iPhone: The Missing Manual, 3rd Edition

Mail, Contacts, Calendars

There's a lotta stuff going on in one place here. Breathe deeply; take it slow.

Accounts

Your email accounts are listed here; this is also where you set up new ones. See Free Email Accounts for details.

Fetch New Data

More than ever, the iPhone is a real-time window into the data stream of your life. Whatever changes are made to your calendar, address book, or email back on your computer at home (or at the office) can magically show up on your iPhone, seconds later, even though you're across the country.

That's the beauty of "push" email, contacts, and calendars. You get push email if you have a free Yahoo Mail account. You get all three if you've signed up for a MobileMe account (Chapter 15), or if your company uses Microsoft Exchange (Chapter 16).

Having an iPhone that's updated with these critical life details in real time is amazingly useful, but there are several reasons why you might want to use the Off button here. Turning off the push feature saves battery power, saves you money when you're traveling abroad (where every "roaming" Internet use can run up your AT&T bill), and spares you the constant "new mail" jingle when you're trying to concentrate (or sleep).

Tip

If you tap Advanced, you can specify either push (real-time syncing over the air) or fetch (checking ...