The scene at Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity Wednesday night did not appear out of the ordinary at first. Partygoers mingled over punch; the games of pong went on as usual. The only thing peculiar was the one girl who moved furiously about the basement, stamping attendees' hands with the phrase "blitzberry.com."
"We figured it was a good way to get the name out," Michelle Gladstone '08, a member of the Blitzberry Marketing Staff, said.
The website blitzberry.com automatically sends visitors to Mynapse, a service developed by computer science major Jeremy Debate '07 that allows users to have their e-mail forwarded to their cell phone.
"Mynapse turns any cell phone into a blackberry," Debate explained. "Anyone who uses e-mail needs this service. Having to run upstairs to check blitz while playing pong, waiting in line at a blitz terminal -- these are all things of the past."
Within one minute of the message reaching their e-mail inbox, Mynapse sends a text message to the user's phone telling them that they have a new e-mail message. Users can then access a server that allows them to download the entire message to their phone. The downloading process takes about a second, Debate said.
The user can then conduct replies from their cell phone. These replies are processed through the Mynapse server, which converts them to e-mails and sends them on.
"If you're out fratting you can reply from your phone and your professor will never know that you were away from your computer," he said.
Debate promises that Mynapse will always remain a free service, though cell phone networks might charge users for receiving texts. The service, however, has developed a filter that allows the user to select which messages are delivered to their phone in an attempt to keep down the cost of text messages. Users can filter messages by sender, time, and even phrases contained within the e-mail, Debate added.
Debate, a self-professed "geek," began work on the service when he was fifteen as an attempt to allow him to access his own e-mail on his cell phone.
"Ever since I've had a cell phone, I've wanted e-mail on the go," Debate said. "The existing methods I tried all had problems, so I said, 'I can do this better.'"
The service will be launched at Dartmouth this Saturday. The College will be the first school to have the full version of the service available to students, although private beta testing is underway at other schools.
Jimmy Mullen '09, a BlackBerry user, remained skeptical as to whether blitzberry could really render his wireless handheld device obsolete.
"I'd still choose a BlackBerry because it has a bigger screen and a keyboard," Mullen said.
Other students were more receptive to the idea. The fact that the service is free makes it an attractive alternative to Blitz terminals, Sarah Klassen '10 said. Others noted that the service could make phones more useful on a campus where BlitzMail is the primary form of communication.
"Most people here don't use their phone much anyway," James Kordahl '10 said. "But using your phone for Blitz would make your phone more useful."
