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Full-blown e-mail management is the raison d'etre for smart phones such as BlackBerry units, Windows Mobile devices, Palm Treos, and Symbian-based handsets. But what if you don't have a high-end cell phone? A pair of free services, Flurry and Teleflip, let you monitor (and if need be, respond to) e-mail on a wide variety of mass-market handsets. Both are useful, but in different ways.

Flurry requires a Java-capable phone that can access the Internet. After signing up with Flurry, I got a text message with a link; when I clicked it, the service's Java client downloaded and installed in a matter of minutes. After that I simply launched the application, and it started downloading message headers. All retrieved mail is processed through Flurry's servers, which compress images and strip down headers to keep your data airtime costs down.

You can add multiple e-mail accounts and RSS feeds, as well as import CSV-formatted contact lists (which you can create in most major e-mail services or clients), via your account page on Flurry's Web site. There, you can also set filters so that, for example, Flurry delivers messages only from certain people, or blocks messages with particular words in the subject line. Flurry doesn't refresh your inbox until instructed to do so, but you can opt to get text messages alerting you to any new mail, or messages from specific senders.

Flurry officials say the service supports some 700 phone models worldwide, significantly more phones than services from Gmail and Yahoo can support.

Flurry's main drawback: It doesn't work on networks such as Alltel or Verizon that prohibit third parties from installing software on their devices without carrier support (this failing also holds true, however, for Gmail and other Java-based mobile clients that don't partner with such carriers).

Easy Accessibility

Teleflip, in contrast, has no such problem because it requires no software download--a big plus. You just sign up online via your PC and list the addresses of senders whose mail you want delivered to your phone; Teleflip's servers immediately relay their messages as SMS text messages. That makes Teleflip feel like push e-mail, and also makes it accessible to virtually every current handset.

But Teleflip too has some negatives. Chief among them: Its whitelist approach, intended to keep your phone spam-free, makes monitoring your inbox difficult, and right now you can't authorize your entire contact list. Also, because SMS messages cannot exceed about 160 characters, Teleflip must split longer messages into several smaller ones. (You can, however, stop the messages at any time).

Both companies plan to make money with ads at the bottom of e-mail messages; by year's end Flurry also expects to offer for-pay premium services--for example, the ability to sync your Flurry inbox with your e-mail server (so that erasing a Flurry message makes it disappear on your desktop). Though you don't pay for either service, you do need to pay carrier fees for data (to use Flurry) or text messages (to use Teleflip).

If your carrier and handset support it, Flurry's superior feature set makes it the better choice, especially if you want to monitor your entire inbox. Teleflip might be worthwhile if you want to get mail on your phone from only a few individuals.

Flurry

Fast, free, convenient way to monitor e-mail or RSS feeds on a conventional Java phone.
Free
www.flurry.com

Teleflip

Free delivery of whitelisted e-mail via SMS messages is best for immediate receipt of important, expected messages.
Free
www.teleflip.com