access to your e-mail means you could miss an important or time-sensitive message.

And even if you lug a modem-equipped laptop with you on trips, it's still a a time-consuming hassle to setup and use -- and possibly expensive if your Internet provider is a long-distance call away.

But a company called E-Now launched its service recently that lets anyone access their e-mail messages without a computer.

E-Now's concept is simple. All it takes is a touchtone telephone.

Users call E-Now's system via a toll-free number and enter a name and password.

The E-Now computer system will check your e-mail account over the Internet for the latest messages, and then a computerized voice can "read" any or all of the messages to you over the telephone.

And you can be anywhere in the U.S. where you have access to a telephone -- on a commercial jet, in your car or at your Aunt Martha's bunco party.

E-Now's system doesn't keep records of your e-mail. And it won't delete the messages from your Internet provider's system. When you return home, you'll have copies of your e-mail (the E-Now folks figure you may need copies for your own files).

E-Now's monthly charge of $12 includes 20 minutes per month of access to their toll-free line (extra minues are 15 cents each).

A live operator is available during business hours to help users who wish to respond immediately to a message, forward a message to an e-mail address or send a message to any fax machine.

Visit E-Now's site on the World Wide Web for more details, or call their toll-free number (1-888-432-7366) and access their system demonstration (menu selection 2).

INTERNET EXPLORER UPDATE. Microsoft Corp. this week released "preview" versions of its latest World Wide Web browser, Internet Explorer 4.0, for UNIX and Windows 3.1 operating systems.

The Windows 3.1 version will run on PCs equipped with 8 megs of memory.

The new versions join the earlier release of an IE 4.0 Macintosh "preview" software package.

Preview software is software still under development, and is aimed at informational technology and networking specialists -- though home and business users are free to download and try the software, though some bugs may remain to be fixed.

For more information about Internet Explorer, visit Microsoft's Web site at www.microsoft.com/ie/.

ORBITAL SHOPPING? The Russian cosmonauts living aboard the space station Mir have been selecting Christmas gifts for their families via the Internet, thanks to a Cambridge, Mass.-based company called Virtual Emporium.

The company is paying Russian officials an undisclosed fee and giving the two Russians aboard Mir about $1,000 each to purchase gifts for their families back on earth.

"Our mission is to make shopping easy for everyone, no matter where they are," said Tuck Rickards, founder and CEO of Virtual Emporium in a company press release. "If you can vote from outer space, you ought to be able to shop from outer space."

Virtual Emporium is a shopping site on the World Wide Web that hopes to use the sales from Mir to illustrate the flexibility of buying gifts online.

VE's site has search engines that help visitors tailor gift ideas to specific individuals.

In the case of the Russians aboard Mir -- flight commander Anatoly Solovyov and flight engineer Pavel Vinogradov -- the site created an "ideal gift suggestion list" from which each cosmonaut made selections.

The Christmas gifts will be the first sent from outer space, according to the Virtual Emporium press release. American astronaut David Wolfe, also living aboard Mir, was not asked to participate.

Is this something the cosmonauts -- and future space travelers -- will want to use in the future? According to cosmonaut Vinogradov, "The opportunity to personally select holiday gifts myself brings our loved ones closer and is especially meaningful to us, and it is much better than shopping on a cold Moscow day."

The checkout lines are probably shorter, too.

For more information, visit Virtual Emporium's Web site at www.virtualemporium.com.

Comments and questions about this column may be sent to jbrooks@myoldkentuckyhome.com, or visit www.myoldkentuckyhome.com on the World Wide Web.

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