How to Make Your Cellphone Act Like a BlackBerry

I had a copy of the following summarised before but I misplaced it so I decided to post the whole stuff.

When you whip out a BlackBerry or a Treo in public, what does it say about you?

Gmail for Mobile software is a fast, clean little program that you install on your cellphone. When you fire it up, you see an immaculately designed miniature version of Gmail.com, Google’s free e-mail Web site.
You might think that it says: “I’m an important person who can’t afford to be out of touch. I can do e-mail all day long, and I’ll never miss that critical deal.”

But people around you might be thinking, “Look at that huge, clunky phone,” or “Man, I’d hate to see your monthly bill,” or even, “If you whip out that infernal machine at the dinner table one more time, I’m filing for divorce.”

The thing is, it really can be handy to stay in touch with your e-mail when you’re out and about. Not obsessively — you CrackBerry addicts know who you are — but maybe just a peek now and then.

Fortunately, you no longer need a Treo or BlackBerry to enjoy that luxury. Three new services — from Google, Yahoo and Teleflip — can deliver your e-mail messages directly to ordinary nonsmart cellphones.

The really good news is that all three are free. The really bad news is that each is severely compromised in one way or another.

Take the newly polished version of Gmail for Mobile, for example. It’s a fast, clean little program that you install on your cellphone. When you fire it up, you see an immaculately designed miniature version of Gmail.com, Google’s free e-mail Web site.

It’s all here: keyboard shortcuts, “threaded” conversations that keep all the back-and-forths on a subject together, a fast Search command, Reply, Forward and so on. Incredibly, you can even open Word, PDF and photo attachments right on your cellphone, although text formatting is lost.

You can flag messages with the classic Gmail star, tag them as spam and navigate your mail “folders.” Amazingly, anything you do on your cellphone — deleting messages, sending replies — is reflected immediately in the full-blown Web version of Gmail.

Only one aspect of the full Web-based version is missing on the phone: the ads.

Note, by the way, that Gmail for Mobile checks for new messages only when you open the program, and again each time you hit the Refresh button. It’s not like a BlackBerry, which displays new messages automatically as they arrive. For many people, however, this is a good thing.

So if Gmail for Mobile is so wonderful, why is it “severely compromised?” Because it’s written in the Java programming language, and that limits the phone models that can run it.

Google says that about 300 phones — from AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile — are Java-compatible. Unfortunately, no Verizon phones run Java, and therefore no Verizon phones can run mobile Gmail. (You can always open m.gmail.com directly in a Verizon phone’s Web browser — that’s an optimized cellphone version of the Gmail Web site — but the Gmail for Mobile software is five times as fast.)

You can sign up for a free Gmail account at Gmail.com — a great idea even if you don’t have a cellphone, because Gmail makes an excellent secondary e-mail account.

And you can get Gmail for Mobile by visiting mobile.google.com and entering your phone number; Google will send a text message to your phone with a download link, or tell you that your phone will not work.

Similar happiness awaits if you have a free Yahoo e-mail account. You can download Yahoo Go 2.0, a handy, cleanly designed mini-Internet module for cellphones. (You can sign up at mobile.yahoo.com, where you’ll also find a corny but illustrative tour of the software.)

The Mail module is very similar to Gmail’s. Here, too, your online address book is available on the phone, and any filing, deleting or sending you do on the phone is magically replicated when you go to Yahoo.com at your computer.

A key difference: you can set up Yahoo Go to check for new mail constantly, like a BlackBerry, although at some cost to your battery life. The current version can open picture attachments; the final version, Yahoo says, will also let you open Microsoft Office documents, among other enhancements. It is coming in late June.

The thing is, Yahoo Go offers eight Internet functions — not just e-mail, but also Flickr photos, Web search, maps, weather and various news categories.

Unfortunately, because Yahoo Go is so much more ambitious than Gmail for Mobile, it’s much slower, and runs on even fewer phones.

Most compatible models are smartphones that already get e-mail (Windows Mobile, BlackBerry and so on), which sort of defeats the purpose. Only a few nonsmart models, primarily newer Razr models and a few Nokia phones, can run Yahoo Go. And once again, no Verizon phones need apply.

Hasn’t any company figured out a way to send e-mail to any phone from any cellular carrier, guaranteed?

Yes, one: Teleflip.

This free service intercepts your incoming e-mail every 15 minutes and converts it into text messages, which then appear on your phone. You sign up at www.teleflip.com, where you must provide the details of your e-mail account.

