Is there a way to stop my Pearl from checking for email automatically? If I turn off the wireless then my phone does not accept incoming calls, but I don't want it checking my email constantly. Can I set it somehow to only check email when I tell it to?
No can do, however you can stop that mail and all data at Options , Network, turn off data swrvices. Phone will work. Email and internet, data won't.
When you turn data back on, you will be pushed all the waiting messages.
I too don't use the push email function but I manually check my email through the web browser. Just log in to your webmail. For example I check my AOL mail on the aol mobile webmail site. Its pretty quick. I just set it as my homepage and everytime I start the BB browser I can log in to check my mail if I want.
Manually check email? 
