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Strategies & Market Trends : Three Amigos Stock Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: scouser who wrote (15363)	5/4/1999 9:27:00 AM
From: Instock	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29382

< GMGC > News! Big! Tuesday May 4, 9:02 am Eastern Time Company Press Release SOURCE: BellSouth Mobility, Inc BellSouth Mobility Offers Voice-Activated Personal Assistant Service in Atlanta BellSouth Enters into Exclusive Agreement with General Magic for its Portico(TM) Service ATLANTA, May 4 /PRNewswire/ -- BellSouth Mobility, Inc (BMI) customers can now enjoy the benefits of a helpful personal assistant who works around the clock and goes wherever they go, managing calls, messages and other information. The company announced today that it will provide a voice recognition-based virtual ''personal assistant'' service during a 3-4 month initial customer deployment. Several hundred current BMI customers will be involved in the first phase, which will take place in Atlanta and surrounding areas. A voice recognition interface is a computer-based technology designed to match the comfortable experience of human conversation. The technology recognizes and acts on spoken commands from the user, and responds in its own spoken voice. Because Portico is a ''speaker independent'' technology, the customer does not need to train the service to recognize his or her voice. The Portico service recognizes more than 1 million phrases and can answer with nearly 5,000 responses. The initial deployment will be conducted in cooperation with General Magic, Inc. and be based on General Magic's Portico(TM) virtual assistant service and magicTalk(TM) voice user interface platform. ''We are constantly working to lead the wireless industry by introducing state-of-the-art enhanced services to our customers,'' said Mark Feidler, president of BellSouth Mobility. ''This sort of personal assistant service offers a lot of promise for high-usage, highly mobile wireless subscribers who always need to be in touch with the information that is important to them. We look forward to working with General Magic on the technical results and gaining customer feedback from this initial deployment.'' Following the initial deployment in Atlanta, BellSouth Mobility will evaluate the service and will announce future implementation plans in its other markets. BellSouth Mobility will have exclusive rights to the General Magic Portico service for one year in its markets. ''We believe the delivery of enhanced voice services like Portico allows our partners to be more responsive to the needs of their customers and to differentiate themselves in the marketplace,'' said Steve Markman, chairman, chief executive officer and president of General Magic, Inc. (Nasdaq: GMGC - news). ''We are very pleased to be teaming with BellSouth Mobility on this initial deployment, which will offer wireless subscribers a great productivity tool to help manage their busy lives.'' The personal assistant service offers BellSouth Mobility customers a variety of features that manage and simplify communications, including: * Voice dialing -- Place calls by simply speaking the digits of the phone number, or by speaking the name of the person you are calling if they are listed in your personal phone book. * Incoming call management -- The personal assistant service greets callers with a spoken message; announces incoming calls; and gives you the option to take the call or have the personal assistant take a message. * Personal organizer -- Manage your phone book list or schedule appointments over the phone or via a web browser. Your personal assistant can remember your important contacts, including more than one number for each contact. If you use a personal information manager, such as Microsoft Outlook or the PalmPilot, you can synchronize with the personal assistant over the web. * Public information access -- Stay plugged into news and stock activity with customized information. The personal assistant will even notify you if the price of your favorite stock changes throughout the day. * Unified messaging -- Integrate and manage voice mail, e-mail, contacts, calendar and fax with help from the personal assistant. The service can deliver e-mail to any phone and read it to you using text-to-speech technology. If you are expecting an important e-mail, just tell your personal assistant to notify you when it arrives. You can also instruct the service to "Fax it to me" and give the number where you are. If you wish to forward e-mail to one of your contacts by fax, the service already knows the fax number -- all you need to say is the contact name. The service will cost $29.95 per month for unlimited usage. To learn more about BellSouth Mobility, visit bellsouthmobility.com . Initially, the service will be offered to a limited number of subscribers, but those interested can call (404) 303-5000 for information. BellSouth Cellular Corp. companies, BellSouth Mobility (BMI) and American Cellular Communications Corporation (ACC), provide wireless communications services to more than 5.6 million customers in 13 states. BMI operates with its partners in eight Southeastern states. ACC markets operate under a variety of names in California, Texas, and Virginia, and as Cellular One in Indiana. General Magic offers integrated voice-enabled services that make communication and access to information easy and convenient. The company's development efforts are founded on its patented agent technology and innovative user interface to provide simple, yet effective ways for people to keep in touch with the information they need to be successful. For more information on General Magic, please visit the company's Web site at generalmagic.com . SOURCE: BellSouth Mobility, Inc