Consolidating all of your email addresses and accounts into a Super Gmail Account

by | Jan 19, 2012 | Google, What Works for Me |

I have at least a dozen active email addresses.  Some are common addresses, such as example@gmail.com, others are associated with unique domain names like me@examplecompany.com.  Even with all of these separate accounts from a number of sources, I only have to search one email account for my emails ididntwanttowritemymainemailaddressinthisblogpostsoiamusingthisexample@gmail.com. You can achieve this result by forwarding your emails from another account or by utilizing the pop3 collection from Gmail. 1)  I often set-up forwarding emails for those you have a work email address, but are unlikely to remember to check it.  For example Jane has jane@home.com and when Jane came to work for me, she now has jane@work.com.  Her clients and coworkers will expect to email her at jane@work.com, but she’d prefer to just receive any emails with her @home account.  With her new @work email, many services have a setting to forward all email to another address.  Within the Gmail environment, you can even forward and archive any incoming email.  This was her work email account will have a record of any emails she received, but she will receive any email to her work address in her home email. 2)  The preferred method (if available) is to collect your email in your Gmail account just as you would in Outlook or other mail programs.  Basically, any email that is sent to @work will be collected in the @gmail account.  This is a great option for those internet provider email accounts that you never check, but may contain important information.  So any @verizon.net email account will immediately be collected in my Gmail account. You might ask, why would I...

Getting the Most From Your iPhone and Google Pt 1

by | Nov 30, 2011 | Good Ideas, What Works for Me |

iPhones are cool, but recently I remembered how thankful I am for how my iPhone keeps me organized.  At the top of my list is the synchronization of contacts, calendar and mail with my phone and Google Apps.  This can require a little set-up but once it is done, it will change your life.  When I got my last iPhone, I connected up with my Google Account while walking from the Apple Store to the Mall exit and before I left, my phone had synchronized all of my contacts, my calendar and my email.  For all intents and purposes, my phone was now completely functional for all of my organizational needs and I had owned it less than 15 minutes. iPhone provides pretty good support for syncing mail and calendar to Gmail accounts, but to get your contacts to sync as well requires a few extra steps.  I ran across a great article today on Lifehacker.com to get your contacts synced as well.  It is definitely worth checking it out. http://lifehacker.com/5859854/how-to-set-up-gmail-google-calendar-and-google-contacts-on-ios?tag=emailabletechsupport This post is part of their series on Emailable Tech Support.  I’ll be highlighting more of these articles in future posts, but to access their archive, use this link http://lifehacker.com/emailable-tech-support Here are some Google topics I would like to cover in the future. Consolidating all of your email addresses and accounts into a Super Gmail Account The power of IMAP — How to simplify your email retrieval Creating a Google Apps account for your family Family Calendaring Using filters and labels in Gmail Delete it or Archive it? Let me know if there’s something here that piques your interest...

Wireless Internet

by | Nov 30, 2011 | Tech Basics |

Recently I was asked to explain internet for mobile phones.  Specifically, what service allows you to connect to the internet at anytime/anywhere.  To follow is a simplified overview of wireless internet meant for folks who are just getting into the wireless game. Background on wireless internet: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081117104733AAUGjcK Cell phone companies sell three major categories of service: Voice (measured in minutes) for speech communication Text (measured in number of texts — unlimited is not uncommon) AKA SMS (for plain text messages) or MMS (which is messages that include pictures or video) Data (measure in Megabytes or Gigabytes – eg 2GB/mo meaning 2 Gigabytes per month) this is what you would most commonly consider wireless internet.  Data covers any exchange of information including surfing the web, retrieving email, using apps (applications) that use the web for exchanging information. The iPhone and many smartphones work on both WiFi and Mobile Internet.  To be clear you should understand WiFi as wireless internet that uses a wireless router but comes from a wired connection.  Even commercially available HotSpots, like what you would find at Starbucks, have a wireless router on premises that broadcasts and receives signals from mobile devices and routes them back to a wired connection.  In your home, you would receive internet service from a provider like Comcast or Verizon through a wired connection that you would connect to a Cable Modem or DSL Modem.  To make this connection “wireless” requires a wireless router which would either be integrated into the modem or more likely as a separate piece of equipment.  The router serves two functions — both to take a single...

Sorry for the Hiatus

by | Nov 30, 2011 | What Works for Me |

I’ve been away from this blog for a long time.  Recent events and conversations have offered me new impetus to return to posting again. What you will see now is answers to questions I receive and things I’m really excited about.  Plus resources that I think will be useful for folks interested in technology all different skill levels. There’s one more area that I hope to write about in the future — living with Attention Deficit Disorder as an adult.  I continually struggle with having ADD in a world of folks who don’t and don’t necessarily understand what it means to live with this condition.  What’s more meaningful to me lately is a slew of folks who have shared their struggle with me in hopes of finding resolution or seeking methods, means and tools to help in their journey.  If nothing else, I have spent a lot of time seeking and discovering systems and tools to help me live my life.  I hope by sharing what works for me, others may benefit as well. This is my vision and I am writing it here to help clarify my thinking and to encourage others to hold me to it. Here we go . . ....