Except for email.

I have used the mail program that came with my handheld, but only to jot a quick note, never as my main email program. Sending lots of email through the handheld has always seemed rather tedious.

I've put iambic's Agendus Mail, SSL Edition, through its paces to see whether I could really ditch the laptop and use Zire for everything. Could I? Read on to find out!

Installation
Agendus Mail installed quickly and easily. I downloaded the installation program from the web site; when I ran the program, it asked what language to install and then added its file to my Palm Quick Install. After a HotSync, my Palm went immediately into the Agendus Mail install program. The program asked whether I wanted to synchronize emails with my desktop, send and receive them wirelessly, or send and receive SMS ("Short Message Services") messages (used in text messaging).

My Zire cannot send SMS messages, so I selected the other two options. I then had to enter an email address and its associated password. Agendus Mail was ready to go, taking up about 550K of memory. I also installed Agendus Pro, a datebook replacement (and a lot more) which I'll discuss a little later.

HotSync email synchronization
Being a "non-manual-reading" kind of person, I went ahead and synchronized my Zire to see whether it would pick up emails from my desktop computer. Early in the HotSync process, Outlook Express checked for new emails, apparently spurred on by the Agendus conduit.

After the HotSync was complete, I went into Agendus Mail on my Zire, and sure enough, my emails were there, along with four emails explaining how Agendus Mail works. I skimmed and then deleted those, and then replied to a different message.

Upon HotSyncing, Outlook Express reported that another program was attempting to send an email. I confirmed that I was OK with this and the reply was sent. In contrast to what I remember of my old email program, Outlook Express does not need to be open for email to be sent and received by Agendus Mail.

Unfortunately, Agendus Mail can synchronize only one email account with the PC. I have, at last count, seven accounts, all having their email deposited directly into my Outlook Express Inbox. I could set those up as individual identities within Outlook Express but I'm always afraid that I'll forget to check one of them.

Agendus Mail synchronizes all of these emails to my handheld even though they don't all come from the email account that I entered originally. The HotSync process basically picks up any and all email in the Inbox of the desktop's default email program (as defined in the PC's Internet Settings). If I then reply to one of these emails, the reply is sent from the account that is being synchronized, not from the account that actually received the email. This does rather defeat the purpose of having a number of different email accounts.