Presto: Email and Photos over a plain old telephone line

Orginial post at TechCrunch

Presto has quietly launched a new service aimed at people who don’t currently have Internet access, but want to be able to receive emails and photos from loved ones. It combines a special printer produced by Hewlett Packard with a web service that sends data to the printer over a normal phone line - no need for internet access or a computer.

This is a great set-up for non-technical seniors.

The printer costs $150. Take it out of the box and feed it electricity and a normal phone line. No need for broadband internet service. You are assigned a special email address (name @presto.com), and when someone sends photos or other content to that email address, it prints out on the printer.

The service itself costs another $10 per month, which is where Presto makes their money. HP makes their money off of the ink cartridges that people will buy after using the service.

Presto is backed by Kleiner Perkins and Clearstone Venture Partners.