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Gopher King web and web clipping-based email for PDAs: a killer app? Yes!
Reviewed by Lisa Gade, Editor in Chief, 2004

Gopher King, $39.95/year

Got email? Several accounts maybe with different providers? Want one place to read, reply and foward those emails? Would it be nice if it worked anywhere, from a desktop or notebook computer to a Palm OS device that can run PQA's (also called WCA's), Pocket PC, Palm OS Smartphone such as the Kyocera 6035 and Samsung I-300, Blackberry and WAP phones? Then you need Gopher King. I've been using their service on a variety of devices for more than a half year and it's been stellar. Gopher King was started by Bob Huang, a talented engineer who was disatisfied with current email solutions for PDAs.

More than Just Email

When the folks at Gopher King started charging for their service, they thought you should get a lot of bang for the buck. Not only do you get email, but also spam filters, an online address book, email notification service, calendar, 15 megs of file storage, FTP, weather, stock and news quotes, a dictionary, links to popular sites like Mapquest wireless, ESPN, eBay and more. All Gopher King hosted services run in SSL secure sessions.

So Gopher King is a handy portal with access to most all of the sites and information us wireless folk like to access from anywhere. It's a text-based presentation, so it works on most any PDA and you won't be downloading megs and megs of data.

GopherKing screen shot

Gopher King running as a Palm web clipping (aka Palm PQA or WCA).

Email Features

Gopher King allows you to set up an unlimited number of email accounts. Their service works with every ISP we've thrown at them, including the biggies like Earthlink, Mindspring, MSN, Yahoo Mail, Netscape Mail and HotMail. Protocols supported include POP, IMAP, SPOP, SIMAP, MSN, AOL and HOTMAIL. Gopher King provides an outgoing mail server, so you don't have to worry about whether your ISP supports relaying.

You can reply to, foward, report as spam or delete your mail messages. Attachments are supported and the Gopher King server automatically scans attachments for viruses. Mail remains on your mail server(s) with your email provider(s) unless you delete it in Gopher King. Thus if you want to check and reply to important emails while on the go, you can leave the remaining emails for pickup with your desktop computer when you return to your desk.

Gopher King provides a relatively good spam filter, and you can specify how frequently the spam filter checks your mail server for new spam. This spam filter is always running (even when you're not logged into Gopher King), and can reduce the spam clutter in your desktop inbox significantly.

Conclusion

This is a killer app for anyone who wishes to access a variety of email accounts, get news and stock information and access popular online destinations from one portal. The service is text-based and low bandwidth, making it compatible with just about any PDA and wallet-friendly for those who pay by the byte for access. It works with traditional dialup modems, WiFi LAN networks, cellular services such as CMDA and GSM running on Smartphones like the Kyocera 7135 and Samsung i500, T-Mobile PPC Phone Edition, Verizon's new high speed CDMA2000 1xRTT wireless network and the Palm.net wireless service for the Palm VII and Palm i705. And your sessions are secured with SSL.

If you're on the go and are concerned with time and bandwidth, and need access to a variety of email accounts, this service is the best way to go.
 
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