Blogger Paul Mah gives some suggestions on how to configure your push-mail enabled Smartphone in order to minimize data usage when on an overseas trip.
Going on an overseas business trip? An excellent way to stay in the loop when traveling is to tap into the world of mobile E-mail and have new E-mails instantly pushed to your Smartphone.
With overseas data rates at a premium, what are some settings or adjustments that you can make in order to minimize your mobile bill? I recently came back from a trip Down Under myself, and here is a list of what I did.
- Unsubscribe from unnecessary newsletters
- Have a proper spam filtering in place
- Disable HTML E-mail
- Limit the length of message downloaded
By default, BlackBerry devices download only the first chunk of new E-mails. However, BlackBerry users will want to disable Auto More from Options within the Message applet. This will ensure that the rest of the E-mail is not automatically downloaded upon opening the E-mail.
Windows Mobile users have more options available under their ActiveSync Email Settings, and depending on whether HTML E-mail is disabled, have various selections ranging from 0.5 KB to 50 KB or the entire message.
- Download headers only
Sure, this is an extreme measure, but it will probably come in useful if you find yourself getting a sudden large influx of E-mails -- from the exhibitors of the trade show you are attending, for example. Based on the sender and the content of the E-mail headers, you can decide whether or not to download the rest of the E-mail.
BlackBerry users on BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS) can configure a filter to this effect on the BIS configuration page. Window Mobile users can do this by choosing Headers Only from the ActiveSync Email Settings.I hope that the above tips will help you the next time you travel. In the meantime, feel free to share any suggestions that you may have on configuring your mobile E-mail for an overseas trip.