1. NEWS: PageNOW! eGate for Mac OS Under Way
2. $PECIAL: Beat the Budget Blues! Business and personal versions of Mark/Space software are available at extra-special prices!
3. UPDATED: Online 1.1 Public Beta (PalmOS)
4. UPDATED: PhoneWatcher 2.1 Public Beta
5. UPDATED: AT&T Phone Numbers
6. SOLUTION: Claris EMailer Script

Thanks to the support we received for doing a Mac version of the PageNOW! Email Gateway, we began work on the project earlier this year. We recently began internal testing on the application, and hope to have a version for public beta test later this month.

The MacOS version includes all of the same features of the Windows version:

Works with all POP3 accounts

Accounts can be on local/corporate email server, or ISP

Control what parts of the email message are sent (Banner, From, Subject, Date, Contents of message, etc.)

Indicate the size limit for each message

Review how a sample message will be displayed for each user, based on the property settings that you control

Determine how often the gateway will open to check for email messages to be paged

Control the hours during which pager/digital phone messages will be accepted and sent. (24 X7, or 9 am - 5 pm, or whatever time period meets the needs of your organization.)

Maintain privacy--pager IDs, paging service phone numbers, etc., are seen only by the system administrator.

Provide clients, vendors, patients, customers, in-house, or field personnel with one, easy-to remember email address for sending pages from anywhere to anyone, anywhere, who is listed in your PageNOW! Email Gateway.

The Mac OS version will require System 8 or later (System 7.x supported if appearance manager installed) and be available in a 5-address license pack starting at $199. (See price lists).

Look for a formal announcement in the next newsletter, or join the pagenow-mac-talk mailing list to participate in the beta discussion and learn of new developments instantly.

Enterprise specials: $100 off the following:

PageNOW! Workgroup or Enterprise Edition,

Web Gateway

Email Gateway (25-User Pack)

Personal use specials: $99 mix and match any two from the following:

PageNOW! Personal Edition (Mac or Windows)

PhoneWatcher (Mac)

$59 mix and match any two from the following:

PageNOW! Lite (either Mac or Windows)

PageNOW! (PalmOS or Newton)

Online (PalmOS)

Communicate Lite (Mac)

Online v1.1 is nearing completion. We expect to release a final version in the next 2-3 weeks. Until then, we recommend you download the latest public beta version and start enjoying the new features.

Among the new features (compared to v1.0) are:

Support for the full range of baud rates (300-57600)

Additional serial port settings (5/6/7/8 data bits, 1/2 stop bits)

Added support for an additional 6 macros (total now 12)

Support \xnn to send arbitrary hex code in macros/input buffer

Support \r, \t, etc in macros/input buffer

Support ^x to send control characters in macros/input buffer

Added "Del" to keys menu

Added return = cr/lf/crlf option to comm settings dialog

Status window for dial and hang-up commands

Added edit menu and shift indicators to define macros and dial dialogs

Macros now send as soon as selected from the menu
(no longer need "S" button)

PhoneWatcher 2.1 is now in public beta. Among the changes present in the current release are:

Additional modem init strings (TDK, Elsa Tango, US Robotics) available from popup menu

Updated area and country codes databases

Fixed a bug that caused a crash when used with internal G3 PowerBook Modems

Before v2.1 is finished, we plan to also:

Add caller ID name and number columns to the phone call window

Beef up support for making outbound calls

Improve the online help systems

Continue updating the area/country code databases

AT&T has provided us with an updated and complete list of their service numbers for use with PageNOW!. Simply download the text file (URL above) and directly import into your Mac or PC version of PageNOW!, or open with a text editor and pick/choose the numbers you would like to add manually.

The list includes over 165 numbers, sorted by state. The list also includes the nationwide toll-free numbers for AT&T Digital PCS, AT&T AlphaTrack, AT&T Nationwide, and AT&T PreferredCity.

Of course, these numbers are also useful for the PalmOS and Newton versions of PageNOW! - just print out the list and enter those numbers that you will be using.

Thanks go to Jim Geldermann at WIRELESS.dev, Corp. for providing us with a handy AppleScript that can be used with PageNOW! to forward unread messages to your pager or digital phone.

This script is especially useful because Emailer remains one of the few (if not only) applications that can retrieve mail from America Online and Compuserve, as well as from the internet.

Full instructions are included with the script, which can be found at the URL above, and will be included with future versions of PageNOW!