You can set your phone to ring or vibrate when new messages arrive. Amazingly, you can send replies, too, right from the phone; your correspondents receive them as ordinary e-mail.

This is a glorious thing, especially if you’re a Verizon subscriber or someone who doesn’t want to pay the high monthly fees for a BlackBerry account. You’d be surprised at how often you’re happy to get a certain message when you’re out and about.

And now for the compromises.

Standard text messages are limited to 120 characters, so each piece of Teleflipped mail gets chopped up into chunks.

You can set a cap on them — say, no more than four per e-mail message — so that your long-winded correspondents don’t make your phone vibrate all day. Paging through them isn’t a big deal, but deleting them all later is a pain.

Remember, too, that Teleflip can’t flip messages to your phone if your Mac or PC downloads them first. For best results, quit your desktop e-mail program, or stop it from checking, before you head out the door.

To avoid drowning you in spam and chitchat, the Teleflip Web site requires you to prepare a “white list” of approved e-mail addresses. Only these people’s messages will reach your phone.

In principle, this is a great system, but it does mean that you won’t get any serendipitous messages — for example, the notice from your great-uncle’s lawyer that you’ve just inherited a fortune.

Like Yahoo Go, Teleflip is currently in a free public testing period, and it will remain free when it goes live on June 11. Sometime next year, however, Teleflip will begin adding a 10-to-15-character ad at the bottom of the final message snippet; even Teleflip has to put food on the table somehow.

(Teleflip’s original service, however, remains ad-free and awesome. It lets you send a text message to any cellphone from your computer. Just send an e-mail to, for example, 2125551212@teleflip.com. Try it!)

Finally, although Google, Yahoo and Teleflip don’t charge anything, your cellphone company most certainly does. You’ll want to add Internet data to your cellphone plan — usually $10 to $20 a month — for Google or Yahoo.

And if you use Teleflip, you’ll probably want a text-messaging package; otherwise, you’ll have to pay 15 cents per message chunk. Unlimited packages cost $10 or $15 a month, although less expensive bundles are available ($5 for 250 from Verizon, for example).

It’s too bad you can’t have both elegant software and universal phone compatibility. Gmail for Mobile is a terrific piece of work, but it doesn’t work on all phones. Teleflip’s sneaky trick — converting e-mail into text messages — is a little kludgy, but it works on every cellphone on earth.

But all three of these services turn dumb phones into smartphones. The best part: passers-by will never know that you’re just as much a mobile e-mail addict as those BlackBerry nerds.


NyTimes.

Below is an additional info from Yahoo: Start by typing http://us.get.go.yahoo.com into your mobile phone's browser, then continue

Hey there.
Thanks for the document.
However, there is a new kid on the block. And he has learnt from the mistakes of the others.
GMAil is fine, but to use it without messing with your phone settings manually or using the web browser (very expensive), you must download their java midlet which, from my experience even with 29 years of Mobile Tech me behind me, is not the easiest to use.
BlackBerry, for all its wondersm has its own issues (what doesn't?). Any frequent user will tell you it is not a perfect technology, but again, millions use it.

So what is this new kid? FreshMail. It can bve found at http://freshmail.mobi. It is free for 14 days and then costs N5,000 or $40 or £20.
If you arent sure how to put the settings on your phone (Any regular GRPS-enabed phone with an email client is fine), then send an email to ota@freshmail.mobi with your mobile phone in the body of the mail. You must send the mail from your freshmail mailbox otherwise the server will ignore you (how can it know you actually own the mailbox if you don't first log in?).
The subject will be either "contract" or "payg" depending on whether you have a contract line or "Pay-As-You-Go".
Check it out folks.

Or don't you love your phone anymore?

Hey pal,u're doin a great job but there is a problem.
I tried foneflip but wen i was signin up,it always reject my mobile num indicatn dat its invalid phone num, I also tried yahoo Go but all i got was dat my phone was not supported.I use nokia 6600, Could u pls tell me d solution to this?

Visit the link below:

Before you click it. It is the customer care centre link. Fill the form and submit to them.

Search for the Contact Customer Care Button and click   

Sign in then fill the form

http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/mobile/mail/mail-07.html


Note: In the area where you are asked to provide your email or phone number (give the number) and your Carrier if it is not available in the list choose other then give the name.

No risk in it it is safe. Just wait and it will be resolved.

Nazzy OUT