One of the only reasons I’ve stuck it out with my MobileMe account, despite numerous quirks, annoyances and outright failures, is push email. For the iPhone to be useful to me as a business device, I need it to keep me up to date on my email in real time (or as close to it as MobileMe’s push can achieve). Contact and calendar syncing are nice, but both can now be done using your Google information if you’d rather not pay the $100 annual MobileMe subscription fee. Gmail push would complete the picture, and it could be on the way.
And by could, I mean it definitely exists, as demonstrated by TechCrunch’s hands-on with the app that makes it possible. Yes, it’s via a third-party app, and there is no official word from either Google or Apple that Gmail push on the iPhone has finally arrived. Not surprising, considering the money Apple stands to lose in MobileMe subscriptions if Gmail, which is not only incredibly popular, but free, manages to replicate the one trick MobileMe still has up its sleeve.
The app, called GPush, is the product of a development company called Tiverias, and it uses Gmail’s IMAP IDLE feature and Apple’s push notifications to deliver near-live updates from your Gmail inbox. All the app itself does is provide a login screen, after which point you never really have to open it again. Once set up, it will display text alerts containing the sender address and subject from each new email you receive. That is, if it’s allowed to.
The question surrounding GPush isn’t whether it can pull off what it claims to be able to. That it can do just fine, as TechCrunch’s tests prove. The question is, will Apple ever allow GPush to exist in a form that’s widely available to all users via the App Store? Cupertino has a vested interest in blocking Gmail push, since some users (like me, for instance) might walk away from MobileMe were it to become available, resulting in an obvious loss in revenue.
If Apple does block the app, regardless of what (if any) excuse it cites as the reason for the rejection, it will cast even more doubt on the already suspect App Store submission review process. Basically, it seems like the only reason to keep IMAP IDLE support out of the built-in Mail app is to block Gmail push, so it wouldn’t surprise me if GPush never sees the light of day. Let’s hope I’m wrong.
What you didnt mention is that yahoo already has Push mail and Apple has allowed that.
It certainly is still a mystery why they haven’t coordinated it with Google on the iPhone yet, not question, and this will certainly help the situation, at least temporarily (aka until Apple and Google actually put it on the phone). Maybe v3.1?
Thanks for sharing this news. I hadn’t heard of this yet, so I’m going to keep my eyes open. Certainly would be great for iPhone users – MobileMe is somewhat of a joke really.
Oh, I hope hope hope this makes it in. I’ll gladly pay a dollar for this. If they reject it, maybe it will be available on the Cydia store.
You can probably use Prowl (described here yesterday) to push mail notifications to your iPhone. There are several options for getting Growl email notifications, including a Thunderbird add-on (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/4634), GoogleGrowl (http://wafflesoftware.net/googlegrowl/), and various ways to get Mac Mail notifications via Growl (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=398419).
Sorry to burst your Microsoft-hating bubbles, but Exchange has done this for years.
Enjoy your WinMo device, Realist. LOL!
Are you serious?!
You’re actually dishing out $99 a year for a Mobileme account, just so you won’t have to wait max 15 minutes to know if you’ve got new mail?
Well if you dont have me the notifications dosnt work that i know at least here in mexico i dont know why.
Push mail is hardly “the one trick MobileMe still has up its sleeve.” It may be the only thing you find useful from a MobileMe membership, but it is hardly the only service Apple is offering in the membership. It is also far from the only appealing feature for new Internet users and those who want a convenient bundle of services.
If you don’t find MobileMe useful, that’s fine. But you’re doing yourself quite a disservice as an Apple blogger if you can’t see past your own disinterest in a service to what it actually offers its intended audience.
Push is already available via http://www.nuevasync.com … works great and it’s only 25 $ a year.
NuevaSync and MobileMe is tempting, but seems shameful to me. I pay upwards of $80 every single month for mobile service. If gmail has some technology that works like push, or better yet, supports push then I shouldn’t have to pay ANYTHING for it.