IT-380

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CASIO PHONEMATE'S Model IT-380
Frequently Asked Questions

Casio PhoneMate IT-380 E-mail Link

Q. What is the IT-380 E-mail Link?

A. The IT-380 E-mail Link, from Casio PhoneMate, is the first combination telephone answering device to let users check their electronic mail, much as they now do with voice messages. The IT-380 uses a three-line, 18-character liquid crystal display (LCD) to alert users about their new, unread E-mail -- without requiring they be connected to a computer. The IT-380 E-mail Link lets the user review the E-mail message headers for up to 40 new messages. The IT-380 represents the integration of three levels of technology: 1. Standard corded telephone with keypad. 2. Integrated all-digital telephone answering device (TAD), reflecting Casio PhoneMate's heritage as the industry's pioneer. The IT-380's TAD includes 14 minutes of recording time. Advanced Message Management allows for skipping and repeating of messages, variable speed playback, remote access, voice time and day stamp, and other features typical of a Casio PhoneMate TAD. 3. The E-mail link itself, the IT-380's most defining feature.

Q. Is it difficult to set up the IT-380 for use in checking E-mail?

A. Not at all. After plugging in the IT-380, simply take the following steps: Press the "Program" button and enter in your E-mail login name, password, and other information readily available from your Internet Service Provider (ISP). It's that easy to set up.

Q. What information does the IT-380 actually provide about incoming E-mail?

A. The "E-mail Alert!" sign on the IT-380 signals new E-mail with a flashing light. The 3-line, 18-character LCD permits scrolling of up to 60 characters, displaying each E-mail's subject, the senders E-mail address, and date and time received. The IT-380 is designed to be an "E-mail advisory device" or Internet appliance, meaning that it informs you that you have new E-mail without providing the full message text; it is not designed for sending and receiving E-mail. This streamlined capability enables the IT-380 to sell for the very affordable price of $129, making it available to a wider audience as a true convenience product.

Q. How valuable is that information without the full message?

A. The IT-380 helps users better cope with the influx of electronic mail messages. Serving as a powerful filter for E-mail users, it's ideal for those who'd prefer to avoid the hassle of using their PC to dial up an ISP or online service, just to check E-mail. This is clearly a task for which the phone is far better suited than the PC. By viewing the subject line and sender's name, you can make a decision about the urgency of the message and take appropriate action -- such as call the sender, sign on to your ISP to retrieve the message, or deem the E-mail as not time-critical. Integrated with a telephone answering machine, the IT-380 is truly a central communications device. You can come home from work and check the IT-380 for voice mail and for E-mail -- no PC required.

Q. What kind of E-mail user is the IT-380 designed for?

A. The IT-380 is ideal for three types of users: 1. The casual user, who does not use E-mail on a daily or regular basis. For example, such a user may correspond by E-mail with a son or daughter away at college. The IT-380 can be programmed to check for new E-mail once a day, a perfect application. 2. The home office worker, who does not want to be connected to an ISP continuously. In this application, the IT-380 may be programmed to check for E-mail every few hours. 3. The heavy E-mail user, who may have a primary account at work and a casual account at home, or have multiple work-related accounts. The IT-380 offers a great way to stay in touch with the casual account, or monitor a second business account while connected to the primary account, without booting up a PC.

Q. How do I check for new E-mail messages through the IT-380?

A. The IT-380 is programmable, capable of checking an E-mail account automatically as often as desired. For example, you can program the IT-380 so that every hour it calls an ISP and downloads the header of any new E-mail. You can then scroll through the resulting headers and decide if the messages warrant your booting up a PC to retrieve full E-mail messages. Similarly, you can program the IT-380 to check for E-mail just once a day, perhaps at 5:00 or 6:00 p.m., right before getting home from work. You also have the option of simply pressing the "Search E-mail Now" button to check your E-mail on demand.

Q. What happens to messages when they are accessed through the IT-380? Are they still on the ISP's server? And how long do they remain on the IT-380's queue?

