Pinger(SM) Combines the Convenience of E-mail and Text Messaging With the
Simplicity and Personality of Voice
SAN JOSE, Calif., Sept. 25 /PRNewswire/ -- Pinger, Inc. today unveiled
the first carrier independent instant voice messaging service for mobile
phones. Pinger is a new communications tool that lets you send voice
messages directly to individuals or groups as instantly and efficiently as
email or text messaging. The service works on mobile phones from all major
U.S. carriers.
"More than half of U.S. mobile phone users haven't discovered mobile
messaging. Sending a Pinger message is easier, more personal and more
powerful than sending a text message," said Greg Woock, CEO of Pinger, Inc.
"Just say the names of your recipients, leave your voice message and hang
up. It's that simple."
The company introduced the service at the DEMOfall 2006 conference, an
annual event that showcases some of the most promising consumer and
enterprise technologies.
Text messaging has seen explosive growth in the past few years with
more than 48 billion messages sent in the U.S. during the second half of
2005 (CTIA). But mobile users in the Pinger beta reported sending fewer
text messages and utilizing the voice capabilities of Pinger instead to
communicate with friends, family and co-workers.
"Pinger stands out because it is simple and easy to send an instant
voice message to anyone," said Chris Shipley, executive producer, DEMO.
"Pinger has taken the best attributes of text messaging and e-mail and tied
in the ease and power of voice. Pinger messages have the real potential to
take the place of text messages in years to come."
Today mobile phone users can sign up and use the service by visiting
http://www.pinger.com. Once registered, Pinger customers can upload their contacts
so that sending a voice message to anyone they know is as simple as saying
their name. Or they can send a message to a group by just saying the name
of the group. Even without becoming a member, anyone can receive, reply to,
forward or save a Pinger message on their computer.
Anyone signing up for Pinger before October 1, 2006, can receive the
Pinger service free for six months. Pricing for Pinger is still to be
determined, but sending a specified number of Pinger messages every month
is planned to remain free for users as is the ability to use Pinger to send
messages from the Web.
Pinger and MySpace
Following a one-month beta test, Pinger today introduced a new feature
that allows MySpace users to post voice comments to their MySpace friends'
pages from their mobile phone. You can also be notified of new Pinger
messages with a MySpace message. "Pinger has streamlined my messaging
already and now I can post a comment to MySpace friends with my voice from
my cell phone... Genius!" said Julie Lamb, a Pinger beta tester and avid
MySpace user.
More about Pinger
How does Pinger work? It's simple really. Any mobile phone user who has
a plan with a major U.S. carrier (Verizon, Cingular, Sprint, Nextel or
T-Mobile) can sign up and start sending voice messages from their mobile
phone to anyone with an email address. Here are some of the specs on
Pinger:
Sending messages
-- Send to anyone. Send a voice message to anyone with an email address.
Doesn't matter if they've even heard of Pinger. If they have an
Internet connected PC or laptop with speakers, they'll hear your voice.
-- Send to groups. Say the message once, and send to a few, or hundreds,
of people at once. Just like email, you can create ad hoc groups while
addressing the message or send a message to an existing distribution
list.
-- Voice recognition to address your messages. To address a Pinger
message just say the name of the recipient. No need to dial a number
or look at your phone.
Retrieving Messages
-- Autoplay. When you call the retrieval number from your mobile phone,
or click from an email notification on your PC, the message just plays.
No prompts, no waiting, just the sender's voice.
-- Reply. Sounds mundane, but reply is one of the Pinger service's most
powerful features. Why do you hate voice mail? Because you have to
hang up and dial the person back. With Pinger, you press 1 to reply,
say your business and hang up. All done!
-- Forward. Forward a message to anyone with an email address. The
baby's first words. The wedding announcement. The most stupid message
you've ever heard? Forward it to everyone you know.
-- Save. Archive important messages and keep them forever.
Web Access
-- Inbox. Scan your messages like email and listen to the important ones
first. A single click plays the message, and a text box opens so you
can take notes. Check out items in your sent folder or "undelete"
messages in your trash.
-- Contacts. You can send a Pinger message to anyone with an email
address. Contacts makes it easy to add or synchronize your email
contacts from AOL, Entourage, Gmail, Hotmail, MySpace, Outlook, Outlook
Express, Palm Desktop, Thunderbird, or Yahoo. See which of your
contacts are Pinger members already. Or, enter contacts manually if
you prefer.
-- Options. To keep the phone interface simple and light, options like
passwords, phone numbers and preferences are all managed from the Web.
Include both your personal and work email addresses so all of your
messages are sent to a single Pinger inbox. Set up quick dials to make
addressing even faster. Specify how you want to be notified of new
Pinger messages: text message, email or both.
Treo Application
-- Treo 600/650/700p users get a small application that beautifies Pinger
notifications on your phone and makes message retrieval a single click
away. You also get a list of your last 10 Pinger messages, any of
which you can listen to with a single button.
About Pinger
Pinger was founded on the vision that using your voice to message
should be as fast, simple and convenient as email or SMS. The patent
pending Pinger service enables people, for the first time, to send instant
voice messages to nearly anyone regardless of carrier or phone type.
Founded in late 2005 by former Handspring executives Greg Woock and Joe
Sipher, Pinger has a proven management team who believes deeply in building
simple products and services that just work. Located in San Jose,
California, Pinger is privately held and currently recruiting smart people
who like to create great products and have fun. For more information, visit
http://www.pinger.com .
About DEMOfall
Produced by Network World Events and Executive Forums, the semi-annual
DEMO conferences focus on emerging technologies and new products, which are
hand-selected from across the spectrum of the technology marketplace. The
DEMO conferences have earned their reputation for consistently identifying
tomorrow's cutting-edge technologies, and have served as launch pad events
for companies such as Palm, E*Trade, Handspring, and U.S. Robotics, helping
them to secure venture funding, establish critical business relationships,
and influence early adopters. Each DEMO conference features approximately
70 new companies, products and technologies. For more information, visit
http://www.demo.com .
NOTE: Pinger is a service mark of Pinger, Inc. All other trademarks and
trade names are the property of their respective owners.
SOURCE Pinger, Inc.
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Related links:
http://www.pinger.com
CONTACT:
Matt Hicks of SutherlandGold Group,
+1-415-722-3603, or matt@sutherlandgold.com, for Pinger
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