Ifbyphone Announces Solution to the Digital Divide

Chicago- ifbyphone, llc, announces its solution to the digital divide with Email 2.0, Vomail, which it released today. Vomail users can now use any ordinary telephone to send and receive emails. For some customers, a disability, such as low vision, prevents equal access to many new technologies. Others simply lack the knowledge to even open an email or website. Ifbyphone’s Vomail invites both computer novices and business commuters to benefit from the latest digital trends.

Tom Kinne, a visually impaired customer, tried out cell phone talk software, but prefers the clarity of ifbyphone’s speech. “This is the best system that has hit the phone world for the visually impaired…without it I would be lost,” said Kinne. He continued, “I’m now asking my utility companies to email me the bills so I can hear them on ifbyphone.”

From anywhere in the U.S, a user calls into a local or toll free number and speaks commands from the menu. Users can compose, listen, delete, reply to emails or even listen to attachments. An email “call me” function also alerts subscribers of important messages. Other ifbyphone features include blogs, rss feeds, weather, news, stocks, wake up and reminder calls, games, and Voplace, a social network.

Message composition works by voice or text. Voice messages produce wav file attachments that play on the recipient’s computer. Composing a text email entails pronouncing each letter or using the telephone keypad. Users specify from which email account to send the message, and can send a copy to their own mailbox. Upon retrieving an email, users can say “address book” to store the new address, or “envelope” to hear the letter’s time.

Enabling individuals to maintain email accounts without a computer perhaps breaks down the greatest barrier to entry for Americans without email access. Ifbyphone provides free email accounts at ifbyphonemail.com with every subscription. Subscribers can obtain emails from up to five of their previous accounts, or their ifbyphone free account.

Irv Shapiro, president of ifbyphone, states, "As a technologist I like to believe that technology brings people closer together. Unfortunately, over the past 15 years this has not been the case. We are committed to the creation of applications that span the digital divide and allow individuals and corporations to provide access to information for anyone with a telephone. At ifbyphone computers are optional." On the website, ifbyphone.com, users can also access their email via a web mail client and customize their preferences.

Ironically, while attempting to provide email to those without regular computer availability, ifbyphone also produced a solution for individuals who heavily rely on email. One businessman registered for ifbyphone after looking into handheld devices. “I’m just not that sophisticated, and I didn’t want to invest in a PDA, with a tiny screen that I find hard to read. I now use ifbyphone to check my email when I travel for business.”

For additional information contact Irv Shapiro, or visit http://ifbyphone.com.

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About Ifbyphone:
Ifbyphone (ifbyphone, llc.) is a voice infrastructure and application development company with a sophisticated new approach to the deployment of automated voice-based systems accessible from any telephone (PSTN, mobile, or VOIP). Unlike text and video based cell phone and PDA applications, ifbyphone solutions are accessible by anyone with a telephone. By integrating the sophisticated voice recognition and state of the art text to speech technologies, ifbyphone turns cell phones, home phones, or business phones into superior voice communication devices.
The ifbyphone applications are available direct to consumers at www.ifbyphone.com and for resale and private label deployments. Ifbyphone also provides custom IVR solution development and hosting based on their proprietary VoiceXML development framework.