A. E-mail remains undisturbed on the ISP's server. The IT-380 simply downloads the header information, not the actual messages, without a direct connection to interact with the actual messages. Accessing and saving the full messages requires booting up a PC and connecting through an ISP. E-mail information is deleted from the IT-380's database automatically. The user must first download and delete each message from the ISP's database using a PC. Then, the next time the IT-380 performs a message retrieval, it will delete from its own database any messages that are no longer on the ISP's database.

Q. Can E-mail information be accessed remotely with the IT-380?

A. The IT-380 can be called from a remote location and will provide the number of new E-mail messages, in addition to complete voice phone messages. It cannot provide specific header information, which would require a more sophisticated design and a local screen display. As a remote E-mail access device, the IT-380's greatest value consists of informing you about the presence or absence of electronic correspondence.

Q. What about a user with two E-mail accounts or screen names, such as a husband and wife?

A. The IT-380 can access up to two E-mail addresses, ideally suited to a family's needs. It accommodates a total of 40 message headers between both, but information cannot be transferred between E-mail boxes.

Q. How is the IT-380 used in households with one phone line?

A. The IT-380 will not interrupt a call in progress on another extension telephone. It will detect the line in use and recheck for E-mail at the next programmed interval. When the IT-380 is on line with an ISP to check for new E-mail, the phone line is not available for other uses, such as making or receiving phone calls. Just as you would when a PC is connected to an ISP, if you're calling in, you hear a busy signal. However, checking and downloading header information with the IT-380 normally is faster than a PC connection, since no time-intensive graphics or attachments are being downloaded. Incidentally, the cost to access an ISP through the IT-380 is the same as through a PC.

Q. What happens if the subject line of an E-mail message is very long? Are there things a correspondent should keep in mind when sending E-mail to someone with an IT-380?

A. The LCD on the IT-380 shows 18 characters and may be scrolled to display a total of 60 characters. Header messages longer than 60 characters are truncated, requiring you to access the E-mail through a PC to read the entire line. Most headers, however, are far shorter than 60 characters in length. IT-380 users and their E-mail correspondents can certainly use the 60 characters of the subject line to send a complete message, such as "My plane is delayed until 7:00." In this scenario, the device serves as a comprehensive communications center, for both telephone and E-mail users.

Q. The IT-380 works with virtually all ISPs, plus most commercial on-line services. Why doesn't it support AOL?

A. America Online is not an Internet Service Provider (ISP). They are a content provider. The IT-380 supports the electronic mail industry's POP-3 standard, which has been adopted by most ISPs and by the commercial services CompuServe, MSN and Prodigy. AOL relies on its own proprietary interface rather than the POP-3 standard, which poses a problem for those who use AOL for E-mail. The IT-380's E-mail advice capability can be read if the E-mail is sent to a POP-3 ISP, which means that headers can be downloaded on E-mail sent from AOL subscribers to non-AOL subscribers -- but AOL subscribers can't use the IT-380 to check E-mail they receive on the service. The same restrictions apply to users of the Juno free E-mail service, which also lacks POP-3 compatibility.

Q. Can E-mail be accessed from a friend's IT-380?

A. For that to occur, the friend would have to allow the user to program his or her user access information -- the local ISP access phone number, the user name and password--into the IT-380.

Q. Why did Casio PhoneMate introduce a one-line version of the IT-380 rather than a two-line version? What will the next version of the phone include? Is it possible to do a cordless version of this phone?

A. Casio PhoneMate chose to introduce a product with the broadest appeal to the consumer population. Because not all households have two phone lines, a one-line phone is the right option for most users. Company policy prohibits commenting on unreleased products, but two-line and cordless versions are possibilities for extension of this product line in the future.

Q. Does the IT-380 do anything that more expensive full-screen E-mail phones don't do?

A. Unlike most competitive products, the IT-380 features a built-in telephone answering device for voice mail, and it also provides a remote "advise" capability to inform the user of the number of new E-mails.