Palm VersaMail 2.5 Provides Mobile Professionals Powerful New Features

April 16, 2003 – Palm just announced the release of Palm VersaMail 2.5 wireless email software. Palm VersaMail 2.5 takes advantage of high-resolution color screens by providing better support for viewing and composing messages with different font styles, sizes and colors, and additional display customization options. Mobile professionals can download this new software for their Palm handhelds running Palm OS 4.1 or higher. Palm VersaMail 2.5 also will ship in the box with future Palm Tungsten handhelds.

"Email is a mission-critical tool for today's road warriors. VersaMail 2.5 is designed with the mobile professional in mind, providing seamless connectivity to popular desktop and Internet email systems. Whether using VersaMail wirelessly or via HotSync operation, users can easily access and reply to email while on the go," said Steve Janiak, senior product manager at Palm Solutions Group. "We continue to innovate on features to maximize usability and, ultimately, productivity for our customers."

New Features
Automatic Email Retrieval, Queuing and Notification- VersaMail 2.5 checks for new mail messages on a schedule the user specifies-from every 15 minutes to once a day, any day of the week. When there's new mail in an account, VersaMail will automatically download it to the handheld and notify the user with a sound, a blink, or a vibration. If a message is queued to send, and the user is out of wireless coverage, the mail server is down, or for any other reason the message can't be sent at that time, VersaMail will automatically try sending the message again later.

Improved Usability and Smart Addressing- Users can quickly add contacts to their Palm Address Book by clicking on the sender's email address. Smart Addressing uses type-ahead technology to locate matches from the Address Book.

Read HTML Messages- In an HTML message, VersaMail retains basic formatting: colors, bold, underlining, italics and bullets. New multisized fonts are also included, provided by AFGA Monotype (www.agfamonotype.com). All hyperlinks in an HTML message are "hot" -- just tap a line and it launches the default web browser. With plain text messages, tap on any "www" sequence to launch the web browser.

New Display and Font options- VersaMail 2.5 lets users choose from new fonts, font sizes and colors, including very small fonts that take advantage of high-resolution color screens, and select different colors for read and unread messages. Users have flexibility to see more of each message at a glance with a new two-line list view, or less information per message but more messages on a screen with the classic one-line view.

Synchronization- In addition to Windows PC synchronization with popular products such as Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, and Eudora, as well as server-based sync with Exchange, Lotus Domino, IMAP, and POP, VersaMail 2.5 adds sync support for local Lotus Notes mail. VersaMail 2.5 supports Windows PC synchronization of up to 11 user-defined Microsoft Exchange, IMAP, or Lotus Domino folders. The VersaMail HotSync conduit displays a progress indicator during synchronization and indicates the last time a user synchronized the handheld on the account information screen.

Improved Attachment Support- VersaMail can attach and play back Voice Memo files and unzip ZIP files. Improved SD Card support allows access to subfolders located on a card. And when there are multiple applications on the handheld available for viewing a single attachment, VersaMail lets the user choose which to use to open the file.

Encrypted Account Passwords- VersaMail uses 128-bit AES encryption to safeguard email account passwords.

SSL Email- Supported in handhelds running Palm OS 5.2 or higher. VersaMail will pull mail from SSL mail providers, such as AT&T-Comcast Broadband.

Pricing and Availability
VersaMail is available now as a web download through the Palm Software Connection (software.palm.com) for an estimated U.S. street price of $34.99.

Information about Palm, Inc. is available at http://www.palm.com/aboutpalm.

SOURCE Palm