by Amy S.
Wouldn't it be nice to share email and photos with those hold-outs in our lives who don't have a computer? And how many of us know someone with a computer and Internet access who can't figure out how to download and view those pesky email attachments? According to a recent Pew Internet & American Life survey, nearly 30 percent of American adults do not use the Internet. In addition, only 33% of adults over the age of 65 are online.
Sharing emails and photos with family and friends who aren't online usually requires printing it and mailing it to them the old-fashioned way. But the new answer may be Presto Services, Inc., in collaboration with HP, which offers up the Presto Service and HP Printing Mailbox. This is a combination of service and "fancy" printer that enables those of us who are living in the digital age to share digital content, including email and photos, with family and friends who don't have a computer or Internet connection.
The HP Printing Mailbox is available for $149.99 direct from Presto and a variety of other retailers. Presto Service, similar to purchasing an Internet connection, but less expensive, must also be purchased at $10 a month or $100 a year. Consumers who buy the Presto Service and HP Printing Mailbox often do so as a gift for friends or family. In anticipation of that usage, Presto Services makes it very easy to go online and set up a Presto account for a family member as a designated "account manager."
The Presto Service delivers email, photos and more from any program, mobile phone or PDA to the HP Printing Mailbox via a regular phone line, without the need for a computer or Internet connection. It's a hassle-free set-up - clearly designed for low-tech folks. You connect the printer to an ordinary phone line; regular calls aren't interrupted and the service can be "scheduled" to use the line when phone calls wouldn't be received anyway (6 a.m., etc.). It's basically a standard printer, so the user needs to add an inkjet cartridge and paper. There are probably users who won't be completely comfortable setting it up - so those who gift the product may want to plan on setting it up, if for no other reason than to save the trouble of trying to play tech-support technician over the phone.
An immediate thought comes to mind when thinking about anything that accepts email without a computer. "What about email spam?" The good news is that Presto delivers only messages sent from people you place on a friends list - so email of unknown origin doesn't have a chance. Once connected to the service, there are a couple of automatically generated messages, including one that offers pre-printed cards to give to friends and family with all the details they need to sign up and begin sending emails to that HP Printing Mailbox.
As an added bonus, added options are available for users to receive daily ad-free feature stories, puzzles, recipes and more. Keep in mind that all the additional paper and ink to supply the "free" content could add up. It's a great product - with the target audience kept very much in mind. The only real drawback of course is that senders can't send an email back - but that's not really the point. The end goal is to keep them in the loop on the news and photos they might otherwise miss out on. They can always pick up the phone to respond.
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Posted by: Sheila Roalf | April 22, 2007 at 02:42 PM