Push Gmail comes to iPhone via “GPush”

Mobile Me, Exchange, and Yahoo email users have enjoyed push email on the iPhone for some time now. Oddly enough, Google and Apple apparently haven’t had the time or drive to strike a deal to bring the same functionality to the platform meaning a lot of gmail/iPhone users are getting twitchy. Once again, a 3rd party has come to the rescue to save us. Introducing “GPush”, the push solution for Gmail on iPhone. The app is really quite simple and straight forward. You open the app, enter your gmail credentials (encrypted, transferred and stored safely of course), login, and that’s it. If you so choose, you never have to open the actual GPush app again. Once logged in, the servers belonging to GPush’s developers, Tiverias, make use of the IMAP IDLE functionality and ping the servers for you. Taking care of pinging and other pushy stuff on their servers means your iPhone battery can stay nice and cool as it doesn’t have to do a thing. Ok so IMAP IDLE is sorta pushy, but is it as good as the real thing?

While some may worry because IMAP IDLE isn’t technically instantaneous like true push, the delay of roughly 10-30 seconds is hardly a deal breaker. Not to mention, it’s certainly better than pull or manual refreshing isn’t it. One more good feature thrown in (as previewed on the image) is the addition of previews just like SMS messages. Now if you get hundreds of emails per day, having this little box pop up an equal amount of times may annoy you. However, if you like these sorts of sneak previews, GPush becomes even more worth it.

Oh, one more thing. The app is only $0.99….it’s just that Apple still hasn’t approved it yet. Why they would deny such a useful app that brings another of the “most requested features” to the iPhone is beyond me. There aren’t any golden rules broken. So, if Apple does reject it, we can start assuming they simply don’t want anyone outdoing their mail app…even though GPush requires you to still use the Mail.app. Aw well. Here’s to hoping…

Source: Tech Crunch

Author: Mike Norris

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Gadget lover, smartphone collector, and beer connoisseur. I've been writing about gadgets for three years now and loving every minute of it. Outside of the digital landscape, I enjoy being active outdoors. I'm always up for a good conversation, so feel free to drop me a line!