Voice E-Mail -- Bonzi's Voice E-Mail for Windows is an add-on multimedia mail utility designed to give users the ability to send audio and graphical messages across the 'net. Voice E-Mail is available in five distinct releases, each of which plugs into another application. Two of the Internet's most popular applications, Eudora and Netscape Navigator, as well as two of the more popular online services, Compuserve and AOL, and, finally, Microsoft Mail are the current applications that support the Voice E-Mail plug-ins. Each version of Voice E-Mail includes standard mail features like multiple recipient capabilities, message queuing, an address book, priority control, sensitivity filtering, and more. Bonzi offers a free Voice E-Mail player that will give you an idea of the capabilities that the complete client possesses, but it does lack the ability to create, compress, and send multimedia messages. For $29.95, you can get the complete client, and only then will you be able to take advantage of all of Voice E-Mail's innovative features. First, sound effects and voice clips can be edited and spliced together to comprise the dynamic side of your voice mail, or 'v-mail', message. You can also develop a static aspect for your v-mail by adding a picture of yourself or of anything else you desire. Voice E-Mail then uses its advanced compression technology to reduce the overall file size by nearly 90%. Bonzi accomplishes these amazing compression rates by using two distinct compression schemes, one designed specifically for the static part of your v-mail and another that addresses the dynamic portion. What's even more surprising is that even with its high rates of compression, the quality of both aspects of the v-mail are extremely high, especially the audio portion. Voice E-Mail utilizes Microsoft's Sound Recorder to play sound clips, adding echo and reverb effects, volume and speed control, and mixing capabilities to the Voice E-Mail feature set. Bonzi's Voice E-Mail counters the cliche that you can't teach an old dog new tricks. By delivering cutting-edge technology to one of the Internet's oldest services, Voice E-Mail has the capacity to both innovate and stimulate. For the first time, real emotions can be conveyed across data lines normally used only for text-based messages. Only the addition of high-quality video could make for a more personal e-mail experience. The only real downside is that unless both the sender and receiver have copies of Voice E-Mail installed on their systems, the technology is wasted. For this reason, it is extremely critical that Voice E-Mail secure long-term partnerships with companies like Qualcomm (Eudora Pro) and Netscape Communications Corporation (Netscape Navigator) in order to have Voice E-Mail pre-bundled with their clients. Only when enough people have Voice E-Mail on their systems will this technology be able to realize its full potential. Pros: Sound and graphical 'v-mails', amazing compression rates, excellent quality, inexpensive Cons: Both the sender and receiver must have copies of Voice E-Mail installed on their systems New: This is the initial review for Voice E-Mail Version Reviewed: 3.0 Date of Review: 4/11/96 Reviewer: Forrest Stroud