Google Brings Push Support to Gmail Comments

Don't know what the big issue is - my Nokia N95 8GB with the latest nokia email client has email always on and connected to Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo mail and other mail servers. Always know when an email has arrived (usually more quickly than via Outlook!).

Nokia phones generally have the best batteries, so the hit probably wouldn't be noticed.

I enjoy the regular quips at the iPhone dotted around your articles, Gordon (see, some can spell it!), but I know you use one yourself. So my question is: what other phone do you also use. You know, just to stay sane, in case you need to multi-task...

Excellent news. I've just been fiddling with Google sync to get Gmail, Outlook and Windows Mobile all synced up and was also looking at Nuevasync but won't bother now (the multi calender sync is good, but lost on my WM anyway).

On a related note I think its really bad for your mental well being to have push email. It means you never switch off. I have been out for meals with people with blackberrys and every few minutes you get buzz and they obsessively check their email. Far better to manually send and receive, that we we can have a pretence of control over our social lifes ;-)

I tried Google Sync a short while ago and came across the same issue I'd read about where it does always save all contact phone numbers and starts messing with the "category" of the numbers within contacts (especially if 2 or more numbers were set to the same category such as 'Work'). Rather annoyed me, so I used Ovi Contacts instead.

@Brian: I agree, but it just seems there's no getting away from it :(. If I don't check my emails, I'm just worried about what might be there that I might have missed! Although I'm still adamant that I could turn it off if I wanted to...

@Gordon: Slightly surprised by that, but I realise you're more impartial than most in regards to the faults. Speaking of smartphones on the market, the Pre's taken so long to arrive that it feels like last year's news already...

Brian ONeill - I quite agree. That's why my phone is set to vibrate, and I only check the emails when it suits me.

I had this set up and did one sync and now i am having a 'Waiting for Network' problem which seems to be well documented on the web :(

and that's why I like that Windows Mobile (don't know about others) can set a schedule so only work hours (Monday-Friday, 9 to 5) is push, every other time manually checking

@Brian
If people aren't doing it with their e-mail they'll do it with their texts instead
I seem to be the only person i know who doesnt instantly check their phone the minute it vibrates/rings, that applies to texts, e-mails and I usually miss the calls as my phone is on silent =) if it's important they will leave a message

Total non event for us (smug) Android users as Gordon said in the article.

But in my experience push really does eat up battery. I regularly turn data off all together as it really extends the battery life of my Hero. There's so many things on top of email which are continually pulling data. Twitter, Facebook, RSS, widgets.....

How ironic that as the features on my phone grow I actually have to use it less.

@Kaurisol, Don't know what the big issue is

I'm with you on this, I've had my IPhone3G using Push Email with Yahoo for well over a year now. eg. Like you say if I order something of the internet, my mobile blips practically the same time I click the order button.

Can someone please explain what the advantage is with PUSH over IMAP? I have IMAP Googlemail set at the moment, and it comes through instantly 90% of the time. If PUSH will drain the power of the iPhone even more, shouldn't I just stick to IMAP?

@Barry
Push is just whether your mail is instantly received on your phone versus you having to send/receive for it. The alternative for IMAP is POP where mail is not synced inbetween your device and the server. You can still use IMAP and not have Push email.

@Barry,

I believe it's more to do with how you mobile phone gets notified of new mail. With say POP your need to check for Email every so often, like 5 mins etc. With IMAP you keep a constant connection and use keep alives to keep the connection open.

But with PUSH email as implemented on Mobile phones these constant checking & constant connections are not needed. What the phone operators do is send a special kind of SMS that then informs your phone of new email.

With the above in mind, I personally would have expected PUSH to take LESS battery power, not more.