EmailTreo

Accessing your e-mail from a cell phone is not a big trick, really, since Yahoo and Google generally offer easy ways to view your Web mail accounts on the go, and a number of clients from third-party vendors even hook you into your POP3 inboxes. What makes BlackBerry stand apart is “push” functionality, having the device always on and always polling your inbox to buzz your pocket with every new message. Nokia, Microsoft, and others are all working on their own BlackBerry killers, but EmailTreo’s simple and dirt-cheap ($1.66 per month) solution for the Treo is a very attractive alternative for those of us without an IT department.

Installation is a bit thorny, as you need to download another program called ChatterEmail first, through which EmailTreo works. We suffered a few error messages along the way, but finally got the program onto our Treo. The ChatterEmail application requires a one-time $39 fee, but it is a versatile program that can also access your standard POP accounts. Only the EmailTreo account has the push feature, and for that you open a new, discrete account.

Once up and running, EmailTreo works as advertised. Our Treo vibrated to alert us to every new message, and the inbox gave us plain text and rich text versions of whatever messages we received. You can also be notified of new messages by a tone, blinking LED, or on-screen alert.

The very good ChatterEmail application manages your inbox in all of the usual ways (forwarding, marking, junk mail labeling, etc.). Our favorite value-add for this system is the Web-based e-mail component. EmailTreo handles attachments almost flawlessly. On most Treos it downloads and opens image files, txt docs, and HTML. Beyond that, you need to have DataViz Documents To Go installed in order to read more sophisticated Office files. Our only disappointment came when EmailTreo choked trying to forward messages with attachments that the Treo could not open.

EmailTreo keeps your Treo in sync with a Web mail account, so all ingoing and outgoing messages appear there, too. On the Web, you can manage spam filtering, e-mail rules, autoreply notices, and much more. For $1.66 a month, this is a real bargain for Treo users who want that CrackBerry buzz without the cost.