iPhone by Steve

One of the first things I did after buying my iPhone was to set up my email. For me, this means Gmail.

I love Gmail and would recommend it to anyone for several reasons:

• My first goal with any phone I’ve owned has always been to “untie” myself from desktop Microsoft Outlook. To me, this means having an email account that I can check anywhere, from any computer or from my phone. I like the freedom and flexibility that this approach provides. If you use Outlook, then you are probably tied to the computer you run it on. It’s designed to be used on one computer and any attempts to free yourself from this system, while not impossible, are usually not very practical.
• Gmail has an excellent interface with it’s threaded conversations. Once used to it, I believe you’ll prefer it to traditional methods of reading your email. In fact, I don’t think it’s even a close call. Gmail’s conversation threads blow traditional email away, period.
• Yahoo Mail is another web based email system and in fact I used it for about 2 years before Gmail came along, but I think Gmail is better. Unless you pay for the upgraded Yahoo service, your email screen will be swamped with the ads that Yahoo serves up. For me, anyway, flashing ads are pretty distracting while I’m trying to read my email! Gmail’s free service also has ads, but they are text-based ads and not very intrusive, and they reside off to the side of your inbox screen. They’re hardly noticeable, actually. I just think the Gmail screen is much easier to read and less cluttered than Yahoo.
• Gmail makes it very easy to work with several different email addresses. Like most people, I’ve got a few email addresses now. I’ve got an address at work, another at home, and still another I’ve set up that I use for registering for things on the Web to try to keep my “real” email addresses from being hammered by spam. Gmail can easily be configured to check all these addresses for me and I only have to look at my Gmail inbox to check all my addresses. There’s no need to check all this email separately.
• I run a small business and we can’t afford an exchange server, the technology used to “push” email to Blackberrys and to Windows Mobile phones. In fact, I’m not a big advocate of push email. I like to check my messages on my own schedule—not have them delivered to me when I’m too busy to read them or at other inconvenient times. I think push email is intrusive. I want to check my messages on my own schedule, and Gmail is a great solution for that.

Those are the reasons I love Gmail. But how, then, do I use Gmail on the iPhone?

There are two ways to use Gmail on the iPhone. The first is to use the Gmail web app, designed specifically for your new Apple phone. This is by far the easiest way to get started. If you’ve already signed up for Gmail, then all you need to do is start Safari on your iPhone and go to gmail.com.

Once you sign in, you’ll easily be able to compose messages. Gmail app has a new address complete feature, so you only need to type the first few letters and a list of probable email address will pop up for you. Reading your messages is quite easy as well. Just select them and read. Piece of cake.

However, at this writing, one thing you will not be able to do is to assign labels to your messages before you archive them. Anyone who uses Gmail for any length of time will realize the value of Gmail labels—one of the best features of the Gmail system, actually.

For this reason, and for a few others, I prefer to read my Gmail using the native Mail app that comes on your iPhone. Setting up Gmail to work with your iPhone mail application is very simple. You’ll want to use IMAP, and to set it up properly, just follow this link.

I set up my Gmail this way and I’ve got to say that it has worked perfectly since day one.

Why would you want to use the iPhone Mail application instead of Gmail’s web app? For me, the reasons are several:

• First, and foremost, I find it easier to work with my messages. I can apply Gmail labels simply by dropping the messages into one of the folders that are available to me. If you’ve been using Gmail on your desktop and have set up some labels to help keep your messages organized, then all of your labels will be available to you as folders on your iPhone as well. When you drop a message into a folder, Mail applies a Gmail label for you.
• Since Gmail now uses IMAP, any changes you make on your iPhone will be instantly reflected when you check your Gmail from your computer. I have had complete success with this. It works great, in my opinion.
• Even though Gmail has made great strides with the Gmail web app, I still think the Apple Mail app works better. It’s faster, it’s easier to compose and work with messages, and I just find the graphics to be slicker and more to my liking.

The bottom line is that Gmail should work great on your new iPhone no matter which of these methods you choose. Compared to my Treo phone running Windows Mobile, I am so-o-o much happier with my email experience now that I’ve switched to iPhone with Gmail.