AT&T PersonaLink Delivers Some Magic

Infonauts and regular people together now have a new way to navigate through the electronic frontier land. On September 28th, AT&T took best advantage of the Sony gathering in New York to trumpet its own news about the immediate availability of the much anticipated PersonaLink network.

AT&T’s PersonaLink Service is the first commercial implementation of General Magic’s Telescript technology, which promises to create a network that makes most facets of communication and electronic commerce more accessible and pleasant.

A Bit About Telescript

As you’ll recall from our overview of General Magic technology in the January 1994 issue, Telescript is a language that is used to describe communication, in much the same way as PostScript describes an image. Each computer that interacts directly with a Telescript-based network—such as AT&T’s PersonaLink—requires a Telescript interpreter running on the device.

Telescript works by turning the conventional Remote Procedure Calls (RPC) model around and instead using a system known as Remote Programming (RP). In this model, the network is responsible for transporting objects which consist of data and procedures between machines.

When an object arrives at a device on the network, it can not only deliver information, such as an electronic message, but it can also execute a program to perform useful work. In effect, these objects become your virtual, intelligent agents.

The tasks that an agent can perform vary widely, including forwarding a piece of mail from a computer to a fax machine, searching for the best price for any remaining professional sport in North America, to installing an upgrade to a registered piece of software on a mobile computer.

Fancy Messaging

Owners of Sony’s new Magic Link, which employs the Magic Cap and Telescript technology, will get the first crack at using PersonaLink. After performing a straightforward online registration, each user is assigned an electronic mailbox and address on the network.

In addition to using the electronic mail service—known as PersonaLink Mail—subscribers can also opt for a free news service created and supplied by LEXIS/NEXIS Services dubbed the AT&T PersonaLink Daily News Summary. PersonaLink also streamlines the dream of many software developers and vendors—truly seamless electronic distribution and installation of application programs.

An application arriving in the inbox over PersonaLink appears like any other message. The content of the message, however, explains that an agent has arrived on your device and asks for permission to execute. At this point you can select allow the agent to perform its task, or discard the entire message without any disruption.

If you decide to proceed, the agent performs all the work to install the transmitted application correctly and without fuss. Indeed, we received Palm Computing’s Graffiti handwriting tool in this manner without complication.

Rich Messaging Awaits You

As you would expect, PersonaLink includes the necessary gateways to other popular messaging services such as AT&T EasyLink, MCI Mail, and most importantly, the Internet. Since a PersonaLink message can include graphics, animation, ink, and even voice annotations—well outside the bounds of most messaging systems—a message delivered to the Internet, for example, contains the following important trailer informing the recipient:

“NOTICE: This message originally included graphics and/or sounds which can only be received by AT&T PersonaLink (sm) subscribers. You received only the text portion(s) of the message. Please contact the sender for information that was deleted.”

Don’t Call Us, We’ll Call You

With electronic messaging becoming more and more popular, so too is the likelihood of being bombarded with unwanted messages ranging from strange solicitations to impolite personal attacks, known in the Internet world as “flames.” These messages, often both annoying and disruptive, are best filtered out by the messaging program before reaching the user.

Not unlike some more advanced email systems, PersonaLink and Magic Cap include features for specifying what kind of messages the user is interested in receiving, along with what to do with them after they arrive. For example, you can instruct the system to perform these operations among others:

• forward a copy of all messages received from a certain person to another recipient
• forward a copy of all messages concerning a particular subject to another recipient
• discard all messages about a certain subject without viewing them

For What City Please?

PersonaLink also includes a service which it refers to as a “smart” subscriber directory. You can instruct your Magic Link communicator to dispatch an agent to find the address information of any subscriber to the network.

This agent searches the directory and later delivers a message back to your device that contains an address card that you can file away for future use.

This type of service is essential for any wide-scale use of electronic messaging, and is only recently starting to appear on the massive Internet, for example. The Magic Cap system, together with PersonaLink, takes this to the next level by integrating the PersonaLink directory seamlessly with your personal directory in the communicator.

Making a Market on PersonaLink

AT&T further anticipates a new range of services to appear that can use the power of intelligent agents to perform complex and time-consuming searches in online databases, notify traders of stock price changes and other conditions, or complete tedious personal tasks such as booking upcoming travel arrangements.

On a more ambitious note, AT&T is planning to launch an electronic shopping mall modeled after its real-life counterpart that will enable users to navigate and browse through on-screen shops and kiosks. Dubbed the PersonaLink Market Square Services, the electronic shopping center is based on technology that AT&T is licensing from eShop, Inc.

The first set of stores that should be available in the Market Square seem reasonably appropriate for the expected early audience for PersonaLink-enabled devices. These include:

• a floral and gift service from 800-FLOWERS
• a computer catalog service from Computer Express
• a software and novelty gift shop called Everything Magic from eShop, Inc.
• an electronic information service called iMMEDIATE! ANSWERS from LEXIS/NEXIS

Of these, the first and last (floral and information) services stand out as most appropriate since people are already used to frequently ordering both products using either a telephone or computer. In both cases, the notion of ordering these products sight-unseen has already been firmly established in the customer’s mind.

The Price is Right…For Now

While PersonaLink came online nationwide on September 28, 1994, currently only Sony’s Magic Link communicator has the software necessary to directly access the service. Motorola’s already-announced Envoy personal communicator, which is expected to start shipping later this year, will also include support for the PersonaLink network, along with built-in wide-area wireless support over the ARDIS network.

General Magic has already indicated that it hopes to have its Telescript and Magic Cap software running on a range of platforms, including desktop computers, giving even wider access to the PersonaLink network and its accompanying services.

However, AT&T is hoping to quickly snare as many subscribers as possible using an aggressive introductory pricing scheme. For the first months through to March 1995, the PersonaLink basic service package will be available for a flat fee of $9.95 per month for unlimited electronic messaging. Following this period, AT&T will revert to a more conventional pricing structure based on usage and special features.

AT&T PersonaLink Services
Contact: Gail Silver
201-331-4132
[email protected]
1-800-936-LINK