[benjie]

A bit further on all of the above. A card reader, in one form or another is really handy. You can have a "physical" card reader like Dollface has mentioned or you can use a "software" card reader.

Physical is handy cause it is faster. The con side is that the removal/insertion of the card into the device can over time cause a breakdown on the device or wear/tear to the card itself.

The software type is slower and uses either a USB cable (again this causes wear/tear to the device) or you can use Bluetooth. Bluetooth is a tad bit slower, but in terms of convenience, it is an option to look at.

There are bunches and bunches of software applications that handle this function. Card Reader (works really well with Bluetooth or USB - further on this in a moment) and there is BlueFiles (Bluefiles works only with Bluetooth) and there are just others out there waiting for you to play with.

I have 2 17" laptops, an Acer and a Gateway. I purchased the Acer shortly after Vista came out and except for one nagging problem, it has been an excellent computer. The problem: USB, specifically, adding devices to it was erratic and at times very frustrating. My wife's Mac installed everything immediately, the Acer would just do nothing and might eventually install the device (printer/scanner, et cetera) or just not install it at all. However, when it came to Bluetooth, the Acer excelled and was a breeze to use.

Last week, in need of scanning at a very high resolution, the scanner decided not to run and after some playing, I decided to replace the laptop. The laptop home, 24 hours later EVERYTHING installed and up and running. USB on the Gateway is excellent; however, Bluetooth is totally different.

I am able to use a Kingsington Bluetooth dongle with the Acer and grew use to its interface, especially the Bluetooth Neighborhood feature. The Gateway though does not like to use the Bluetooth dongle, insisting on letting me disable its built-in Bluetooth radio, but not letting me use the Dongle (I need to play further). As a result, the 2 applications I use for Bluetooth transfers (card reader type programs) do not run under the Bluetooth mode. Card Reader runs under USB, Blue Files, well...

I can transfer files with the built-in Bluetooth function, but the ease of transfer I used on the Acer is just not there. So anyway, long story cut to an end, there are a number of ways to do it, though one just gotta remember is the wear and tear factor from card/cable use.

As for the mail thing, many mailers can be set to fetch at specified intervals and one can be set to just sit there quietly and work without a lot of interaction. They do not interfere with anything until a message comes in; however, if you do use IMAP PUSH, then the device must stay on line with a constant data connection, and that can cause a drain on the battery, especially in areas where the signal may not be very good.

Ben