Verizon allows easy access to e-mail via WAP

Now available on Verizon phones: Get It Now access to e-mail. If you have a Get It Now phone and WAP access, you can check your e-mail on your phone, so long as you’re using Yahoo, AOL, AIM, Verizon.net, or Windows Live Hotmail. Or, you will be able to. Seems that only a few handsets can access this feature now, but Verizon promises that it will be available on more and more handsets in the coming weeks and months. But for right now, it’s only ready to go on the LG enV, the MOTORAZR V3m, the MOTORAZR V3c, the LG VX8300, and the Chocolate by LG. So Verizon just keeps the iPhone answers coming. We’ve seen press release after press release from them over the past two weeks touting various services they offer that are comparable to what is offered by Apple’s ballyhooed product. We like this form of marketing, but we don’t see it having a far-reaching effect. Your regular phone, after all, isn’t nearly as cool as the iPhone, no matter what features they share. This service, however, has a bit of cost benefit. Instead of costing you the $45 for Verizon’s unlimited data plan, this mobile e-mail application is available through their mobile web service, which is just $5 per month. So you can check your e-mail, news, and sports scores all through this service. If you’re not into the glitzy, this plan works well. What we’re actually waiting for is not for it to appear on more phones (though that is a necessity for success), but for more mail services to become compatible. We love our Gmail, so this program from Verizon doesn’t entice us much. However, the press release does say “and more” after listing the available services, so maybe — just maybe — we could get Gmail working. And if we could get our POP3 e-mail working through that program, we’d certainly say it’s worth $5 per month. [CNN Money]]]>