I’ve gone through Netscape Mail, Outlook, Outlook Express, Thunderbird (my favorite PC mail client so far) and now I use Mail (the pre-installed mail application in mac os x). One thing I can conclude so far is that I cannot live without an email client application.

Though the trend in technology is switching to doing everything on the web (including email accessed from browsers we know as webmail ex. Gmail). I still find the usefulness of email clients to be undeniable specially when you live in the Philippines where wifi access isn’t always possible. This is even more useful if your in school doing a lot of org work/ group work or you work in a field that needs fast information decimation.

For those of you who have ignored email clients for the longest time. Email clients such as Outlook Express, Outlook, Thunderbird and Mail use either a POP or IMAP protocol to get and copy email from your email accounts to your local hard drive. In the old days of the internet this was the only way to check email but now we have email client’s biggest competitor webmail which allows us to access our inboxes from any computer with just the use of a browser.

Most people would think, why should I use an email client when it would use local space on my hard drive not to mention I’d need a whole other application just to check mail as compared to using webmail which is readily accessible through browsers that are pre-installed in our operating systems?

Though this is a huge drawback to using an email client it still doesn’t lessen the utility value of having a local copy of your email. This is specifically even more highlighted when you are an extremely mobile person and may sometimes find yourself without internet access.

Here are a couple of my experiences that can show the notable use of my email client

1. During an EBAM (Editorial Board Aspirants Meeting) the executive aspirants we’re trying to take note of the suggestions of some of the absent aspirants that we’re sent via mail the night before. Most people with a laptop would go to their browsers and log on to gmail to access the previous nights set of emails but the problem was the campus network group was having trouble with the WiFi in our building at the time. Luckily I use Apple Mail and had a copy of their mail already downloaded.
2. Normally checking mail would be a chore that you had to go through periodically (students normally doing it in the evening) opening a separate tab and then logging on to their email accounts. During the different hellweeks in my semesters specially during Marketing and Leadership and Strategy class, I found it really easy as I received and downloaded attachments with probably only a 1-second delay to the time the person sent it. I got updates as they we’re updated and news as it was being written. Did I mention it doesn’t feel like a chore? Thats because I can leave Mail running constantly (with it checking for new mail every 5-10 minutes) while I just browse along facebook or finish my design comissions, I don’t have to open a new tab just for email.

Case number 2 is specifically important to me as a student and as a member of the school newspaper where the rule is to ALWAYS ALWAYS reply ASAP to every email and text message.

But with those big reasons alone why aren’t most students making full use (specially as macs are becoming more and more popular in school and macs have pre-installed email clients) of their laptops and using email clients?

Well one big hurdle so far (within the ateneo) is that the our incampus Wireless Internet security prevents downloading email to clients. This however does not hinder reason 1 as there are multiple wireless hotspots in Katipunan that allow POP and IMAP access.

People usually think of it as hard simply because they have to actually do something before recieving email. For many of you who think this is the case (specially you mac users who never get to use your mail application) below is an image at how idiotically simple for the internet generation it is to set up their Mail applications (the process is actually quite similar in other email clients)

Most email providers with pop or IMAP access will have more detailed instructions. A good email provider that does this that I know about is gMail so check out their website for more info.

If your asking what email clients you should use? For PC users, I highly recommend Thunderbird over Outlook but either is still quite good. For Macs, the preinstalled Mail client is already there so why not use it?

I finally got to upgrade to snow leopard this week. I have to say its a pretty good value for money upgrade specially if you have an older mac (imagine a technical overhaul for only 29 dollars)! It feels like Anita’s been given new life. All my apps run faster, start up and shutdown is faster as well. It’s a drastic change from what I was experiencing with the last few Leopard updates (slower and slower startup, hotter CPU), now she feels 2 months old again!

Snow Leopard

Here’s some things that I noticed that I really liked.

• Faster and shorter startup
  During the last few updates of Leopard, my startup was probably at 4 or 5 minutes already (like I never switched from windows). Now that I switched to Snow Leopard, startup and shutdown is under a minute! As the gay looking guy in the Sky broadband says “I can barely have time to finish this cup of coffee”.
• Applications run smoother and faster
  All of my applications run smoother and faster now thanks to the utilization of both processor cores sharing the load. Photoshop takes only 10 seconds to fully load and I rarely see the loading ring now. Indesign crashes less as well and even Safari runs faster.
• Regained disc space
  I regained around 6 to 7 gigs of disc spaces from the code overhaul apple did with snow leopard giving me more space for my stuff and lengthening Anita’s life.
• A better Expose
  Expose now shows windows in a more organized manner with a new grid for a less cluttered look. Also if you turned it on in the settings, Expose will hide windows you’ve clicked to be hidden in the same icons for the programs saving space on the dock. You can also now launch expose by holding down the dock icons.
• Improved Stacks
  You can now browse things in the dock if your in grid view which makes so much help to find files and to send files to specific folders!
• Improved Preview
  I don’t need Skim anymore, preview can highlight and add comments on my PDF readings for school natively

What do you like about Snow Leopard?