Cool Citibank (PH) Alert

Like any other email users, I usually ignore, discard and ultimately delete automated emails from my credit card provider. But a few hours ago, I got this email which I really appreciate:

Dear Cardholder,

Your Citibank Visa had a large debit transaction amounting
to P 44,000.00 on 11-22-2007. Log-on
to Citibank Online to check your account details.

Thank you.
Citibank, N.A.

This transaction was really done by me when I paid for my car's maintenance and repair last week. It would have alerted me if my card was used without my knowledge.

Kudos to Citibank for this system.

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Mail2Web: The Kuripotechie Guide to Email-on-the-Go

When I decided to take the plunge and get a Nokia E61I last week, I got busy trying out all its features. One feature I really like about this phone is its ability to connect to MS Exchange Servers, effectively giving its user a facility that is similar to the expensive Blackberry service. The program Nokia E61I uses for this is called "Mail for Exchange" a bundled program that emulates Windows Mobile devices' ActiveSync.



I attempted to connect with our corporate MS Exchange Server but unfortunately, we use self-generated certificates which essentially means that it can't communicate with my phone. So I searched for a solution until I discovered was a free service from Mail2Web. What it essentially offer is a free MS Exchange Outlook Mobile Access (OWA) that can be accessed using Mail for Exchange. What's so cool about this free service is that it can aggregate different email addresses. I use GMail as my personal mailbox while my company mail is hosted by, as I've mentioned, MS Exchange.

Since the service is free, I immediately signed up and initially accessed my "native" mail2web.com address. Then I used Mail2Web's mail aggregation wizard to get my GMail account. When I got to the office, I configured MS Outlook 2003 to automatically forward emails that are flagged as "Important" to Mail2Web.

End result? I now have a poor man's Blackberry-work-alike. I can now wirelessly read my emails and reply to them as needed. Total cost for the facility is virtually zero because I only access my emails whenever I'm in the vicinity of a wi-fi access point.

This post is cross posted at http://pwit.org/