I'd been reading about these features being added for others, but I noticed today that they were available on my account. Gmail: Help Center:

"It's your mail. You should be able to choose how and where you read it. Access your mail the way you want to, with free POP access and automatic forwarding. You can even switch to other email services without having to worry about losing access to your messages. Think of it as email portability.

Free POP access
Download your messages. Read them offline. Use your Blackberry or Outlook or just the good ol' web. Learn more

Free automatic forwarding
Forward new incoming messages to any email account you specify. Learn more "