SMS: Pretty typical SMS client.  It's interesting, though, but the first time I sent out an SMS with a URL in it I didn't realize that you could actually use that URL right away.  When you're scrolling, you have lines under the text that highlight.   Pressing OK just causes the application to reply, so I just got out and typed the URL in myself.  However, the right soft key will actually extract any URLs or email in the text message and display a menu of items if you hit the "Go" option.  If there is only one URL it will just go to it in the built-in browser.

On item that isn't so typical is that it prompts you for either a phone number or an email address to send to.  This pushes the fact that you can almost always send SMS to an email address.  I'm sure many people wouldn't realize that if it wasn't put right in front of them, though.

Another item that I didn't expect, and only found as part of the VoiceSMS below, was that you can send a text message to a land line phone.  When you do this, the land line phone gets a voice call that reads off the message.  This is actually pretty cool!  What this means is that as a Sprint customer you know your message will get somewhere.  I tried the same thing from my Verizon phone and the message just vanished into the ether.  It was never marked as delivered, of course.  And that's another special thing; the Text to Landline service sends an SMS back to the sending phone to acknowledge that it was delivered.

On the receiving side, you can respond with text or voice.   The text response lets you choose among a selection of canned messages.  Alternately, you can respond with voice and this sends a text message back to the originating phone with a number to call.  The one I got was a Massachusetts number (apparently this is always the case, too).  This then plays back the voice message.  It's too bad this wasn't just a VoiceSMS, but it's being provided by the "Text to Landline" service, which is provided by TeleMessage.

VoiceSMS: When sent to another Sprint phone, you just get a voice clip on your phone that you can play.  Easy enough; it acts kind of like a special case MMS message.

When sent to Verizon, you have to dial the callback number and then it logs you in to some voice mail system.  Interestingly, the dial number shows up as the voice mail number when it's dialed.  You can then listen to it, save it, etc.  In fact, it acts just like voice mail, but it's "VoiceSMS from Sprint."

You can send VoiceSMS to a landline, too.  However, this is a rather strange experience.  What happens is that he text message that would be generated to another carrier is sent off to a text to landline service.  This then calls up the landline and reads off the message.  In this case, the message is to call a phone number.  In my case, this was actually a phone call to another area code.  I called it anyway and it was exactly like the experience to my Verizon phone.  It's pretty cool, but costs a dime.

MMS (Picture Mail): This is a pretty normal client.  It reminds me of the client on older Verizon Samsung phones.  However, it has a couple of features that are a little different.  One is that sent mail is stored online rather than on the phone.  This is the same for saved mail, too.  This is nice because it uses up less space, but it also requires making a connection to access and then downloading the message.

However, this is nice because the content is automatically loaded up onto your Sprint account where you can have access to it from your PC.  Well, I find that nice.  Some people would find it disturbing that their content is automatically stored there.  On other carriers, you usually have to specifically send the content to the online service.

So, I sent one picture mail which added one sent mail item online, 2 pictures online, and 1 contacts online.  Most of this can also be accessed through the handset.  This stuff sounds like a new topic...

Posted by Shane on March 14, 2006 8:16 PM | Permalink