Ever seen a blackberry? Not the fruit the phone? Well a lot of business people use them for email. It’s just a mobile phone with a special bit of software that lets you send/receive email. What makes the blackberry special is that when someone sends you an email it will pop up on the phone like a text message alerting you to the new email. This was a revolution and the technology is called Push technology.
The disadvantage to Blackberry is that it costs money for the service and your tied down to a certain type of phone. Microsoft launched it’s equivalent of push technology to Windows mobile smart phones. However again you were limited to a few phones. The other limit on the Microsoft service was that you needed a server to push the emails to your phone.
This has all changed thanks to Google Email (Gmail). Newer Sony Ericsson’s and Nokia’s support Push technology out the box with a google email address you can utilise this feature on your phone. Best of all, it’s free and you don’t need to be running a server or a business to have such a technology.
Step 1 Check your phone supports Push Technology.
Google email (Gmail) uses two technologies for email phone support, IMAP and Push. Go to your phone manufactures website (Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung) Enter your mobile phone model in their search and you should be able to find the product details on your phone.
Check to see if your phones does it.
Step 2 Create a Gmail account.
Go to Gmail.com and follow the steps to create a new google email account. This will give you a new email address. Gmail works with most email programs so if you use Windows Outlook you can configure gmail to work with it. You’ll have to tell everyone that you’ve changed your email of course. You can also use Gmail through your web browser.
Step 3 Configure Gmail
Once you’ve logged into gmail.com under your new account go to the settings Tab > Forwarding and POP/IMAP > Enable IMAP.
Step 4 Configure your phone
Consult your phone manual on how to create a new email account on your phone. Here are the gmail settings you’ll need.
Incoming mail
username: yourname@gmail.com
password: your gmail password
IMAP server: imap.gmail.com
encryption: SSL
Port: 993
Outgoing mail
username: yourname@gmail.com
password: your gmail password
IMAP server: smtp.gmail.com
encryption: SSL
Port: 465
Step 5 Test it works.
Send yourself an email, then reply via the phone did you get it?
Other tips would be to buy a data bundle with your mobile phone contract as it does cost a little money to send and receive the emails via your phone. To keep costs down most mobile phone companies offer data bundles. My data bundle comes free so I don’t have to worry. You should check this prior to sending and receiving emails as it can be costly if for example you do not have a contract and are on pay as you go.
I’m available to set up this type of email service in in your city if required. I don’t just do computer repairs in in your city. As I say, anything IT.