[Edward Kirk]

Right now one of the only things MobileMe has going for it is push email but if something like Gmail, a free, hugely popular email service, were to get push capabilities, it would be a big game changer. There's an app in development that does the next best thing. It's called GPush, and it sends you push notifications right from your Gmail inbox.

GPush uses Gmail's IMAP IDLE feature to gather information from your inbox, and then sends you a push notification for every email you get. It's not quite as good as getting the whole email pushed to you, as you still have to log in to your email app and refresh the inbox to actually get the email, but that's not really what it's for. It's more for use as sort of a background companion to your mail client. It doesn't even have anything other than a log-in screen, and after you enter your information, you never need to open it again.

Unfortunately, GPush hasn't been approved by Apple yet, and apps as cool and clever as this one tend not to get very far. Still, the developer says there's nothing really bad about it. “Apple should technically speaking approve the application, nothing went into the code that violated either Apple’s or Google’s Terms of Service.”

If accepted, you can expect to see it priced as $0.99.

[via TechCrunch]

[Seisto]

"Right now one of the only things MobileMe has going for it is push email.."

I agree, push notification directly from GMail would be a huge service for millions of iPhone owners but who in their right mind - in an iPhone/Apple community nonetheless - could possibly say MobileMe is really only good for push email?

Find My iPhone? Automatic iCal, Address Book, and countless other syncing options? Remote access to AEBS shared drives?

So many more things that make MobileMe worth it - much more than a clunky push email service that only allows a me.com address in the first place.

[Dominique]

I quite don't understand. What is the big deal with "Push" ?

My Gmail address is completely synchronised with my Iphone. Using the IMAP protocole I get my mails on my Iphone as soon as they come on my Gmail address.
I can read them, move them in a file (the files are the same on the Iphone and on Gmail and they are synchronised).

So what more "push" gives ?

[Pyromatrix2k2]

Originally Posted by Dominique

I quite don't understand. What is the big deal with "Push" ?

My Gmail address is completely synchronised with my Iphone. Using the IMAP protocole I get my mails on my Iphone as soon as they come on my Gmail address.
I can read them, move them in a file (the files are the same on the Iphone and on Gmail and they are synchronised).

So what more "push" gives ?

I think you're a little confused. Email on the iPhone is "Fetched," not "Pushed." The difference is that your phone checks for email on the server in increments. If you go to...
Settings
Mail, Contacts, Calendars
Fetch New Data
There's an option to check how often the phone checks for email.
Every 15 Minutes
Every 30 Minutes
Hourly
Manually
Even if you have Push set to "On" here, email still isn't "Pushed" to the phone. If you don't believe me, scroll to the bottom of this page where it says "Advanced" and check your schedule. If you get three emails within the Fetch window, you'll go from zero badges to three the next time the phone checks the server for email. You don't get a badge for each email you receive, right when you receive it.

I can see two big advantages to using a Push client for email. One is that even if you set your incremental Fetch to the lowest possible, which is 15 Minutes, you might not get an email on your phone that was sent right after the last Fetch. Therefor, it would be sitting in your inbox unchecked for at least fourteen minutes. The second application for a Push service would be the pop up notifications. Fetch only allows for badges on the Home Screen icon of the app. Think of this as a preview of what you'll get when you open your email application. "Oh, I don't need to look at this now, its just a newsletter I get" is my own personal example of why the pop up would be great. I could just hit "Close" and let the badge counter take over.

I hope that makes a bit more sense to you. I've actually had this question asked to me numerous times in the passed few weeks since FW3.0 came out.

[NewGuy]

OUTSTANDING

The bonus to Gmail for me is the group conversation. I lamented the loss of the Gmail App I had on my Treo. The native mail app didn't cut it, but it serves.

Still...this is most welcome news.

[jpeaoc]

I"m a little confused. With my yahoo account I get email the instant its received online. I don't have to wait for phone to go fetch it. So what is the big deal about gmail, when yahoo already does it?
Also is there a way to get pop notification for mobile me emails?
Thanks

[Pyromatrix2k2]

Originally Posted by jpeaoc

I"m a little confused. With my yahoo account I get email the instant its received online. I don't have to wait for phone to go fetch it. So what is the big deal about gmail, when yahoo already does it?
Also is there a way to get pop notification for mobile me emails?
Thanks

Are you sure it pushes the moment the Yahoo! server gets the email? I don't doubt you, but I am 99.5% positive that all emails are Fetched and not Pushed. You might be getting the emails with the 15 Minute Fetch timer? The settings themselves show that the whole mail app is Fetch only...

[Dominique]

Thanks for the answer, and the explanation. I'm not confused at all, the question was : Who needs to get e-mail at every minutes of the life ?
Every 15minutes is good enough except if you are a broker working in Wall street.
By the way if I receive three mails I get three badges. Let's say I read only one mail : there are two badges left (unread mails). If I receive two more mails in the 15 minutes gap I'll get 4 badges.

So where is the big deal with push ?

Originally Posted by Pyromatrix2k2

I think you're a little confused. Email on the iPhone is "Fetched," not "Pushed." The difference is that your phone checks for email on the server in increments. If you go to...
Settings
Mail, Contacts, Calendars
Fetch New Data
There's an option to check how often the phone checks for email.
Every 15 Minutes
Every 30 Minutes
Hourly
Manually
Even if you have Push set to "On" here, email still isn't "Pushed" to the phone. If you don't believe me, scroll to the bottom of this page where it says "Advanced" and check your schedule. If you get three emails within the Fetch window, you'll go from zero badges to three the next time the phone checks the server for email. You don't get a badge for each email you receive, right when you receive it.

I can see two big advantages to using a Push client for email. One is that even if you set your incremental Fetch to the lowest possible, which is 15 Minutes, you might not get an email on your phone that was sent right after the last Fetch. Therefor, it would be sitting in your inbox unchecked for at least fourteen minutes. The second application for a Push service would be the pop up notifications. Fetch only allows for badges on the Home Screen icon of the app. Think of this as a preview of what you'll get when you open your email application. "Oh, I don't need to look at this now, its just a newsletter I get" is my own personal example of why the pop up would be great. I could just hit "Close" and let the badge counter take over.

I hope that makes a bit more sense to you. I've actually had this question asked to me numerous times in the passed few weeks since FW3.0 came out.