EarthVision Newsletter Archive October 16, 1999 ********************************************************************************* WAP PHONES - ARE THEY REALLY READY FOR CONSUMER USE CELLULAR PHONE FEARS TO BE AIRED AT 7/11 AND SUBWAY VOICE YOUR EMAIL WITH THAT CELLULAR PHONE EARTHVISION CELLULAR SITE CONFORMING TO WAP FEAR OF FIRE BANS CELLULAR PHONES AT GAS PUMPS TRAFFIC TICKETS ISSUED BY WIRELESS INTERNET PAGING CARRIER STOCKS UNDER $10 AS OF 10/11/99 ********************************************************************************** EarthVision Cellular Consumer News Issue #1 Volume 10 ___________________________________________________________ WAP PHONES - ARE THEY REALLY READY FOR CONSUMER USE ___________________________________________________________ Be wary of marketing gimmicks. We have heard the carriers and manufacturers say ther are ready to ship. But have we heard that they are ready to be used? The WAP phones coming out today were manufactured and designed about 12 months ago. Some of the current models available for WAP use will require the software to be upgraded into the phone. Chances are the upgrade will be free and the upload is fairly quick. But will the carrier be able to do it while you stand in line or will you have to leave it and come back later. There is also some contention with the WAP software pioneers on how the software code should be written. They expect to have a certification process in place by the end of this year. With that in mind, we would recommend to our subscribers to wait at least 12 months for the manfuacturers to work it out and fix any bugs that may fall out during the initial roll out phase. Unless you just can't wait and don't mind the hassles that may come with such a new service. Many consumers are willing to do exactly that just to have the WAP services. Part of the problem we will see with WAP phones is the limited ability they have with accessing web site graphics. Due to the small memory and the fact that graphics hog the memory, you will have to purchase a movie ticket without a preview. However, many Sprint PCS customers are already jumping on the bandwagon to have access to the internet via cellular telephone. As the industry continues to learn what consumers want in a cellular phone, a new generation of phones will be coming. Probably within the next couple of years. After all, more Americans are going to the cellular phone as a necessary everyday tool. [How long before we get to watch TV on our cellular phones is only a matter of time.] ________________________________________________________ CELLULAR PHONE FEARS TO BE AIRED AT 7/11 AND SUBWAY ________________________________________________________ The lines have been drawn. A company that was funded by the wireless industry for health research regarding cellular phones and headed by former Chairman George Carlo has been dismissed by the industry. He now heads Health Risk Management Group. His message is an advisory running every ten minutes directing visitors to their website and toll free telephone number to purchase a book that he has written about possible health hazards of using a cellular phone. The advisory runs on the video monitor at the check out line located in selected 7/11 stores, Subway, and other small marts that do not have an interest in the cellular phone market. His message that he is presenting is that cellular phones may affect your health. Mr. Carlo does not contend that there is nothing to show that cellular phone use may affect your health. Merely to show that there is nothing to show that it doesn't affect your health. Some believe that his actions are an attack due to the rejection of his proposals in other areas. As one person pointed out, his statement was similar to saying that we do not know that dirt does not cause cancer and because it isn't proven that it doesn't, we should write a book about the caution of breathing too much dirt. He is selling the book for $19.95 which he has claimed will not make a profit. His book outlines the industry's health research and offers options and alternative uses to cellular phones. It appears as if most of the industry is blowing off the claims as a scare tactic used by a disgruntled former employee. [We have not read the book, so we cannot confirm this information. We will try and get a copy of it and report back to you as to what we find.] **Limited Time Special Offer: Anyone who wants to purchase rebuilt Nokia 100 phones for personal use or some other reason such as gifts can do so for only $25 plus S&H. Minimum order of 4 per purchase. They come with a 60 day warranty too.** __________________________________________________ VOICE YOUR EMAIL WITH THAT CELLULAR PHONE __________________________________________________ No need to be technically savvy or own a laptop with a wireless connection. A company called Xact Telesolutions is looking to offer their services to consumers who want to send email without typing in all the information and learning the computer. Now, you can pick up your phone and get a real live warm bodied human to type in your message and email it for you. The package will range from $9.95 a month for the efficiency package to $69.95 for the road warrior package which has 80 minutes. They even allow you to try out the service free of charge before you sign up with them for services. The company expects that cellular phone users will find the service to be very beneficial. Privacy and human error were one of the concerns that was brought to light as being a negative with this type of service. The company has stated they will institute confidentiality agreements and error avoidance training programs to combat mistakes. The next step for the company is to offer a personal assistant service on a 24 hour basis for business people on the go. The service will be able to offer updates to address books, make plane reservations, and check with the Yankees will be playing next. The advantage is that you get to call a toll free number to dictate your message to the operator and the message appears to have come from the sender's desktop. The company began offering services when they discovered that people were frustrated with the high tech products now on the market and the time it took to set up to send messages. No more exchanging cables or waiting to pull over to write out the message. [We didn't send this message through their service. They would have had to have a Rescue package for us to have had enough time to dicate this one.] _____________________________________________________ EARTHVISION CELLULAR SITE CONFORMING TO WAP _____________________________________________________ Worried that you won't be able to read our site on your WAP phone? No need to worry. We are currently working with our webmaster and technical advisor to allow for users to access our site via the WAP phone. Since the WAP phone is a part of our industry business, it only makes sense that we would want to convert our site to being WAP capable. Not to mention that it continues to show our dedication to providing the newest technology on the marketplace. Using our site on your WAP phone if you have one will definitely look different than if you were accessing our site via the internet. As noted previously, the graphics would hog the memory in your cellular phone if we didn't do something different in viewing our site on your WAP phone. If any of your out there are currently using a WAP phone or are thinking about getting one in the next 3 months, let us know. We will send you a special message as to when we are WAP compatible. You can then view our site and let us know what you think about it and offer us any suggestions or recommendations as to how to improve our site. If you are an affiliate and are looking to heavily promote our products, you may want to contact our webmaster to determine how to make your site compatible for the WAP phone. We assume that they will charge a fee for the conversion of your site but we can say from experience that you can expect high quality work at a reasonable price. You will have to check with them to see what the requirements are for the conversion and schedule. We are hoping to have it available by Jan 2000 timeframe at the latest. We will keep you posted as to when we are actually set up for access. We know what you are saying already. "Long Live EarthVision Cellular!" Are we right? ____________________________________________________ FEAR OF FIRE BANS CELLULAR PHONES AT GAS PUMPS ____________________________________________________ This one has some eyes rolling. This was forwarded to us and brought our attention to the issue at hand. Because cellular phones have an electrical current from the battery connection to the phone, some gas stations are now putting up no cellular phones signs. So far in the US, there have been no reports of fires caused by cellular phones near a gas pump in all the years they have been available. However, the gas stations want to eliminate any chance of a fire being started even if the chances are almost non existent. We already have a solution for those of you that may have a concern about starting a fire. Use our Aqua Seal Pak for your cellular phone. Based on this ban, we are contemplating doing a controlled experiment by pouring gasoline near a powered cellular phone just to see what would happen. We do not encourage or recommend doing this at home. Heck. We will have to be careful ourselves just to make sure we aren't arrested for arson if we decide to go forward with our experiment. Then again we probably won't as our luck would have it. Right when we tried something like that, the phone would catch on fire, explode the battery and then we would be arrested for terrorist bombing, arson, noise pollution, disturbing the peace, etc. In any case, you can expect more restrictions taking place on the use of cellular phones in the future. If it has to do with a safety or ettiquette issue, in due time the cellular phone user will be kicked outside in unsheltered areas with the smokers. [If you have a story that features something about cellular phones send it to us via email or by mail. We are always looking for fresh material.] **If you are looking for phones that are similar to the Motorola Star Tac, check out the Audiovox 3300 and the Samsung 3500. Both look alot like the Star Tac Phone.** _____________________________________________________ TRAFFIC TICKETS ISSUED BY WIRELESS INTERNET _____________________________________________________ Ohio seems to have the jump on the nation with implementing new laws for wireless use and embracing it at the same time. In Louisville, Ohio (about 70 miles south of Cleveland) you can sign your ticket on a palm pilot that will transmit the information via a wireless internet connection. The supercharged equipment will allow the ticketing officer to simultaneously access DMV records, police department, and court records. And you will pleased to know that they can even print out the ticket right on the spot while reporting the information to all the departments in real time. And if the police really work on a quota, then we are all in trouble. The device also reports in real time the number of tickets an officer has written at any given time and their location. As always, such devices are tested in small towns before they are rolled out to metro areas. For the time being, watch your speed in Louisville, Ohio! ___________________________________________________ PAGING CARRIER STOCKS UNDER $10 AS OF 10/11/99 ___________________________________________________ These stocks seem to be somewhat risky in regards to potential. Take a look at our comparison chart within only a week's time! Reported at the close of 9/23/99 Aquis Communications $1.38 Arch Communications Group $4.88 Pagemart Wireless $5.13 Teletouch Communications $.63 Reported at the close of 9/30/99 Aquis Communications $1.25 Arch Communications Group $4.00 Pagemart Wireless $6.00 Teletouch Communications $.63 Reported at the close of 10/6/99 Aquis Communications $1.25 Arch Communications Group $4.13 Pagemart Wireless $5.06 Teletouch Communications $.13 Even so, they may be some fun stocks to play around with if you have a few bucks to squander. We do not recommend a buy or sell on these stocks. We are not stock brokers. **Come and check out this month's specials. We have Family 2 way Radios on sale now for a really good price! Don't miss out on taking advantage of our special limited time offer!** That is it for this issue of EarthVision Cellular newsletter. Let us know if you want to be zipped into cyberspace at hyperspeed. Let us know how we can improve our newsletter, all feedback is greatly appreciated! If you would like to see more about something, just tell us and we will research it to see about adding it to our next issue of our newsletter. Again, we are always scouring the media for fresh material. Send it in if you find any. Last but not least, please tell everyone about our newsletter if you feel that it will be of interest to them. We are looking to increase the monthly growth of our newsletter by 10% a month. Your assistance and support will be appreciated. EarthVision Communications Inc. "Taking Cellular to Mach II Speed" www.earthvisioncellular.com Back