I Heart Tech

Yes You Can - Send Text Messages from Your Email

Or is that send an email to a cell phone? Well, either way you look at it, here is yet another way for your clients to stalk to you. For the most part, all cell phones with text messaging capability can also send and receive emails - mind you that the messages are limited in length (usually 160 characters - subject and message total) and any charges that are incurred when sending a regular SMS will apply. (SMS stands for Short Message Service aka text message.) If you're like me, you have a plan with unlimited text messages and don't care how many come in or out. And if you're like me, you protect your cell phone number like your SS number and don't have to worry about creepy SMS's (short message stalkers).

Why would you (really, I) want to do this? Well, let me try to make a long story short. I have an iPhone, which for the most part I love. But the two things I don't love about it are: typing on it (couldn't possibly suck anymore - and do not believe the evangelists who constantly squawk "you'll get used to it") and that it doesn't cut/copy paste (yes, I know there's an app for it, but the reviews have not been high enough for me to dare). So, I had made a reservation on OpenTable and wanted to forward some of the information from the email confirmation to my fellow diners. It was a Saturday and I didn't want to send them all emails as I knew that several of them don't check email on weekends but they certainly have their cell phones attached to their heads.

To determine the cell phone's email address you need to know (unfortunately) who the service provider is. All addresses start with the 10 digit number of the phone followed by the carrier domain. Example, for AT&T, the cell phone email addy would be: 4075551212@mms.att.net. To determine your address, send a text message FROM your celly to your email (yes, you can, try it). To determine someone else's carrier and domain you can input the cell number at Mobile Carrier Look Up and easily find it. If your firm or family uses the same service for everyone, then it's easy enough to know all the addresses once you figure out the first one.

Here are some popular carriers and their domains:

Carrier......Send Email to phonenumber@
Alltel.......@message.alltel.com
AT&T.........@mms.att.net
Nextel.......@messaging.nextel.com
Sprint.......@messaging.sprintpcs.com
T-mobile.....@tmomail.net
Verizon......@vtext.com (text only) or @vzwpix.com (pictures and videos).

Daylight Savings for Mac's and Smartphones

It's not just your PC that's at risk next week when we spring forward. You'll have to think about your Mac, your Blackberry, your Treo and/or your Windows Mobile Device also. I took care of my Treo and Mac last night, both were simple procedures and only took a few minutes. Here are some links you should check out to make sure your devices are DST-ready:

• Palm OS /Treo devices
• Windows Mobile devices info (from Palm.com)
• Windows Mobile on Microsoft.com
• General and important info from Apple
• Entourage 2004 for the Mac
• Is your Mac ready for Daylight Saving Time?
• Impact of DST 2007 Changes on BlackBerry users
• DST 2007 Patches for BlackBerry Devices

Did I forget anyone? And don't you forget - if you have an I.T. department be sure to check with them before you go doing anything crazy, chances are they already have it handled.

Perfect Match: Packet8 and my Treo

Has my absence made your heart grow fonder? That's what they say happens, you know? Aside from getting ready for the NOLA Tech Revival -which starts tomorrow! - one of the many projects that has kept me away was co-authoring a  Technolawyer TechnoFeature with my dear friend Ernie the Attorney. We tend to tinker a lot with all kinds of tech and as you can tell, we like to share what we learn. So we wrote a piece about our experiences with various VOiP tools - both web based calling and internet phone calling. It comes out on Tuesday, May 30 (you'll have to subscribe to Technolawyer to receive it via email and shame on you if you aren't already a subscriber - their newletters rock). But writing it made me think to expound here on one of the points we made.

Like Ernie, I use Packet8 VoIP  for my office phone and it's great. This business of only having one line - a cell phone - doesn't work for me. I try to protect my cell phone number like I do my main email address and my social security number. I'm not kidding. I manage technology, rather than let it manage me. Sorry, I digress...the point is, I have a Packet8 phone for my office line. I have it configured so that a voicemail message left by a caller is immediately forwarded as an attachment to my email inbox. This means that no matter where I am, I will be notified of a new message and be able to listen to it. How? Well, thanks to my most fabulous  Palm Treo 650 . I use Versamail (and actually Chattermail also) on my Treo to get email messages for my various email accounts. Both of them allow me to download attachments such as  documents, pictures, and now voicemails. Check out the  screenshot of my VersaMail inbox displaying the email from Packet8.  The Treo comes equipped with a WAV player - which is the file type Packet8 uses to send voice mail messages as attachments. On opening the email message and tapping on the attachment, the voicemail message plays. How cool is that?