The email program that came with my handheld also has this limitation. I found a decent work-around: I set Outlook Express to not send my emails immediately, and then I go in and change the sender information for each email before I send them out. It's a little aggravating but really not a huge deal, especially since it's not a disaster if an email goes out under the wrong identity.

Look, ma, no wires!
Agendus Mail really shines when it's used for wireless email synchronization. My Zire 72 came with an optional WiFi card, and it wasn't too difficult to configure it to connect to the wireless network in my house.

Once it was set up, Agendus Mail was able to check email without needing a HotSync. I created each of my seven email accounts in Agendus and it checked all of them. I was able to send mail from one account to the other without HotSyncing. Fabulous!

Each account has five folders of its own: Inbox, Outbox, Deleted, Drafts and Sent. As Figure A shows, the pull-down menu where you choose which folder to look at gets quite long.

FIGURE A

You can see each account and its five associated folders. Click picture for a larger image.

You can minimize the various accounts in the menu to be able to look at another one in more detail, but they don't come back minimized when you open the menu again.

I did have occasional crashes using the wireless connectivity. Iambic's technical support thought that receiving emails through HotSync and then replying to them wirelessly might have caused the difficulty. I suggest that you do either one or the other.

I personally don't use the wireless connection very often; to use it, I have to remove my Zire's memory card (which contains all of my eBooks, games and pictures) and insert the optional WiFi card. For a handheld with built-in wireless access, though, Agendus Mail's wireless features would be a powerful addition.

Wireless security
Agendus Mail SSL edition includes SSL (Secure Sockets Layer; for more details, http://webopedia.internet.com/TERM/S/SSL.html is a good start) to ensure that your emails are accessible only to the intended recipient. Figure B, from iambic's web site, shows the set up screens for SSL security.

FIGURE B

Setting up the SSL security is a matter of a few clicks. Click picture for a larger image.

I set it up on my handheld and saw no difference in how my emails went through, which is good. Something like this should be transparent to the user. Since most of my emails are on the level of, "Yes, let's meet for lunch", additional security is probably not needed. However, anything that keeps my data secure and safer is good news.

General functionality
Agendus Mail's screens are clear and well-designed. Figure C shows an email on my Zire; the icons at the bottom are easy to understand and use.

FIGURE C

The icons on the Agendus Mail screen are colourful but not overdone. Click picture for a larger image.

The fourth one is "Redirect", which allows you to send an email that you have received off to someone else while making it seem as though it's come from the original sender. This is an interesting feature; maybe it's just me, but the uses I can see for this are all rather nefarious. [See http://www.outlookpower.com/issues/issue200507/00001596001.html for more discussion of redirects within Outlook.]