Dave et al - GMGC news this morning -- nice mention:
-- Contra Costa Times, Walnut Creek, Calif., Computer Column --
By Yael Li-Ron, Contra Costa Times, Walnut Creek, Calif.
Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Jan. 30--VOICE MAIL REACHES THE MASSES: The reason I like e-mail so much is
that it saves me from playing the miserable game of phone tag. Busy people just
never seem to be at their desks, or their cell phones are busy (or they might be
screening calls, of course).
So e-mail, while not a "real-time" solution to your communication needs,
works around this problem by letting you leave a message in a person's inbox.
Voice mail lets you do the same thing, but for the longest time, many people
resisted -- and resented -- voice mail, cursing whenever a recorder announces
the owner's absence. If I had a dime for every time I've heard somebody mutter,
"I hate talking to machines!"
But the times they are a-changing. Many people actually prefer talking to
machines these days, because they're spared long-winded conversations or want to
avoid being scolded for whatever they've neglected to do ("Hi, mom, just wanted
to make sure that you're fine," is much easier than actually sitting through a
45-minute lecture on how you've thrown your life away or the fact that she never
sees the grandchildren).
These days, several Internet companies offers free voice mail services for
people who need more than what an answering machine can provide, and for small
businesses that wish to appear larger than they really are. Here are a few of
them.
My favorite free fax service (www.efax.com) is now offering voice mail as
part of the same free account. I've been assigned a phone number, which anybody
can call to either send me a fax or leave me a voice message. Either way, I'll
receive those as e-mail attachments in my regular e-mail address. For about $3
per month, you can request a local number. The free service assigns random
numbers from anywhere in the United States. In my case, for example, people have
to call a Framingham, Mass., number to reach me. OK, so it's free to me, not to
them. But since not all my business contacts are located in the Bay Area anyway,
this isn't a big issue.
Unlike eFax, if you have an Excite VoiceMail (www.excite.com) account,
you're assigned a unique toll-free number. Your callers leave you a voice
message as they normally would, and you "pick up" those messages by logging on
to a secure Web page and listening in. You'll need speakers and/or a headphone,
naturally.
General Magic has the most attractive package in this collection. In
addition to free voicemail, which you can pick up on the Web or on the phone,
the myTalk service lets you make free phone calls to anywhere in the United
States, for up to 2 minutes at a time. Now you have a perfect excuse for hanging
up on mom (sorry, mom, nothing personal) after a two-minute conversation. myTalk
also lets you hear your e-mail messages using text-to-speech technology. You'll
have to listen to some ads when you make that toll-free call, but that's a minor
nuisance, all things considered. Log on to www.mytalk.com to sign up for the
service.
Yael Li-Ron is an award-winning writer and editor who has been writing about
computers and the Internet for more than 12 years. She has written for
PC/Computing Magazine, PC World Magazine, Computer Currents, Family Circle and
other publications.
-----
To see more of the Contra Costa Times, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go
to hotcoco.com
(c) 2000, Contra Costa Times, Calif. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune
Business News.
ATHM, GMGC,
Symbols:
US;ATHM US;GMGC
Source KRB - Knight Ridder - Tribune Business News
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