Frill-Free Gadgets

The Mailbox accepts e-mail only from people in the device owner's address book. Friends can add themselves to it by visiting the Presto site and entering an access code, provided on a set of Friends Cards that the Mailbox prints out.

This printer comes set up to dial up and download new messages once a day. Forget instant messaging; this is more like the telegram.

This printer is amazingly quiet, but it sometimes took as long as a minute to print a page. (Ink cartridges, needed every few hundred pages, run $25 or $35, depending on capacity. It should be clear how HP is going to its money here.) The Presto service costs $9.95 a month or $99.99 a year.

Each e-mail is printed out in large type, with most of its formatting intact. Senders can customize the appearance of their messages -- for instance, by adding borders or generating a monthly calendar. Presto users can also sign up for a variety of short newsletters on such topics as car care and gardening.

In two test calls, Presto's tech support -- available toll-free for most of the day--involved no hold music and no waiting.

Presto's service does, however, need some fine-tuning. Sometimes, the Friends Card page on Presto's site yielded a "runtime error" message instead of confirming a user's addition to the address book.

The service also rejects e-mails that bundle non-picture files. But the error message it returns implies that the non-attachment part of the message got through; in reality, a single Word attachment disqualifies the entire e-mail.

My next phone or e-mail service probably won't look or work anything like either of these two devices. But its designers ought to remember the ideas that let the Jitterbug and Presto work for their intended users.

First, however many features you throw in, the important capabilities need to be the most obvious, easiest things about the product. Second, just in case you missed something, make it easy for people to ask for help.

Living with technology, or trying to? E-mail Rob Pegoraro atrobp@washpost.com. Read more athttp://blog.washingtonpost.com/fasterforward/