Using your mobile phone Email on your mobile phone
One advantage of being able to surf the internet on your mobile phone is that you can also access and send emails from your handset.
The easiest way of doing this with regular phones is by using web-based email accounts, such as Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL and Google Mail. Simply open your internet browser on the mobile phone handset, then navigate to the page to see your new messages.
The disadvantage of this approach is that you don't know when new messages arrive. To get round this, some mobile phones can receive emails directly, in the same way that they get text messages.
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'Push' and 'pull' email systems on your mobile
Pull email system
The standard email service available on most mobile phones simply pulls your emails to your mobile whenever you request them. This uses a protocol called POP3 or IMAP4.
Emails are received when you press a button to retrieve them, or you can have your mobile phone check for them at set periods (such as every hour).
The first time round, you'll need to provide the email settings to connect to your email provider. Typically you'll need to know:
- your email username and password
- your email provider's POP3 address for receiving email, eg mail.btinternet.com
- your email provider's SMTP address for sending email, eg mail.btinternet.com
- you might also be provided with a port number to avoid your emails being stopped by spam filters, eg 587.
Once you are set up, your emails will typically appear in the mobile phone's 'messages' menu alongside your text messages.
BlackBerrys use a push email system to instantly receive emails and many have a full Qwerty keypad to make replying quick and easy
BlackBerry handsets are known for their email features
Push email system
More advanced mobile phones tend to have a push email system. Made popular by the BlackBerry series. This system means that messages are delivered to the phone as soon as they are sent.
Some mobile phone handsets will even let you synchronise your phone with your PC, so your contacts and calendar will always be up to date.
Mobile phone email applications
If your phone has access to an application store, such as the iPhone's App Store or Android Market, then a much simpler way to access your email account is to download the relevant email app.
All you need to do is search your application store for your email provider, for instance Google Mail or Yahoo Mail, download their app (some are official, some may be unofficial), then log in with your email address and password. Once you've done this, you can then view your emails by simply clicking on the app.
Many phones, such as the HTC Desire, will communicate with email apps to provide you with notifications when you receive a new email.
However, not all email providers have released an official app. For instance, an official Hotmail application is still not available for Android phones.
Writing emails on your mobile phone
If you plan to send long emails from your mobile or enter large amounts of data, then a proper keyboard is very useful. However, a full qwerty keyboard does add to a handset's size.
Mobile phones that rely on a touchscreen keyboard are not ideal for entering data manually, but they're generally more portable. Numeric mobile phone keypads are even smaller, but can be awkward for data entry.
Reading email attachments on your mobile
Leaving your office doesn't have to mean leaving your critical work behind. Many phones come with software that allows you to access Microsoft Office documents (such as Word or Excel files), though some will only let you read them, not make any changes.
For models which don't offer integration with Microsoft Office, such as the iPhone, you can often download third-party applications that provide this function.
