How to Access Email on the Move

A few years ago, as the possibilities of the mobile internet were only just becoming clear, one of the ‘killer applications’ that was often talked about was the ability to get email on the move. Most commentators were of agreement, that being able to access email on the go would be the one feature that would really push the sale of mobile internet enabled devices. These days, we seem to take the access to email wherever, whenever, for granted.

It is rare these days for a modern mobile phone not to include at least a simple email client in the messaging menu. Of course we expect this of smartphones, but even the majority of mid range handsets and even some lower range devices can be configured to access your email account, although it is fair to say the further down the line you go in handset price, the less effective and more problematic the device can be to set up for mobile email access. Additionally, there are some third party setups that will also give you simple, synchronised access to your email from your mobile device, and we’re going to take a look at a few of these handsets and services in a bit more detail.

In the earlier days of mobile email access, setting up a device was a rather complicated affair, with users needing to know information like the SMTP and POP settings for their accounts. Thankfully life is a lot easier these days, most devices require only username, password and email address, the rest of the information is added automatically by the device. When mobile email is mentioned, it is not uncommon for the first thought to turn to BlackBerry.

BlackBerry devices have had a major impact on messaging from a mobile device, and have moved from what was solely seen as a corporate user’s work tool to something that is not uncommon in the hands of many teenagers. There are two ways a BlackBerry device will handle email, one is known as BES (BlackBerry Enterprise Service) and the other is BIS (BlackBerry Internet Service). BES is pretty much exclusively a corporate setup. If you own a BlackBerry device and you use it for work email, it is most likely that the setup is controlled by the internal IT team, and uses BlackBerry Exchange software. For people who work in smaller companies, and for sole traders, prosumers, and general blackberry owners, the service you would use is BIS. BlackBerry devices tend to use technology known as ‘Push’ for delivering email to your mobile phone. Push technology actively sends out the email to your connected device as soon as it hits the email server, delivering the email to you instantaneously. If you mark the email as read, it will also be marked as read on your server. You can still access the email via your PC, and can archive it for future reference.

With a Blackberry device, networks set up a Network Operating Centre (NOC) which is operated by RIM (Research in Motion, the people who manufacture BlackBerry devices) via a private APN (Access Point Name). The networks are charged for this, a charge that is passed on to the customer. If you have owned a BlackBerry device for personal usage, you may well have been aware of extra charges to access the BlackBerry email and blackberry internet services. That charge covered the cost of accessing the BlackBerry servers.

There are benefits to this, and one of these is BlackBerry Messenger, also known as BBM. BBM allows you to communicate with other BlackBerry devices via a service called PIN messaging. It’s a bit like any other instant messaging service, you can send pictures, text, voice notes, etc, directly to another BlackBerry device, all you need to know is the PIN number of the handset you are connecting with. (PIN numbers can be accessed via the settings menu, as well as being written on the IMEI label underneath the battery on the phone, and on the side of the box the phone came in) The BBM service totally bypasses the cellular network, which can also offer significant cost savings if it is used when abroad. BBM is also a main driver in the growing popularity of BlackBerry devices amongst the younger users.

Whilst BlackBerry pretty much built their empire on mobile email, it took other manufacturers a little while longer to get on board. In recent times, one manufacturer which has made big strides in delivering a decent mobile messaging experience is the world’s largest manufacturer of mobile phones, Nokia. The Finnish giant offers a personalised service on a range of Nokia handsets, via their Nokia Messaging service, which is as simple to setup via the Nokia messaging website as it is on the phone itself. All you need to do to get emails coming through directly to your device is to enter the details of the handset you are using and the email account settings on to the Nokia Messaging website. The procedure is a world away from the complicated and difficult process that was needed in the past, and has helped serve Nokia with a decent slice of the mobile email market. Allied to this Nokia have delivered some supreme quality messaging handsets to the market in recent times, especially in the E Series range. As well as delivering access to email, the E Series devices deliver strong feature set, and have gained a reputation for excellent build quality and a supreme battery performance, features that are all important for those that work away from the office for long periods.

With most other mobile devices, the technology used in email access is something called ‘Pull’ retrieval. This generally involves the handset automatically connecting to your email account, on average every 15 minutes, and ‘pulling’ all newly delivered unread messages into the handset inbox. A time lapse of 15 minutes in notification isn’t such a big deal for many people, and there is a saving in terms of costs for people who use handsets that utilise pull technology. This can be of interest to users whose handsets do not deliver the decent battery life of a BlackBerry or Nokia E Series device. Because ‘Pull’ is not constantly connected to the network, the battery performance is less affected.

Aside from Push and Pull technology, you can also configure your email client on your mobile phone for manual synchronisation with your email account. Many people prefer this option, as it gives the idea of being in control of when they get their email, rather than feeling their email is controlling them with always connected services. Once your email client on your device has been configured, simply open the mailbox so the handset can connect, poll your account, and deliver any unread messages. Further messages will not be delivered to your phone until you open the mailbox to connect again.

If your preference is for Push email, but the device you are currently using can only handle Pull, then you could look at some of the online services available, which can mimic the performance of push email. Services such as Emoze or Mail2Web work to give you instant access to your email wherever you are. Once you have signed up for an account with them, you simply set in your email details and the service starts pushing out emails straight to your phone. Some of the benefits of these types of services are being able to keep up to date with your messages even if you change handsets frequently, as they work on a variety of phones from a range of manufacturers, including the iPhone, Android, Palm or Windows Mobile handsets, and Symbian devices. They can also be configured to deliver social networking updates from services like Twitter and Facebook, delivering a fully rounded messaging experience. There are many more services like these available online, and some of the services offered are not always free, so make sure you are aware of the costs involved before you sign up.

Among the most popular email services are those offered by Google, Yahoo and Hotmail; these web based services let you login to your account by any device that has access to the internet, such as a PC, MP3 player and of course a mobile phone. These services are compatible with email clients found on most devices, but the quality varies from manufacturer to manufacturer. As the web browsers have improved on mobile phones these days, it has become easier to ace web based email via the browser on the mobile phone. If you find your browser isn’t up to the job, then you could always look at downloading the excellent Opera Mini.

Services like Google’s Gmail also offer java apps that you can install on almost any handset that supports java, and that’s a lot of phones! The Gmail app mimics the layout of the Gmail web service, and is a very intuitive application to use.

As it turned out, access to email on the move didn’t really explode the sale of mobile internet based devices; that was more due to the development of large, colour, touch-enabled handsets which offer a much improved overall web browsing experience. But email is a major part of the feature set on any decent device these days, and as communities move more and more to using email to keep in touch with family and friends, being able to access email from your mobile phone has never been as important. Or as easy.