Sure, the iphone is a “computer in the palm of your hand.” But it lacks a few key features that desktops have. The iphone has a tiny keyboard, making it dificult to enter long URLs. Frustratingly, the iphone still lacks (as of this writing) copy-and-paste functionality, making the manipulation of URLs a key part of internet power suring a dificult task. and the iphone has resisted the urge to provide system-wide ilesystem access, preferring to keep data (pictures, videos, podcasts, and notes) in their own application “silos.”

Fortunately, the iphone does have a feature that can be leveraged into a makeshift copy-and-paste and ilesystem email. Many of the built-in iphone applications have an integrated “email this” feature that allows URLs and picture attachments to be emailed. and because the iphone can connect to the many free mail servers, saving iles and URLs is easier than it seems.

iPhone email Support

The iphone’s email application is probably the easiest to set up of any phone-based email. it has lexible support for iMap, pop, exchange, and aoL. one of the ways that iphone email excels is in its ability to preview hTML email, display most common attachments (.pdf, .doc iles, and .xls iles), as well as to follow the links in emails.

One of the main complaints about early versions of the iphone was its lack of “push” email the iphone “pulled” email on a schedule and the shortest interval that you could set for updates was every 5 minutes. That was resolved with irmware Version 2, putting the iphone on an even playing ield with the ubiquitous BlackBerry. You can get push email from an exchange server, from apple’s MobileMe service, or even from a free Yahoo! email account. iphone (and ipod touch) email is easy to set up even without being connected to a computer.

Email as a clipboard and hard drive

Although there was a time, long ago, when large email attachments were a burden, for most of the free email services, those times are past. Yahoo! and Google both provide free iMap accounts with tremendous storage (Google calls their plan “ininity+1,” as they are continually increasing the amount of storage available to each user). Therefore, it’s quite easy to set up an additional email account that’s only for private use for your own personal storage.

Anything that the iphone can play can be attached to an email. Most graphic image formats, Mp3 and aac music, Mp4 videos, Microsoft ofice (Word, powerpoint, and excel iles), and pDF iles can be viewed. as mentioned, Yahoo!’s email even supports push on the iphone, so it’s an ideal candidate for this use, as there will be almost no delay between sending yourself a ile or link from your desktop and having it show up on the phone.

Go to settings→Mail→accounts→add account and choose Yahoo! Mail. Fill out the required information in the new window. once you’re done, just hit the save button at the top right. Your iphone will then connect with Yahoo! to verify the information. once it inishes verifying, your additional account(s) will be saved and visible in the accounts section of the Mail screen. if you click advanced, you can verify that push mail is enabled.

If you ever need a hard copy, you can quickly and easily forward them to someone who has a printer. You can even create “folders” a very ilesystem-esque concept via the Yahoo! Webmail page or the iphone and organize your various “iles” (attachments) just like you might on your hard drive. The great thing is that these will be cached (downloaded) onto your iphone, be webaccessible, so if you should need to restore your iphone, you won’t lose any of them.

Another useful trick is to bookmark links on websites. Many websites have a “recommend this” or “email this link” feature for articles. You can use this private iphone email address for those kinds of messages, so they don’t clutter up your normal inbox.

While we’re on the subject of free “push” services, it’s important to note that Google offers d free Calendar and Contact syncing. Check out www.google.com/mobile/apple/sync.html.