gPhone: Setting Up and Using a Gmail Account on Your iPhone

Google has already dominated the email field with its
mammoth Gmail, and the growing monopoly is only going to get more secure with
the release of the social networking tool Google Buzz.  The iPhone is nice in that it allows
different communication sectors to use 'push' features to indicate the messages
have come in the same way that it does with conventional cell phone
communication.  This means that you can
set your email and social networking accounts to indicate to you on your iPhone
when something of interest hits your inbox. 
To do this effectively you have to set up your email account into your
iPhone so that it will utilize the iPhone's hardware correctly, otherwise you
will have to log in using Safari.  Gmail
remains the logical culprit for most people's email needs, and it is front and center
on your iPhone.

To connect your Gmail account to your iPhone you start by
selecting the Mail button from the lower main task bar, which also includes the
button for Phone and Safari.  Once in the
Mail section select Gmail, which is right under Mobile Me and above Yahoo Mail.  You will be asked to enter in a specific amount
of log in information, including the name attached to the Gmail account, the
email address, your password, and the description that is relevant.  The description is not usually going to have
to be entered as the address itself can usually suffice, but it is an
option.  This extensive amount of information
is required because this is essentially a permanent log in from your
iPhone.  Once this information is
correctly entered it will take you directly to your Gmail inbox, with blue circles
indicating unread messages.  If you hit
the Inbox button in the upper right hand corner you will go 'back' to the
Mailboxes section that gives you options to view other mailboxes such as
Drafts, Sent Mail, Trash, and others.

You have to have already set up a Gmail account before going
through this process.  This can easily be
done at the Google main mail area, and since Google Buzz remains the rage right
now it will likely try to initiate your set up for that service at the same
time.  This does not, however, work
easily for Gmail based student and university accounts.  If you use a Gmail base for your school email
address that includes that school in the address it may have trouble working or
refuse to accept period.  If you do have
a standard type of email address for your school location, such as an
'Exchange' account, and then migrate your mail over to your personal Gmail
account then you should still be fine.

Now that you have set up your Gmail account to your phone
you can easily just hit the Mail button to drop into your account.  Do not try to use this function to log in to
multiple accounts as it will lose its benefit, so for secondary accounts Safari
should be sufficient.  It is possible to
set up multiple accounts, but the added annoyance will not be worth it.  You can turn off  'push' settings or other Gmail functions on
the iPhone by going to the iPhone's Settings. 
Once there go to the third block down and select Mail, Contacts, and
Calendars, which is right under General. 
It is here that you can change the information and settings for that
account.