There are a couple different types of mail services available.  Let me start by clarifying two that are distinct, yet there are advantages to both.  There is the basic mail server which can be termed a POP or IMAP server.  This is the most basic of mail services and is what most email users are familiar with.  This includes most of your webmail clients such as Yahoo, Gmail, and the others.  This option is inexpensive and covers most basic email needs.

The second type of mail server, which is the focus of my attention today, is known as Exchange.  This is a Microsoft based product that a lot of businesses use to collaborate, i.e. sharing calendars, contacts, and email boxes.  While this option is slightly more expensive, there are great advantages.

POP is a pull based email service which means your Outlook or other mail client is set to request new messages from the mail server at some interval, i.e. every 10 minutes it will check for new mail.  POP mail once received is typically stored on just your local computer and not kept on the server.  It is available for smart phones, yet if you send mail from your smart phone, it doesn’t show up in your sent items on your computer.  You also end up maintaining multiple contact lists.

Exchange is different in that it is a push based email service, meaning as soon as you get a new email, it is “pushed” to your Outlook or smart phone.  One of the other benefits is all emails sent from the webmail interface, Outlook (local computer), and your smart phone all stay synchronized.  Regardless of which device or computer you send email from, it will show up in your “sent” items.  Exchange also synchronizes your contacts and calendar with all your devices, including iPhones and Ipads.

I recently switched my wife’s home email account to Exchange and she has LOVED the difference in emails being delivered AND all of her contacts, calendar, and emails being connected.  If she reads and deletes the email on her iPad it deletes on her computer.  If she enters a contact on her iPhone, it goes to her computer and iPad automatically.  She also likes that she can see my reply to an email within a few seconds of me clicking send instead of waiting ten minutes.  She also loves that any of her DEVICES can break and the server still has all her email and contacts.

Microsoft Exchange is available in onsite AND hosted options.

While we all “want” to not text and drive, how many of us find ourselves occasionally “having” to send that message.  While it is unsafe, how many people do we see doing it?  Consider the Assistant app from SPEAKTOIT on the Android platform.  Several of our team members use it and have found it a welcome addition to their arsenal of tools.  Now they can text and drive without taking their eyes off the road and potentially creating a hazard to other drivers.

The app uses voice recognition to understand and send your text messages, email messages, and dial phone calls.  It is as simple as shaking the phone, literally waving the phone in the air, for the assistant to wake up and with a distinct beep prompt you to begin talking.

I can say things like “text Pam mobile please remember to send a thank you card to Jonathan” or “call Jonathan office” for the assistant to take action.  For a text message it will confirm by saying something like “ok, I’m going to text Pam on mobile number ‘please remember to send a thank you card to Jonathan’, is this okay” and I confirm by saying “yes”.  As for the call, it will confirm by saying “ok, calling Jonathan on office number” and the phone starts to dial.

If you choose, it can also read incoming text messages to you once they are received without you having to look at your phone.  You can even customize the look of the assistant and the voice that it talks to you with, i.e. US accent or UK accent, male or female.

It’s a pretty cool application for the Android platform that is continually getting better.  Try it and you might be able to drive safer.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.speaktoit.assistant