Don't read your emails, listen to them!

Platform : Windows 2000, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT

Type: time limited demo

Manufacturer: PPP Infotech Limited

Size: 5.1Mb

Rating: 4

Verdict: This product may save you time when checking emails; just don't expect perfect pronunciation from the speech tool.Good Points: Time saving; simple to use.Bad Points: Poor voice capabilities; Santa Claus is the default character.

System Requirements:
Minimum Pentium PC, 16Mb Ram, Microsoft Java Virtual Machine (JVM)/IE 5, POP3 compliant email account, sound card/speaker (if you want speech capability). Note: You must have Internet Explorer 5 installed with Java Virtual Machine to run MailAssistant. If you don't want IE5, the Microsoft JVM is available to install on its own: see the ReadMe document with this download for more details. If you have Windows Me or Windows 2000, the JVM is already installed on your system.

MailAssistant is an engaging program for POP3 email accounts which reads emails aloud via a range of desktop cartoon characters. The program also notifies you as new messages arrive (when online), and allows you to preview and delete them without downloading them first.

Along with its email tools, MailAssistant can also be used as to read text from web pages, text documents and any text stored on the Windows clipboard. However, despite assurances that the speech software is "natural sounding" and "understandable" I can only support the latter claim.

Speech technology is not yet advanced enough to be very effective, but MailAssistant does the best it can. There are some problems, including pronouncing words in capitals as a series of single letters, reading aloud code within emails sent as HTML, and some rather bizarre and amusing inflections in the voice.

Available in six languages, this link takes you to the MailAssistant download page, from where you can choose English, US English, Spanish, Dutch, Italian, German and French versions of the software.