April 28; 2009; BANGALORE: If you are one of those hard core email freaks who maintain multiple email accounts – some for work, some for play and some for other in-between activities – you life is probably complicated by advanced symptoms of mail deprivation syndrome: having to answer the question: “How can I live all my separate lives without missing out on some of mails, some of the time?”

For such email freaks we bring tidings of great joy: Nokia has launched a software platform, called Messaging Service that can juggle up to 15 separate third party email accounts and messaging services – Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoomail, Sify, Rediffmail, IndiaTimes, Net4 or whatever – and also allows you to maintain a Jekyll-and-Hyde lifestyle, with a separate face for business and personal mail. 

And to showcase what Nokia Messaging Service can do for you, the company has just launched in India, the E75 handset that comes pre-loaded with the necessary software. It is also Nokia’s first side slider phone with a full qwerty keyboard and at a slim 11.18 cm by 5 cm by 1.44 cm thickness and a weight of under 140 grams, it makes   those bulky, classic Nokia Communicators seem like something from the Jurassic Park of   smart hand phones. The E 75 is a EGSM quad band /WCDMA phone with a 2.4 inch colour screen,   8 GB memory card ( can take up to 16 GB microSD card) and a 3.2 megapixel camera, FM and Internet radio. It can also latch on to WiFi 802.11 b or g networks, where found – a good feature to have in airports hotel lobbies and other public hotspots to keep those browsing expenses under control.

I tried out the email service adding feature and it is literally child’s play and takes just three clicks to integrate a new email service into the phone and have its logo added to the existing list. You can programme separate alerts for home and office accounts and displays the first line of each mail as it is received. 

Here’s the interesting part: the Nokia Messaging service is currently a free offering   and any one can download the application from http://email.nokia.com/ After the E75, Nokia plans on offering the feature on 18 other phones in the E and N series -- all running on the S 60 series platform. However in most other countries the messaging service is a value addition   through the service providers. That will also be the eventual route in India – but I had the feeling Nokia will ensure that the telecom providers offer the service at a compelling price that will take on Blackberry –like services … a sort for aam janatha or peoples’ version. 

Meanwhile nothing prevents Indian users from enjoying Nokia Messaging service for free – while they still can