Best of both

Posted on 14 Aug 2008 at 12:39

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As well as preventing the everyday annoyance of finding you don't have the right contact on the device you're using, keeping things synced also means you've got a backup if your PC or phone gets damaged, lost or stolen.

All the mobile makers' PC suites provide some way of synchronising information between the handset and computer. After the initial synchronisation, which can take a few minutes if you have a lot of contacts, subsequent syncs only need to transfer any amendments that you've made since last time, taking just a few seconds. Because of the relatively small amount of data involved this is an ideal use for Bluetooth. After you've initially 'paired' your phone with Windows on your PC, it's quick and simple to connect it each time without having to fiddle with cables.

Most handsets let you sync contacts, tasks and calendar information, and more sophisticated phones offer more options. The frequency and trigger for synchronisation is also configurable; for example, you can sync only when you manually choose to do so, every time the handset is connected, or at predefined times each day (assuming the phone and PC are connected at the time) - handy if you typically leave your mobile on your desk while you work.

Texting from your PC

Texting is now one of the most popular options for both personal and business communication, but using the phone's keypad to enter more than a few words of text can be hopelessly frustrating, especially since the various makers use different shortcuts for word spacing, punctuation and symbols. The ideal solution is to connect your phone to a PC and text from a real keyboard. This makes texting as quick and simple as emailing, even if you prefer to stick to the Queen's English rather than learning to spk txt. You can also view incoming messages on your PC screen, and then either delete them or reply to them, all without touching the handset.

Emailing from your phone

You'd expect a mobile phone to be capable of texting, but most can also send and receive email if you set them up correctly. In a way, this gives you the reverse of the benefit of texting from a PC: typing emails on a phone is a right pain. However, the facility can be extremely useful if you don't want to miss emails while you're out and about.

One obvious problem is that your phone could quickly fill up with large file attachments and spam, or just sit there indefinitely trying to download them, clocking up data charges all the time. However, it's usually possible to configure the phone to download 'only headers'. That means when you tell the phone to collect mail, all that's downloaded from the server is the stuff you'd normally see at the top of each email - sender, subject, time and so on - so you can then choose which to download in full and which to ignore until you're back at your PC. This makes it quite practical to use email on your phone, even if you're on a conventional GPRS data tariff rather than 3G.

Setting up email requires your full email account details from your Internet service provider (ISP), the same as you'd need to create an email account up in Outlook. You may also need some info from your mobile phone company, which they'll supply if you give them a ring. Unless you get your mail from a company mailserver, your email account will normally be 'POP3'. If so, make sure you select the option on your phone to 'leave messages on the server'. This means the emails you view on your phone will still arrive next time you use email on your PC.