Free Push Email on Your Phone

Many business users have email servers that send out emails to the Blackberries and other mobile devices the instant emails arrive on the server. This facility usually costs money. The rest of us have to survive by consciously telling our mobile phones to log on to our email servers to check to see whether or not any email has arrived. We then have to consciously download it.

Of course, for a large number of people consciously checking for email on your phone while you are away from your desktop or laptop computer is not a great inconvenience. I took the view that if other people could automatically have it instantly delivered to their phone message box, why couldn't I? I have been searching for a solution to this for some time and have finally found one that works for me. Here is what you need to do:
1) Set up a free Gmail account.
2) In the settings of your Gmail account, under Accounts, instruct Gmail to collect mail from your normal email server.
3) Set up a free email account at Cortado.
4) In the settings on your new Gmail account, under Forwarding, instruct Gmail to forward a copy of each mail you receive to your new Cortado account.
5) On your phone, set it up to send and receive email via your Cortado account (instructions how to do this on the Cortado site).
6) Send and receive from your phone using your Cortado account and you will receive a message asking if you want to receive PUSH emails. Accept.

That's it. Any mail you receive will be collected by Gmail, sent to Cortado, and then delivered to your phone. If you have a mobile tariff where you receive unlimited internet access you should incur no extra charges. If you receive a lot of email you may need to check the internet data allowance on your tariff.

Mobile Phone Backup

Mobyko is a fantastic free service for backing up your mobile phone address book. You simply sign up for a free account and select your make of phone. They then send you a piece of synchronization software that allows you to send your address book to their secure online vault.

I found it very simple to use, and reassuring to have.

Dial A Counsellor

Dial A Counsellor is a great new telephone counselling service where you can chat to a qualified counsellor in the UK.

Sometimes you can't face going to a counsellor for a whole variety of reasons. It may be that you want the greater anonymity that at telephone provides. Perhaps the cost of arranging child care in addition to your counselling fees would be too great. Perhaps you are house-bound and cannot get out. Perhaps your partner always has the car making it difficult for you to travel. Perhaps you live in an area or country where there is no easy access to a face-to-face counsellor. Dial A Counsellor enables you to access professional therapy from the comfort of your own home (or private office).

The site lists a whole range of topics that you may wish to discuss as illustrations. However, if your topic is not included, the counsellors are willing to have a free informal chat with you to see if it would be appropriate for you to have counselling.

The counsellor, James Rye, is accredited by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy and is registered on the United Kingdom Register of Counsellors and Psychotherapists. He is very experienced, and is also able to work with couples on the phone as well as with individuals.

Sessions are normally for 60 minutes, but if you wish, you can book a 30 minute session at very reasonable rates. If you live near the counsellors you can also arrange a face-to-face meeting if you would prefer.

Full details of how to contact Dial A Counsellor are given on the site.