Push Email: Cortado

Admittedly, one of the things I really miss from my BlackBerry devices is the push email. Push email comes to your device as it arrives at your mailbox and there is no need to be polling or checking email at intervals.

Since I got my Nokia E61i I have been looking at different options for push email and settled for one of the many available out there: Cortado.

Cortado uses Microsoft Exchange and offers a free option with a 20MB limit but you can also upgrade to several packages: Standard, Plus, Business and Business Plus. I will talk about the Standard option since this is the one I am currently using. Cortado Standard gives you a 250MB mailbox, 3 email aliases, Outlook Web access, Professional spam filter and virus protection, and ActiveSync synchronization. The Standard option will set you back $5.98 per month but you can try it for 30 days free to decide whether you want to commit to the monthly charge.

The instructions on the website to set up your account in your device are very straight-forward, they have screenshots and overall it was easy to set up. One of the settings you can tweak is the Peak/Off-Peak settings. I have mine set up for Peak between 8AM and 8PM and anything after that (including weekends) is off-peak. During off-peak, the email will not be “pushed” in real-time but rather at the intervals you set (for mine, off-peak is every 30 minutes).

Another option you can change is whether you want to synchronize calendar and contacts in addition to the email. One of the things that I find Cortado offers that made me go with them is the fact that I can specify which account shows up on all my outgoing emails and replies. For example, instead of the ‘address@cortado.com’ that I had to set up for the service, I have set to show my Yahoo Mail Plus account. This is very important for me since this is my primary account and the account that my contacts are used to seeing.

In my case, what I did was to set my Yahoo Mail Plus account to forward all emails to my Cortado email address, therefore they get pushed to my E61i and if I reply to them, it shows as replied from my Yahoo account. In addition, if I want to check my messages on the web I use the Outlook Web option, which works very well.

My Thoughts On The E61i

Today it has been a full 4 days since I received my Nokia E61i and I wanted to take the opportunity to share my thoughts on this wonderful device. I should point out that the E61i is replacing my N80IE. My initial reaction upon unboxing was that it seemed a little wider than I thought but upon handling the device for a few minutes, it didn’t seem or feel as wide any longer.

Here are some of my observations in key areas:

Screen -> Wonderful screen although not as good as the N80 in terms of pixels and brightness. Yet it is great to count with that much real estate on the screen, especially since I tend to read ebooks on my devices.

Keyboard -> Initially felt like it needed an “extra push” or extra effort to type, however after 4 days I seem to be getting used to it and getting faster at typing on it. It’s nice to have a full QWERTY keyboard again 🙂

RAM -> This is better than the N80 (also due to the fact that it has more RAM to begin with) and the E61i has not exhibited the memory leakage that I used to experience with the N80 at times.

Camera -> Not as good as the N80’s but not bad for a 2 megapixel camera phone. In good light, images come out decent but nothing to write home about. To be honest, I’m not too worried about the camera.

Battery -> WOW…what a difference. I can go 2 days with a single charge. I still keep a car charger for emergency situations but this is a great relief for me.

Miscellaneous -> One of the things that I love on this device is having direct access keys to Contacts, Email and the Own key, which can be configured to access an application of your choosing. Also worth mentioning, the device feels very solid in the hands and there is no creaking, which speaks to how well it is built. It’s also nice to be able to not only view office attachments but to edit them.

Although this is a 3G capable phone, it does not support US 3G so I have to settle for AT&T’s EDGE network.

In conclusion, I do not regret for one second the decision to buy this device. I reloaded all my essential apps and am enjoying every minute of my ownership. Reactions from co-workers and friends have been positive so far. I’d recommend the E61i to anyone anytime!

I Did It – E61i On The Way

Ok, so I finally decided to do it and am replacing my Nokia N80 with a Nokia E61i. I just ordered it last night and should be arriving by Tuesday (I hope). The main reason for me to do that is the fact that I really miss a QWERTY keyboard because I tend to message a lot and T9 gets frustrating for me, especially given the fact that I sometimes write messages in a language other than English (Spanish to be specific). I know some people out there may identify with this.

I’m sure there are things I will miss from the N80 but I don’t think it will be much of a change. I may miss the better camera, but still the camera in the N80 is not that great to begin with. I will still be able to use Wi-Fi and VOIP capabilities and will gain a full QWERTY keyboard 🙂

Ah, one thing I may miss is Nokia’s Lifeblog application. I understand this is not available or supported in E Series devices. All in all, I’m very excited and hope that I will be able to live day to day with the E61i. I will report back on my experience with the device once I have had it put through its paces.