Unless you've been hiding out with the Amish like Harrison Ford in "Witness" for the better part of the last year, you've been told that the Apple iPhone is the the most revolutionary device in communications since Ma Bell replaced the hand crank on the telephone with the rotary dial pad. 
Part of this "revolution" is "Visual Voicemail" that allows you to "see" your voicemail calls like e-mail and play just the ones you need to hear and in any order you wish. Apple really came up with a revolutionary new way to get voicemail...
...except they didn't. "Visual" voicemail is really nothing new, just a snazzy name for "getting my voicemail attached to my email." The iPhone simply uses a dedicated push e-mail account supplied by the wireless carrier for the sole purpose of receiving the audio of voicemails as file attachments. This is possible with any phone that can receive e-mail and play audio, like your Windows Mobile phone.
Many companies will sell you Visual Voicemail with various extras. YouMail.com, for example, the one I currently use, offers basic Visual Voicemail for free, and for a monthly fee will not only send you the audio in an e-mail, but also transcribe caller's messages into text, so you can read them instead of listen. .
After setting up the YouMail account to forward your voicemail to your e-mail, you just need to set your mobile phone to forward unanswered calls to the mailbox phone number YouMail provides you with. This is called "Conditional Call Forwarding" and the procedure varies by the model of phone and your wireless carrier, but for GSM phones (AT&T, T-Mobile, etc.) it's pretty standard- enter *004*[number you want to forward to]*11# then hit send. To cancel it and go back to your regular phone company voicemail, you dial ##004#.
Now when callers leave a message, the recording is attached to an e-mail as an .mp3 file and sent to your phone, eliminating the need to call in to retrieve messages. As a bonus, any available Caller-ID information is sent as well, so you get an e-mail with a subject line like "XYZ Corp. left a 23-second message" or "800-555-1212 left a 23-second message" (if no caller name ID info is available.)
You are also alerted to missed calls, even if no message was left- perfect for when your phone was off (like on a flight) so you'll know who called but didn't leave a message- info your phone doesn't otherwise give you if it was off or out of a service area, so you'll have an e-mail like "Bob Smith-- Missed Call."
There- now you have the iPhone's "flagship feature" on a far more productive device- your Windows Mobile handset.
Again, the real magic here is being provided by your push e-mail account, so you get the voicemails and missed call notifications ASAP. If instant push e-mail is something you haven't looked into yet, we'll cover that in Part 2! Don't change the channel!
Part of this "revolution" is "Visual Voicemail" that allows you to "see" your voicemail calls like e-mail and play just the ones you need to hear and in any order you wish. Apple really came up with a revolutionary new way to get voicemail...
...except they didn't. "Visual" voicemail is really nothing new, just a snazzy name for "getting my voicemail attached to my email." The iPhone simply uses a dedicated push e-mail account supplied by the wireless carrier for the sole purpose of receiving the audio of voicemails as file attachments. This is possible with any phone that can receive e-mail and play audio, like your Windows Mobile phone.
Many companies will sell you Visual Voicemail with various extras. YouMail.com, for example, the one I currently use, offers basic Visual Voicemail for free, and for a monthly fee will not only send you the audio in an e-mail, but also transcribe caller's messages into text, so you can read them instead of listen. .
After setting up the YouMail account to forward your voicemail to your e-mail, you just need to set your mobile phone to forward unanswered calls to the mailbox phone number YouMail provides you with. This is called "Conditional Call Forwarding" and the procedure varies by the model of phone and your wireless carrier, but for GSM phones (AT&T, T-Mobile, etc.) it's pretty standard- enter *004*[number you want to forward to]*11# then hit send. To cancel it and go back to your regular phone company voicemail, you dial ##004#.
Now when callers leave a message, the recording is attached to an e-mail as an .mp3 file and sent to your phone, eliminating the need to call in to retrieve messages. As a bonus, any available Caller-ID information is sent as well, so you get an e-mail with a subject line like "XYZ Corp. left a 23-second message" or "800-555-1212 left a 23-second message" (if no caller name ID info is available.)
You are also alerted to missed calls, even if no message was left- perfect for when your phone was off (like on a flight) so you'll know who called but didn't leave a message- info your phone doesn't otherwise give you if it was off or out of a service area, so you'll have an e-mail like "Bob Smith-- Missed Call."
There- now you have the iPhone's "flagship feature" on a far more productive device- your Windows Mobile handset.
Again, the real magic here is being provided by your push e-mail account, so you get the voicemails and missed call notifications ASAP. If instant push e-mail is something you haven't looked into yet, we'll cover that in Part 2! Don't change the channel!
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