Motorola Talkabout + WebLink Wireless = pager heaven!
Written: Nov 30 '00 (Updated Dec 11 '00)
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Pros: Small, cool, easy to use
Cons: Not a PDA, no PC data sync
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| tanster's Full Review: Motorola Talkabout T900 2-Way Pager (Black) |
My Beau and I have entered a new phase in our relationship. After nearly two wonderful years of being together, we decided to take the next logical step.
We got matching two-way pagers.
I have to admit, though, that it took quite a bit of convincing before I could get my Beau to actually wear the pager. I think he felt like one of those trapped animals that gets implanted with a tracking device before it’s let back out into the wild. ;)
After doing my usual compulsive amount of research, I decided on the Motorola Talkabout T900 and the WebLink Wireless service.
Out of the box
• Motorola Talkabout T900 pager
• Holster (so you can clip the pager to your pants)
• One AA battery
• User manual
Get up and running in ten minutes!
Activating the Talkabout is simple: just go online to the WebLink Wireless website, click New T900 Activation, and follow the screen instructions to pick service and payment options. When you’re done, you’ll receive a confirmation message on your pager.
We followed the same procedure to activate my Beau’s pager. Voilà! – we were now a two-way pager-enabled family!
Some great Talkabout features
• Not much bigger or heavier than a regular alphanumeric pager: the Talkabout is 3-1/8" wide x 2" tall x 7/8" thick, weighing 3.8 oz. Compare it to my old alphanumeric pager: 3-1/4” wide x 2-1/4” tall x ½” thick, about 3 oz.
• A nice big 4-line, 80-character display.
• Intuitive and easy-to-use menus and scroll keys. You won’t need to read the manual!
• An almost complete qwerty keyboard including uppercase/lowercase letters, numbers, and these symbols: ! @ # $ % & ( ) , - _ / : ‘ . ?
• Long battery life: the website says three weeks, but I’m going on week 4 with 25% juice left.
• 13 alert sounds (including silent and vibrate) and 6 alert volumes.
• A button on the side of the pager to turn off the alert without taking the pager out of the holster (very convenient!).
• A bright backlight mode.
• A 250-entry address book, with 9 fields per entry (name, wireless address, pager number, email address, home phone, work phone, mobile phone, fax/other number, and notes).
• You can set a signature that will automatically be appended to each message you send.
• 12 preset auto-replies: Yes, No, Will call later, Thank you, Send more info, Will arrive 15m, Will arrive 30m, Finished, Call me, Can I call you?, Send # to call, Traffic delay. When you respond to a page with one of these canned responses, it doesn’t count against your monthly character allotment.
• Choice of colors: black, red, royal blue, and aquamarine blue.
For the complete Talkabout feature set, see the Motorola website.
Limitations of the Talkabout
• Yes, the keyboard buttons are very small. It’s not a problem for me since I have small hands, but it may be problematic for big-handed people. (Although Beau doesn’t have too much trouble with it, either.)
• There are no select, cut/copy/paste, or PageUp/PageDown functions. You do sacrifice some functionality for the small convenient size.
• The Talkabout has a flimsy battery door. It has popped off several times as I was removing the pager from the holster. In fact, my Beau has already lost his. (You can buy replacement parts at http://accesssecure.mot.com/Accesspoint — the battery door sells for 80¢.)
• You can’t customize the canned auto-replies.
• You can’t sync Talkabout data with your computer.
The WebLink Wireless service
I purchased WebLink Wireless’ mid-priced Unwired Supreme package:
• $19.95 a month.
• 400 messsages of 100 characters each.
• Nationwide coverage.
• Free voicemail with your own personal greeting and local number.
• Free news, sports, and weather updates several times a day (you can't turn these off, but they do not count against your monthly character allotment, either).
• No activation fee!
WLW also offers options such as personal toll-free numbers, operator dispatch, and loss protection insurance at additional cost.
-- Message delivery
WLW’s message delivery has been excellent – not one message has been lost in transit, and delivery time has always been five minutes or less.
-- Customer support
WLW has awesome customer support:
• Initially I sent several emails to WLW with various questions about their service. All my emails were answered the same day, sometimes in the same hour!
• When they were a few days late in sending my Talkabout, they called and apologized for the inconvenience, and then waived the delivery fee and gave me one month’s free service for my trouble! Wow.
So many ways to stay in touch....
Let's say your pager's number is 650-123-4567. People can get a hold of you in several ways:
• By phone: 1) they can call 650-123-4567 and leave either a voicemail or numeric page.
• By computer: they can send email to 6501234567@airmessage.net.
• By their own two-way pager (and assuming they’re also using WebLink Wireless): they can send a page to 6501234567.
A word about monthly character allotments
WLW defines a message as 100 characters. So if you send a page that is 101 characters, it will count as two messages. Arch Wireless (formerly PageNet) charges by the character instead. Keep this in mind as you research paging services!
(I chose WLW over Arch because Arch has an activation fee and charges extra for voicemail.)
Price
Talkabouts are currently priced around $180, but you can get a $80 rebate from WebLink Wireless up until the end of the year, 2000. You can also buy various pager accessories (like cords, cases, purses, and backpacks) from the Motorola site.
Web sites to check out
• http://www.motorola.com: Motorola pagers and accessories
• http://www.weblinkwireless.com: paging service
• http://www.archwireless.com: paging service
• http://mobile.yahoo.com/wireless/alert: set alerts for stock quotes, horoscopes, and more
• http://www.hz.com/commands.html: get pages on Ebay auction status, flight info, Airborne and FedEx shipping status, even Letterman’s Top Ten lists
All in all
If you're a total gadget addict, the Talkabout may not be for you -- it doesn't synchronize data to a PC or have PDA functions (like the Motorola PageWriter 2000x, Timeport P930, or Timeport P935). But people at work who have these heavier, more fully-functional pagers look at mine with more than a little bit of longing. What’s not to love? – it’s hip, small, and fun.
Most importantly, it keeps me in touch with my Beau wherever he is, no matter where I am. He was skeptical at first, but now he can’t imagine life without it. And he no longer feels like a National Geographic study. ;)
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 180
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Epinions.com ID:
tanster
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Location: Palo Alto, CA
Reviews written: 111
Trusted by: 331 members
About Me:
Happily reviewing cool gadgets and SF Bay Area restaurants since 1999. Pass the gravy, please.
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