Handspring Releases Treo Mail

May 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Handspring today announced the commercial availability of Treo Mail, its new wireless email service designed exclusively for Treo communicators. The service gives individuals mobile, secure access to desktop email from a Treo communicator. Treo Mail Corporate Desktop Edition allows customers to access Microsoft Outlook/Exchange and POP3 email behind a corporate firewall. Treo Mail Internet Edition is for those customers using POP3 email accounts accessible from the Internet. Treo Mail Corporate Desktop Edition and Treo Mail Internet Edition are available for a free 30-day trial and may be purchased for $99.99 and $49.99 respectively for a yearly subscription from Handspring's Web site at http://www.handspring.com/."Treo Mail is an affordable, convenient email solution that serves a broad range of customers who want to be in touch while away from their desks," said Joe Sipher, vice president of product marketing at Handspring. "Our original vision for Treo was to combine the functionality of a cell phone, a personal organizer, and a wireless email device in one compact package. The release of Treo Mail delivers the critical email component of that vision."

Treo Mail, powered by Visto, is a personal wireless email service that provides tight integration with a Microsoft Outlook/Exchange or POP3 email inbox, enabling users to maintain the work or home email address that they already have. With Treo Mail, customers can send and receive email from their Treo communicator as if they were at their desks. The Treo Mail Corporate Desktop Edition and the Treo Mail Internet Edition may be downloaded and easily installed by the customer from http://www.handspring.com/ for a free 30-day trial, after which the customer may purchase a yearly subscription to the service. Treo Mail users will be charged separately by their mobile phone service provider for airtime minutes as part of their regular mobile phone service plan that combines both voice and data minutes.

Treo Mail Corporate Desktop Edition
Treo Mail Corporate Desktop Edition is for the individual business professional to access their Microsoft Outlook/Exchange or POP3 email account behind a corporate firewall on a Treo communicator. Treo Mail allows mobile professionals to leave their laptops behind when on the road or away from their desks and stay on top of email with a device that weighs only 5.2 ounces. Customers can have their email delivered automatically for convenience or manually with a touch of a button for efficient use of data minutes and battery power. Microsoft Outlook/Exchange users also enjoy the benefits of wireless inbox synchronization, so that messages read, sent or deleted on Treo will appear as such on the desktop. Treo Mail Corporate Desktop Edition is available for $99.99 for a yearly subscription.

Treo Mail Internet Edition
Treo Mail Internet Edition allows consumers to access email from a personal POP3 email account from Internet service providers such as Earthlink, PacBell or MSN. The advantages of Treo Mail Internet Edition over other POP3 clients include faster downloads and shorter connection times when receiving email. Additionally, users of Treo Mail Internet Edition also have the option of having their email delivered to their Treo automatically at time intervals that they define. This edition is available for $49.99 for a yearly subscription.

In a separate announcement today, Visto Corporation introduced the Visto Mobile Access Solution, Server Edition for Treo communicators. This solution, based on the software that powers Treo Mail, provides access to corporate email for a workgroup or entire enterprise and is available directly from Visto Corporation at http://www.visto.com/.

Treo Mail Features
Treo Mail is designed specifically for Treo communicators and will work on both worldwide GSM networks as well as GPRS and CDMA 1xRTT networks. Treo Mail is compatible with all Treo communicators, including Treo 180 and 180g, and Handspring's soon to be released color Treo 270 communicator. All three of these products work on the GSM network around the world and are GPRS- upgradeable. Treo Mail will also be compatible with Handspring's upcoming CDMA version of Treo that will operate on Sprint's Third Generation Network, based on 1xRTT, in the United States.

Treo Mail is optimized for Treo's unique features. One of Treo's main application buttons can be mapped to Treo Mail for quick, one-button access to email. Treo Mail also takes full advantage of Treo's QWERTY keyboard, so that people can quickly compose and respond to email, without using a stylus or touching the screen. The rocker switch and scroll buttons can be used to toggle through, select and read messages using one hand and without opening the flip lid. Additionally, people can directly address messages from Treo's PhoneBook, similar to the SMS application already available on Treo.

Treo Mail offers flexible, customizable delivery options to fit a variety of personal preferences that let users control when and how they send and receive email while away from their desktop computer. Customers can receive email manually at any time they choose with the touch of a button or have email automatically delivered to their Treo at scheduled time intervals that they define (such as every half hour during weekdays). They can select filters to exclude messages that they do not want forwarded to Treo, thus keeping out spam and other unwanted email. Also, a customer may choose to retrieve only unread, recent messages or all messages from the last several days, for example. Customers can access, read and compose email on Treo while offline, which allows the user to view email while talking on the phone. Treo Mail can also forward email attachments.

Treo Mail offers 128-bit SSL encryption ensuring that email is delivered to and from Treo safely and securely. Email is secure in transit between Treo and the Treo Mail Service Operations Center, and then delivered to a Corporate Desktop Edition customer's PC or to the Internet Edition customer's POP3 server. Secure access is built in, so Treo Mail does not require a VPN or direct dial into a corporate LAN.

The Treo Mail service consists of handheld software, PC desktop software (for Corporate Desktop Edition users), and a Service Operations Center that stores and forwards messages when the communicator is off or out of coverage. Treo Mail requires Internet access and wireless data services, which are not available in all geographies or with all carriers and may be intermittent depending upon the coverage area.

Website: http://www.handspring.com/