On other pages of this site we have discussed programs for reading
email on your computer, and web based services for reading email.
Here we focus on hand held devices for reading email, including cell
phones, PDA's, and combined devices.
Blackberry
The Blackberry was one of the earlies devices marketed to provide
email access wirlessly, using the cell phone network. In its
origoinal form it was not a cell phone, though there are now version
that combine the Blackberry functionaility with a phone. The
Blackberry offers significant more functionaility than simply using
the short message service (e.g. Text Messaging) with an existing cell
phone, providing a better user interface for storing and managing
messages that are received, and by allowing general email rather than
the limited length text messages.
iPhone
Apple's iPhone starts as a cell phone, combined with a PDA with an
advanced web browser, comes about as close as it can to providing the
full internet experience in a small package. It uses the cell phone
3G data network to provide high speed internet access in most
locations, while cell calls are routed using AT\&T's voice cell phone
network. For many, this is the device to get if you want full
internet access from your PDA/Cell phone combination. There have
recently been competitors introduced including Google's android,
paired with T-Mobile, and the Verizon Blackberry storm.
PDA's
Many personal digital assistants, such as the iPaq or Palm systems can
download email from your computer and store it for viewing when you
are away from your desktop system. Many PDA's also support wi-fi
internet access and are capable of downloading new messages in much
the same way as the iPhone or blackberry do. The typical user
interface is not at nice as on the iPhone or storm, but the capability
is as effective. Note that such remote access works only when in
range of a public or individually subscribed wi-fi hotspot, unlike the
iPhone or Blackberry which use the cell networks, providing wider
coverage.
SMS
SMS, the Short-Message-Service offered on most cell phones does not
compare with the full email functionaility of the devices listed
above. However, if all that you need is text messaging, it might be
sufficient for your needs. It is possible to configure mail filters
to forward email via text messaging, but only the first few characters
of the message makes it though. However, some of the alert services
describe on the Feeders page of this site can be configured to send
messages in the SMS format.
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