And most of it, I'll admit, is drivel. Spam, PR pitches and online newsletters clutter my virtual mailbox, inducing glazed eyes and facial tics. Yet sandwiched amid this Sargasso Sea of flotsam are some genuine pearls. Here is a handful of such intriguing companies discovered while poring over e-mail the past few weeks. The idea is that consumers would view photos online, purchase the ones they like and then e-mail them to friends or family.
More distribution deals are in works.
The way things are today, it's like buying produce at the store and not looking at it until you get home. From vision to voice, BeVocal has concocted services such as real-time traffic reports that can be accessed over a mobile phone using voice commands. The spiffy technology was the winner of several awards at the Upside Showcase trade show in Rancho Mirage, Calif., last month. The Mountain View, Calif., company has built a telecommunications infrastructure in which customers would dial an 800 number and utter spoken commands for information on weather forecasts, traffic conditions, directions, sports scores and headlines. Like popular movie phone services, users access a voice menu.