Apple learnt a lesson from the BlackBerry when it was developing the iPhone: users like email on the move. And like the best students, it went out into the world and did better than its teacher. Email on the iPhone is far from a weak point. It has presets for Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, MobileMe and AOL, and also lets you add a regular Pop3, Imap or Exchange email account. These last two options will be of particular interest to business users, where messages may be hosted on a central server rather than downloaded on an ad-hoc basis and deleted. MobileMe, which replaced the old .Mac, works in much the same way.
Adding your email account
The principle for adding any of the preset account types is the same, as the iPhone requires only that you enter four pieces of information: your name, your email address, your password and a description used to identify the account if you are setting up more than one. I f you have one of these accounts, set it up by tapping its icon and when you click on Save, the iPhone will check that the information you have provided is valid.
Sometimes you may see an error message stating that the iPhone is unable to connect and asking if it can try connecting without SSL. Say yes to this, but bear in mind that it is a less secure way of connecting and will not solve all problems. If you are trying to connect through a corporate network, it may be worth talking to your network administrator, and asking them to open up any necessary ports on their firewall.
If you have a regular Pop3 email account supplied by your Internet service provider (ISP), then things arc a little more complicated. Tap the Other line below the icons for the default services and select the appropriate protocol from the three options at the top of the screen. For most accounts, this will be Pop. Type in your name, email address and a description for the account. You will need to ask your ISP for the details to complete the Incoming and Outgoing Mail Server sections, and once you have entered them, click on Save to store the settings. Assuming all was correct, you should then be taken to your inbox.
If you don't already have an email account that you would like to use with your iPhone, you can set up a free account with three of the four pre-set services in the iPhone's mail application by visiting the following sites using a regular web browser (not an email client):
Yahoo! Mail www.ymail.com
AOL Mail www.aol.com
Google Mail www.google.com/mail
However, by far the most useful for any iPhone user is MobileMe (WWW.me.com), which provides you with a push email account. This transfers messages to the iPhone as soon as they are received, mimicking the BlackBerry's way of working, and saving you from having to manually invoke a collection.
Picking up messages
At the moment, your email will be set to only pick up when you tell it to. This is great for making sure you rule your messages, rather than allowing them to rule you, but it is not entirely convenient.
To set your iPhone to poll the server and download new messages automatically, return to the iPhone Home screen, tap Settings > Mail > Auto-Check and choose from every 15, 30 or 60 minutes, depending on how much of an email junkie you are. Of course, if you are waiting for an urgent message you can still check manually from the Mail application by clicking on the circular arrow symbol at the bottom of the Mail window. Once you have picked up your messages, you will naturally sort through them, reading them, replying to the ones that need immediate action, and postponing others. A lot of messages can be deleted right away, which you can do by tapping the Bin icon at the bottom of the screen. Obviously, you will have to then tap again to confirm, at which point the message will sweep down from the screen and into the bin.
Others will need some thought, and so naturally you will want to mark them as unread. To do this, and with the email open on your iPhone screen, tap the Details button beside the sender name and an Unread button will appear. This resets the message's read status, so that if appears as a new message in your inbox listing.
Sending messages
You can send a message from anywhere in the Mail application, without having to return to the main mailbox screen, by clicking the small square and pencil icon in the bottom right-hand comer. If you already know the address of the person you want to message you can type it straight in, but it is easier to tap the blue + icon to the right of the To field and select the person from your contacts list where you will be given the chance to pick the appropriate address if they have more than one in their record.
The procedure for replying to messages that you are reading is the same as above, except that instead of tapping the square and pencil icon, you tap on the backwards-pointing arrow, which would give you the option of either forwarding or replying to the presently-displayed message.
You will probably want to set a signature line to appear at the bottom of every email you send, containing information such as your name, web address and phone number (but think carefully when deciding what to include, bearing :n mind that this information may be passed on to others should the recipients forward your email). To do this, return to the iPhone home screen and tap Settings > Mail > Signature and type in the message of your choice. It is good practice to precede your signature with two dashes and a space ('-- ') and then start the footer on the next line down. In this way, most email clients will trim it off when your message is quoted back to you in a subsequent email.
Managing messaging defaults
Several iPhone features, such as emailing video links from YouTube or jottings from the Notes tool, will always use your default email address to dispatch messages. The default address is whichever one you set up first, which might not be the one you prefer.
If you have set up several accounts and would like one of your later additions to work as the default, and so handle email from other iPhone applications, change it through Settings > Mail > Default Account.
Pop3 messages not syncing?
Although you can synchronise the Pop3 email accounts on both your iPhone and your desktop or laptop computer, this only transfers across the account settings, not the messages themselves. If you, therefore, set your regular computer to download messages and delete them from the server, they will not appear on your iPhone unless it accesses them first, no matter how many times you sync.
Get around this obstacle by setting your regular computer to only delete messages a week after they have been collected, which will give you time to connect using your iPhone and pick up a second copy. Alternatively, use an Imap or Exchange service, or Apple's own MobileMe to store your messages on the server at all times so that what you see on your iPhone will always match what appears on a regular computer.
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