Companies Know That Talk Is Cheap

Mon., May 15, 2000

Compiled By Bill Sallquist

Borrowing a page from successful cybermerchants, so-called “unified messaging services” are offering free voice mail to customers who have a tolerance for ads.

Users pick up messages by dialing in with a phone or logging on to a Web site, where voice mail is delivered as an e-mail with an audio attachment.

While the service from EVoice, OneBox.com, UReach.com and others is free, there is a price: Each time users call in for their messages, they’ll first hear an advertisement lasting up to 15 seconds.

Associated Press

* The future is now: A three-story house in a quiet Atlanta neighborhood has become a showcase for technology that could become as common as microwave ovens and VCRs.

The building, dubbed Aware House, is testing a range of experimental devices, including new ways to monitor infants and a system to monitor an older person remotely — either across town or on another continent by means of an “always on” broadband connection to the Internet.

One goal, organizers say, is to “discover technology combinations that can unobtrusively enhance lifestyle in the home of the future.”

Cox News Service

This sidebar appeared with the story: Online Glance

The following stories appear in more detail at www.spokane. net/technology

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Companies Know That Talk Is Cheap

Jesse Tinsley

Jim Meehan

Molly Quinn

Rob Curley

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