Impression report on two new technologies I have been using

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

For over a month I have been using the Personal Receptionist as my main
telephone handling system. All my office calls and often my home phone is
now routed to the Personal Receptionist system. The Personal Receptionist
can manage and route both my telephone calls and my fax traffic. When I am
on the road I route fax calls to my hotel and depending on my circumstances
I route the alert calls to my cellular. I get pages for voice mail etc.


I have tried many of the offerings of the RBOCS and others. The Personal
Receptionist is without doubt the most flexible and useful service I have
ever used. It has changed my whole communications attitude toward the
telephone and fax and has made them considerable more useful and powerful.


The contact for info on the PR is jrk () tpsinc com. I have no stake in the
outfit, just highly impressed.


I have now had my Sony Magic Link for about a week and have had an
opportunity to take it on a trip to California as my only computer. I
processed all my personal email with it and kept my calendar etc. I have
grown very very attached to it. It is easy to use, works like a charm
(especially an initial release). It is now always with me. If they can keep
up the quality and smoothness they have a real winner. Last night I was at
an Annenberg dinner and it was the star of the "look at this". People of
all experiences with computers liked it a lot.


Downers: 2400 baud modem (minor). Sony's service on accessories. They have
gotten worse, major confusion at the ordering shop. Someone needs to fix
them fast.


Uppers: both General Magic people and especially ATT. mail people have been
excellent. They try hard and make things happen. Try one, you might like
it. I LOVE it. [anyone want to buy a Newton or two]


dave