TECHTALK Messages for 1999: Review of AirMedia's Notify!(tm)

Review of AirMedia's Notify!(tm)

From: Edward M. Zabrek, M.D., F.A.C.O.G.

stork@flash.net

Tue, 24 Feb 1998 10:48:51 -0600

As many of you will recall from my previous correspondences, when I was testing the Q™Phone, I was hoping to eliminate all of my communications devices except for one (the digital PCS phone). Those of you who have followed my soap opera with this gadget, know that I was unable to retire my alpha/digital pager. This left me in somewhat of dilemma. I don't know how the rest of the digital communications world is, but here, in Houston, it is nearly impossible to find a decent paging company. What used to be a service reserved mainly for physicians, has become a required component for everyone from the elementary school kid, his (her) mother, to the obligatory drug (street, not pharmacist) dealer that warp our society. (Enough editorializing.) All of the major players in the pager war zone set the number of digital pages, and alpha characters you can receive during the month. After that fixed limit is reached, you get surcharged. You can save money (and possibly even certain surcharges) if your office dispatches your alpha pages with dedicated software you install on your PC equipped with a Hayes compatible modem.

The best, most complete software I have seen comes from that highly innovative, wireless Internet company I reported on after Comdex '97--AirMedia (http://www.airmedia.com). The program is called Notify! Wireless Office. This Windows based program works with virtually all paging companies offering an alpha service. It will also dispatch alpha messages to the new PCS digital phones! So even if you only have the minimal pager, your PCS phone will do the trick (if so equipped).

Notify!'s setup procedure is a no-brainer. You must, however, know the access phone number to you alpha server (be it a paging or PCS network). With the information appropriately entered, you can set up all of your staff's workstations in a matter of minutes. Each workstation can even be personalized with a "signature", so you can know who is sending you the message, without them having to type it in. One nice feature of the PCS system is that any single numeric script that appears within the text message can be automatically dialed by hitting "send" on the PCS phone. Notify! also keeps a log of all successfully sent pages. They can be reviewed, printed, and saved with their date/time stamp. I can see a value to this feature for medico-legal chart documentation.

This program is complete, yet very simple. Some of the outstanding and useful features include unlimited subscribers (e.g. doctors, nurses, anyone in the office with any alpha pager service); unlimited services; group messaging up to 500 characters per page with splitting of the message as needed to accommodate the limits of the individual service; user definable "quick messaging" allows the user to "can" recurring messages. Technical support is toll free and excellent. AirMedia is truly an international, "global" company with support for non-Arabic alphabets, and a multilingual staff.

It appears that AirMedia's Notify! Group is continuing to work diligently on wireless "push" content. The new AirMedia SMS Gateway will allow for short e-mail messaging through the http://www. Packages will include customizable stock quotes, news, sports, local weather and traffic, and entertainment. The alpha "push" information will be user selectable, and configurable.

The list price for Notify! Wireless Office $119.99 (U.S.). I have seen it at Office Depot (Staples) and Egghead (mail-order-1-800-egghead, http://www.egghead.com) for as low as $49.99 (U.S.). The program comes on a CD ROM with several other trial software titles. The price for AirMedia SMS Gateway has yet to be determined.

In conclusion, Notify! Wireless Office is a bargain, even at the list price. The program will pay for itself if you replace an operator dispatched alpha service with this self-dispatched program. I give it a rating of 4/4 speculums!

Ed Zabrek, M.D. Technology Correspondent obgyn.net

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