Mail Tips

Any Mac running OS X Lion or later comes with iCloud support built right in. If you've already got an existing iCloud account or need to set one up, it's incredibly easy to get all your contacts, calendars, and your iCloud mail account linked up with your Mac.

If you want to access your iCloud mail from a non-iOS, Windows, or Mac mail program, or with an alternate smartphone platform like BlackBerry, Android, Windows Phone, etc. you'll need to set it up manually using the IMAP and SMTP standards. While it may not be as pretty, it will be functional, and once it's set up you'll have access to all your iCloud mail, wherever you are.

The Define option in the iPhone and iPad text selector popup gives you dictionary definitions for most common words. It's convenient because it can be accessed in only a couple of taps. But what if you're in England and the U.S. dictionary keeps coming up? What if you also speak Italian or Japanese or Chinese and want to access those definitions as well? What if you're traveling and want access to French? To save space Apple keeps additional dictionaries offline but you can easily add and remove additional dictionaries any time you want. That way you can have the languages you want right where you want them!

When Apple released iOS 7 they included some tweaks to the Mail app including a way to customize message flags to suit your tastes. If you aren't a fan of the default flags that appear, there's now another option. Here's what it looks like and how to change it: