Thinmail recently announced availability of a beta version of Thinphone, a service that lets users send text messages to any phone from an existing e-mail system.
When used with Thinmail's other services, Thinphone can drastically improve the way mobile travelers handle many of the problems associated with e-mail and attachments.
Thinphone lets users convert a text message to speech, or play .wav or .mp3 files over the phone. Users can also reply to a sender by recording a response that is captured as a .wav file and sent back as an attachment to the sender's e-mail.
The Thinphone service costs 25 cents per minute and is available to all Thinmail members. Non-members can join at www.thinmail.com , where they receive an initial $5 credit toward their Thinmail services.
The Thinphone option is the latest service from Thinmail, which includes the Thinmail and Thinfax services. By using a combination of these services, users can get better control over their e-mail.
Thinmail works like this: With the service enabled, Thinmail strips out e-mail attachments en route, stores them on Thinmail servers, and replaces them with a private URL link. When users then read their e-mail, they just click on the URL to read the document or file. If you tend to get a ton of e-mail attachments, this can be one way to save some space on your e-mail servers.
But Thinmail is about more than just moving files onto another server. The services also can benefit mobile travelers and make it easier for them to use mobile wireless devices. For example, many wireless devices take attachments and just delete them, but Thinmail allows you to get them. On a BlackBerry device, for example, you could forward the e-mail attachment to a nearby fax machine or send them to another user. Or with the new Thinphone service, you could have that attachment sent to your phone, where you could have it read back to you.
Thinmail uses a micropayment system, which allows you to prepay for the storage of the files and faxing services, but not for the number of messages or minutes. This is a lot cooler than it sounds, so be sure to check out the service at www.thinmail.com
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Keith Shaw is Reviews Editor at Network World. In addition, he writes the "Cool Tools" column, which looks at gizmos, gadgets and other mobile computing devices.
You can reach Keith at kshaw@nww.com.
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