The Eye

This free service has been around for a while, but there’s so much new stuff out there, that it’s impossible to keep up, and it’s inevitable that you miss some things along the way. Pinger is one of those.

What does it do?

First, go to http://pinger.com and sign up. Then you can start adding contacts. All you need to do is to add their name, their mobiel number, and perhaps their email address.

You get a number from pinger to call when you set the service up.  You call this number, say your friends name, and speak your message. They get a text message giving them a number to call back on. They call back, listen to the message, and they can reply to you.

So, you say, what’s special about that? It sounds like voicemail. This is true, but there’s more.

You can ask for a text message to be sent back to you when your friend listens to their message, so you know they’ve received it.

You can also put your contacts into groups. Perhaps you meet up with a regular few friends on Friday night. You could add them to a group, and then send a message to the whole group at once. That’s one phone call, one number to remember, and one message to speak.

If you’ve got bluetooth, you could set Pinger on a speed dial, and even drop a quick message when you’re in the car, to everyone you want to at once. It works too, when you want to message your friends to meet for lunch, but you don’t want the boss to see you calling everyone on the phone to arrange it. One quick call, it’s done.

As yet, and I’ve only been playing around with it for a few hours - I can’t see any cons. I recommend you give it a try.