How to download/re-download recent Gmail messages onto multiple machines

As you know Gmail POP will only download once & if you've already downloaded your Gmail messages via POP once, you cant do it again on another machine or mobile phone. Gmail will have marked those messages as downloaded already, but to re-download them, use this neat trick, spotted in the Gmail help list:
If you're accessing your Gmail using POP from multiple clients, Gmail's recent mode makes sure that all messages are made available to each client, rather than only to the first client to access new mail.
Recent mode fetches the last 30 days of mail, regardless of whether it's been sent to another POP client already.

This is how you do it. For all POP clients. Replace 'username@gmail.com' in your POP client settings with 'recent:username@gmail.com' & after that do one of the following
· In Outlook, on the Advanced tab, check the box next to Leave a copy of messages on the server.
· In Outlook Express, on the Advanced tab, check the box next to Leave a copy of messages on server.
· In Thunderbird, on the Server Settings tab, check the box next to Leave messages on server.
· In Apple Mail, on the Advanced tab, remove the check next to Remove copy from server after retrieving a message.

Handy, especially if you want download messages on your laptop, desktop & handheld after getting them once on one of them.