iPhone and Windows Mobile get the (Gmail) Push

Google has added e-mail support to its Google Sync service, providing vital connectivity to iPhone and Windows Mobile Users who don't have the time to press "check mail". The new functionality was launched last night, but rapidly became overloaded as initial synchronisations took their toll. The service is working better now, …

[Anonymous Coward]

IMAP idle

If all you want is push email, the IMAP idle feature has done this for years - on my Nokia E61 at least. Still, it's worth something if you need calendar syncing.

[Anonymous Coward]

Gmail, but no password

I have Gmail on my Nokia, without any pushing, I belive.

But there is "no need" to give any password at all.

I find this disturbing as anybody who can grab my phone can read my mail.

Anybody who has any solution to this.

[Colin 21]

Cert error

Oh dear seems Google can't get their certificates in order. Other than that setup was a breeze - excellent (free) service.

[Monty Burns]

Standards of reporting

"While some of us are happy to check e-mail when we want to, many people feel their lives aren't complete without Twitter feeds, Facebook updates and email alerts constantly reminding them how important they are"

Short sighted and ignorant comments like that do you no favours.

[Anonymous Coward]

Woot!

Awesome!

This is a fantastic step forward. Finally I can set up one thing on my phone and get calendar, contacts and email, without fiddling around with IMAP. Plus I now get push email too! (bye bye battery, I suspect)

Go Google!

(In the "grass is always greener" school of thought, it would be nice if I could sync texts with them too for backup, but that's just me being greedy...)

[AdamW]

Title

Cool :)

[censored]

For when you just can't wait for that mail...

Or alternatively (like me) for when you don't want to be bothered checking only to find you haven't got any messages, so you only need bother picking up your phone when you DO have a message and can get on with your life the rest of the time...

[F1reman]

CELEBRATE!! (madonna song)

OMG I've been waiting for this for like ages so cool

i don't have many friends or anything (I read the register after all) BUT I DO have some techie friends with whom I can spunk over the fact that we have FREE push email at last :-)

I LOVE Google!!

And if you think any of the above is an awful attempt at humour you're wrong, stop being so cynical.

Oh and btw @ the gimp who mentioned push IMAP - don't post here if you're a clueless fool please. Waste my time.

[Robert Forsyth]

Cannot help feeling this is a waste of time

Most POP3 clients can be set to poll the POP server(s) every x minutes.

Won't you have servers uselessly pushing emails to clients that are not connected in a temporary WiFi shadow/overload?

[Parax]

FREE PUSH! - No Battery Drain!

Yes Its a big claim!

All you need is a Mail Server with a robot/script execute.

A twitter account With Protected Updates.

AN O2 Mobile.

I think you can work out how this works!

[Brutus]

@Monty Burns

This is the Register, man! Most of us like looking down our noses at somebody. particularly those bodies who can't go more than 30 seconds without checking their crackberry :)

Err, that wouldn't be you, would it?

[pixel]

What's the big deal about push?

Has everyone forgotten about scheduled polling? All the joys of receiving email without having to press "send and receive", but without the constant interruptions and p1ss poor battery life?

I use a 5 minute poll on a WinMo device against our corporate exchange, and battery life is 2+ times better than with push mail on. If something is that important that it can't wait a few minutes, then you can always use that mobile phone to maybe make a phone call?

[pedrodude]

@ Monty Burns & @censored

Second both of your comments.

It's astonishing that el reg is lambasting usability. Care to explain?

[Grae Stafford]

Its very bad but....

.....many people feel their lives aren't complete without Twitter feeds, Facebook updates and email alerts .Now they can have them all delivered to their mobile phone without so much as a prod. ®

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Monty Burns]

Those that can't see the benefit....

... of not having to poll or press the "check mail button" then you obviously haven't tried it... I guess your still using IMAP or worse PO(O)P

Censored gave a perfectly good reason and there are many more.

[Anonymous Coward]

@Mosh Jahan

I thought really important people have other people to field and filter all emails and telephone calls. It seemed to me that it is the lower echelons that need to be permanently reachable, in case they are summoned to perform some task.

Surely Smithers would look after the various communications of Monty Burns? :-)

[Bassey]

@pixel

Not sure I believe you or that you actually have a clue how push email works there fella. The whole point of push is that the server does the work, so saving YOUR battery life. If your device is polling every few minutes, it's using up power. If I don't get any emails but have push turned on, I use no juice. Any explanations as to how you feel doing nothing uses twice as much energy as doing something over and over again would be much appreciated by myself and energy conservationists the world over.

[Richard Barnes]

Err.. is this really something new?

Maybe I'm missing something here, but I 've had Seven pushing Gmails to my phone for a year or two now. What's the big deal with this?

[Jon H]

Sky email

Will this work with Sky email which is basically just Gmail with a different front end?

[Kevin (Just Kevin)]

But WinMo only does one :-(

Now all we need is for Windows Mobile to gain the vey simple ability to talk to two exchange servers at the same time. I currently use Exchange Push for work emails so I can't use GMail Push. I have to do it via IMAP instead. Grrrrr

[Kamal Hashmi]

@Monty Burns: Standards of reporting

> " Short sighted and ignorant comments like that do you no favours."

I, on the other hand, like a little leavening of sarcasm.

If I am needed by work when I am off work they can ring or text me as an exceptional circumstance. I do not want the mindless prattling of HR and management taking up my valuable time.

And I have taken a person's phone from them when they were about to look at a text or email while I was talking to them. I was tempted to chuck it in the bin.

I may have to join facelessbook but only because my old school group is posting pics there and to check up on my kids.

-Grumpy Git.

[Tony Hoyle]

@Bassey

Simple. For push to work the phone must keep a constant connection up, because if its IP changes it's not going to be able to receive notifications. With polling it can actually go to sleep in between, thus saving battery.

Also, if you get email at a greater rate than the polling interval then polling is a win there, too. If you don't poll and just have the email client check when you bring it up, that's the best of all.

Having tried it I can say IMAP is far superior - I can go into any folder on my IMAP account and it's populated instantly because IMAP only downloads the headers until you need the email. OTOH with the exchange version it tries to download the whole email including attachments - I'm currently at 24 hours plus and my inbox only has half its emails, most of the folders are still empty... and the 'push notification' takes over 10 minutes to notify you of a new email. It's like going back to POP, only worse.