12. Email

The iPhone supports two email protocols POP and IMAP, which work wirelessly or with a local connection. That's it. So if you need to get to servers that use other protocols, such as Microsoft's Exchange Server, forget it. I'll talk more about this issue in the next section.

For now, let me note that connections between an iPhone and a POP or IMAP server set up and work effortlessly as long as the server has the appropriate service turned on and firewalls are clear to pass TCP/IP packets supporting either or both protocols. POP only downloads a copy of email from your email server-based inbox. IMAP lets you view email in your email server-based inbox as well as other selected folders and synchronizes whatever you do on the server or client side.

I set up a POP and an IMAP connection to accounts on two different servers. All I needed to enter were the incoming and outgoing server, email user id and password and any required security information, such as, should the connection use Secure Sockets Layer protocols.

Click the image for a larger version.

I tried Yahoo Mail's IMAP-based push email option for the iPhone. Push email services download email from an email server to an email client without user intervention, that is the user doesn't have to manually or automatically check for new mail. The service worked quite well. Email showed up on the iPhone from immediately to a minute or two from the time I sent it. Interestingly, you have to do a browser refresh on your desktop or notebook computer before any changes made on the iPhone show up in Yahoo Mail.

Microsoft Word and Adobe PDF files attached to emails open readily. When I opened a Word file someone sent me, I was at first disappointed. Each letter in the text was about the size of single-cell animal. Then I remembered the old flick-your-fingers-apart trick for zooming. Flicking my fingers apart and together a bit, I was able bring the text to a perfect reading size for me. I can see close up just fine; my problem is with distances. So, I was well able to read text that was quite small and fit nicely within the margins of the screen. If you need larger text that runs off the screen, you can use a finger to scroll in various directions through your text. As with lists and just about anything else on the screen, you can move text up, down, left or right or any direction in between.