Consider the caveman, whose dreams of technological advancement consisted of an easier way to make fire, a faster method of honing spear points, and building a better animal snare. His life did not change measurably from one day or week or year or decade to the next.
Today, the rush through the digital age throws more data at us than bad pitches thrown at Barry Bonds. The efficiency of email is fast replacing mailing letters to friends and family. One of the newer devices to become popular among travelers like us RVers is the PocketMail system, enabling us to email whenever and from wherever we happen to be - at the bottom of Death Valley or on the top of Mt. Whimey - wherever you can find a telephone.
I tried out PocketMail for a couple months, putting it through its list of functions to test its capabilities. For simply sending and receiving email, there was a short learning curve; the system was designed to be - and succeeded at - being user friendly and intuitive. In simple steps, you flip open the lid of a glasses-case sized device called the Composer to the downsized standard Qwerty keyboard, tap out your email message in COMPOSE mode, and hit the DONE key, sending the message to your OUTBOX.
Sending emails consists of dialing an 800 number from any telephone-regular, pay, or cell - holding the speaker on the back of the Composer unit up to the telephone, and after a series of blinking red lights and dialing sounds, the transfer of messages is completed - your outgoing emails sent, and your incoming emails downloaded into the Composer's INBOX to read now or later. Neat and simple.
I suppose that feature alone would be enough for marketing people to sell it as an email gadget, but the PocketMail people took it several steps further, raising it from merely a good idea to a truly useful and functional traveler's tool.
If you do a lot of emailing or write lengthy emails, composing them on the Composer's keyboard is slower than on a computer, mostly a two-fingered tap dance unless you are someone with pencil-sized fingers. The solution for speed typists with normal sized fingers is a piece of software included with PocketMail that permits composing your emails on your PC or laptop's full-sized keyboard. You then download them through a USB connection to the Composer for sending, and the reverse, upload your incoming emails to your computer for typing your replies. Messages can be stored on your PC as well as in files on the Composer, though the Composer's memory, due to it's miniscule size, is naturally limited.
If you don't have a computer, you can still use the Composer's keyboard-the composing will just be slower. One clever advantage to the Composer's keyboard that is-not available on a regular computer keyboard, is a second SHIFT key, called naturally "2nd" that accesses a whole range of additional letters, numbers, and symbols.
Some features that make the PocketMail system even more useful - possibly eliminating the need to carry around another device - is its function as a personal organizer. Through icons on the main menu, you can go directly to a TO DO list, MEMO, SCHEDULER, and ADDRESS BOOK.
I found that I tended to stick the Composer in my pocket and carry it with me all the time. It was so easy to enter notes to myself, facts and other data I might use in a magazine article, things my aging memory would forget if I didn't write it down somewhere. I no longer had to keep track of those numerous scraps of paper that I invariably lost.
I did have some software problems but the PocketMail engineers quickly solved the problem by updating the software, eliminating a conflict. They returned the device to me ready to go with all my earlier problems resolved - and it was a pleasure to deal with PocketMail's efficient and fast-acting engineers and staff.
The Composer sells for $99.95. The PocketMail service and Website support is $49.95 per quarter or $149.00 annually.
You can learn more about PocketMail at 800-390-5034 or www.pocketmail.com.
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