Cidco MailStation

The CIDCo MailStation was a portable e-mail terminal first introduced by CIDCO Inc in 1999 at Amazon.com and was marketed as the Mivo 100 by EarthLink. The MailStation is no longer sold by either EarthLink or Amazon.

The MailStation was designed to send and receive e-mails via a standard POTS telephone line. It was intended as an alternative to a laptop computer in regards to its messaging capabilities and also as an alternative to a personal computer for those who for whatever reason do not have access to one but who wish to enjoy the benefits of e-mail.

The device could hold up to four hundred messages and up to one thousand contacts. Since it was not a personal/laptop computer, the MailStation could not be used to view attachments.

Mailstation Models

Since the introduction of Mailstation in 1999 its been released in 5 different models:

Mivo 100

Mivo 150

Mivo 200

Mivo 250

Mivo 350

All the models are portable and run on either 3 to 4 AA batteries or with an AC adapter. It has a parallel printer port for printer connection.Though the previous models (Mivo 100, Mivo 150, Mivo 200) didn't have the capability of receiving attachments, later that drawbackwas rectified with the Mivo 250 and Mivo 350. Mivo 250 and 350 had the capability of receiving attachments (i.e. gif and jpg images) butthe size of the mail along with the attachment should be less than 100KB. In addition to receiving attachments, the Mivo 250 and Mivo 350 include a separate wireless modem allowing untethered...
Read More