Here’s an honest confession: It’s rare that I’ll really, truly love a service I write about. And here’s an exception: KoolWire.com. In essence, the service a simple, easy, quick, and dirty file conversion service. You send an e-mail to one of the corresponding formats (the one you want your file converted to) with an attachment of the file you want converted, and get a reply with the converted file within seconds. Here’s the English version and here’s the Spanish version.
KoolWire currently supports converting to and from about four formats. Taken from the rules page of the Spanish version (for some reason, their English version only lists the PDF format):
| E-mail Address |
Accepting Filetypes |
| pdf@koolwire.com | Word (doc, docx), Powerpoint (ppt, pptx), Excel (xls, xlsx), Visio (vsd), MS Project (mpp), Jpeg, GIF, RTF, txt. |
| doc@koolwire.com | |
| mp3@koolwire.com | Wav |
| wav@koolwire.com | Mp3 |
Certainly, I know of several instances where I wish a service like KoolWire existed. Having recently upgraded to Office 2007 where the .docx format (a format that is non-backwards-compatible with previous version of Word) is set to the default, the need for a good file conversion service for times when you have to use a different computer have definitely risen.
KoolWire is definitely a one-of-a-kind service, and one which totally trumps any other online file conversion service out there. What I love is that the technical capabilities of the service is not limited or set to one interface — the “web” — but that it makes of the Internet platform in general and provides you with the best, most accessible, and most preferred interface for this need: undoubtedly e-mail.
As they continue to add more formats, the likes of which you can vote on on their blog, the service is going to get more and more useful. Of course, a problem with a too-good-to-be-true service like KoolWire is the fact that other than charging for a premium plan, there aren’t many options for a business model. While I hope the service continues to remains free, I do hope they end up finding a suitable way to pay their bills — be it by taking donations, getting funded, or monetizing their conversion e-mails (something I personally really don’t have a problem with.)
Kudos to Josh Lowensohn of Webware for the find.
