I have always had email set up on my iPhone and iPad so I can send and receive messages while on the go. As I embark on the project, though, I am taking a closer look at how it is set up, and learning some new things about the iOS Mail app.

First, let's look at setting up the email in the first place. Click on the Settings app on the iPad, and tap the Mail, Contacts, and Calendars setting in the left pane. Toward the top of the right pane under Accounts, tap Add Account.

POP or IMAP

You can add a variety of email account types to the iPad: Microsoft Exchange, MobileMe, Gmail, Yahoo!, Aol, or the generic Other. I prefer using Exchange, for reasons I will cover in a minute, but generally I have used Other. Other is what you use to set up any generic POP or IMAP account. The question is which: POP or IMAP?

There are pros and cons to each. With POP, the messages are downloaded from the remote server to the iPad. That means that the email messages are stored locally, and you will be able to read them even if your iPad doesn't have a working connection to the Internet at the moment, but it also means that the messages are no longer on the server, so they can't be retrieved or read from other PCs or devices, and if you lose the iPad the emails go with it.