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nonhuman · Sep 16, 2007, 01:26 PM

So I've got my Yahoo! mail account set up on my iPhone and the push feature is fantastic. However I don't want to use my Yahoo! email address. I haven't used it at all in the 5 or 6 years that I've had it, and I don't really intend to start now. But! If there's some way that I can change the reply-to address from messages that are sent to my Yahoo! account, I'd have no problem with forwarding a copy of my email to the Yahoo! account so that I'd get the push email feature without actually having to use my Yahoo! address.

Does anyone know if this is possible?

Gig103 · Sep 17, 2007, 05:13 PM

nonhuman -- I cannot directly answer your question, because I'm unfamiliar with Yahoo. HOWEVER... Google Gmail does offer the option of changing your reply-to address, and they offer free accounts as well. Perhaps, since you aren't particularly tied to your Yahoo account, just sign up for Gmail?

stevesnj · Sep 17, 2007, 05:17 PM

what is 'push' e-mail on the iPhone? I have a yahoo account and can't find what this is? tnks

zerostar · Sep 17, 2007, 05:21 PM

Gmail does not offer push email. Push is when the email server pushes the email to the phone right when it is received, instead of your phone waiting 15, 20, 30 min to check for mail it is pushed like an SMS message would be.

Yahoo has been very flaky with the push email, I wish apple would offer push on the .Mac email even for a fee it would be nice to have a reliable service I could use with my existing address.

CorpITGuy · Sep 18, 2007, 07:58 AM

This is exactly why I'm terrified Apple will never license ActiveSync and make the iPhone doable for corporate users. Most users of the iPhone don't even know what push e-mail IS!

I'm never gonna get my ActiveSync back.

zerostar · Sep 18, 2007, 09:22 AM

Through apple probably not

frdmfghtr · Sep 18, 2007, 09:30 AM

The Yahoo! push email hasn't impressed me. It may be free, but you get what you pay for. Sometimes I get mail in a minute or two, and other times it may be a few hours.

Having any other email account and setting the iPhone to check every 15 minutes is frequent enough. With a 15-minute interval, does push email really matter that much?

nonhuman · Sep 18, 2007, 10:21 AM

Originally Posted by frdmfghtr

The Yahoo! push email hasn't impressed me. It may be free, but you get what you pay for. Sometimes I get mail in a minute or two, and other times it may be a few hours.

Having any other email account and setting the iPhone to check every 15 minutes is frequent enough. With a 15-minute interval, does push email really matter that much?

It's nice, though I agree not that big a deal. I'm happy to stick with IMAP and check every 15 minutes. The one definitite advantage of push email is that it extends your battery life because you're only connecting to the internet when there's a reason to and not doing it every 15 minutes no matter what.

CorpITGuy · Sep 18, 2007, 10:35 AM

To follow up on what others have said:

Push e-mail can, if implemented correctly, conserve battery usage over 15-minute polling. That said, most commercial implementations suck. On AT&T's 3G network, my Blackjack would die after about 12 hours of light phone usage and constant ActiveSync (push, over-the-air mail, calendar, contact and task synchronization).

Therein lies the big thing that ActiveSync can do for you-- with a default configuration of Exchange 2003/2007, any yahoo can buy a Windows Mobile phone from any service and wirelessly sync all his stuff -- without any help from IT. Not once did I sync my Blackjack or my Treo 750 to my PC. It always just synced OTA on AT&T 3G. ALSO, the iPhone won't even poll e-mail from Exchange unless either (a) IMAP/SMTP are opened up or (b) the user pays more for an intermediary company to provide IMAP and poll the Exchange server over OWA (i.e., Synchronica Mobile Gateway).

The iPhone is a GREAT consumer device, and isn't meant to be used like some (me) are trying to use them in the enterprise. If Apple ever licenses ActiveSync, expect several million almost immediate purchases from people who want the iPhone but need true enterprise connectivity.

nonhuman · Sep 18, 2007, 11:27 AM

From my experience, I'd much rather use IMAP than Exchange for enterprise purposes. I've never had more problems with a server than when I was working with Exchange. I've never had more problems with email clients then when I was working with Exchange.

I absolutely HATE IMAP. After basically writing an IMAP email client from scratch, I think it's one of the most poorly designed pieces of crap ever. But I still find that it works much better than Exchange (which, admitedly, I've never worked with at a low level so who knows it might be even worse).

CorpITGuy · Sep 18, 2007, 07:19 PM

Exchange is very hard to keep running.

It's EASY to deploy, though -- and it's easy for the user as well.

I've flirted with Kerio in the past... and it licenses ActiveSync (and runs on Mac!)

nonhuman · Sep 18, 2007, 09:23 PM

So after some doing quite a lot of digging (you'd think there'd be geeks talking about this all over the place, but no) it looks as though the iPhone is using P-IMAP to implement push email with Yahoo!. And, for whatever reason, despite the fact that in order to use P-IMAP the mail client on the iPhone must support IMAP IDLE, simply using it with an IMAP server that supports IMAP IDLE (such as my Dreamhost servers) does not provide you with push email as it normally would (like in Thunderbird or Mail.app if you use this plugin). This is sad.

Fortunately, there is a very good chance that I will be moving my hosting from Dreamhost to MediaTemple in the near future (I'll probably at least be getting a MediaTemple account the first week of October) and MediaTemple has said that they'll implement push email for the iPhone if there's enough demand. Hooray!

So, assuming this is true, I should be able to get push email to my iPhone within a month. I don't suppose any other iPhone users out there would be interesting in paying a nominal fee for an email address that would give them push email? It would go to a good cause (keeping me alive and with web hosting).

Peter · Sep 21, 2007, 05:17 PM

I'd be tempted, but I think my awesome web host would just implement it

zerostar · Sep 21, 2007, 05:33 PM

Originally Posted by nstehle

Exchange is very hard to keep running.

Why do you say this? I (never having run exchange before) setup an exchange server for 20-30 users, I have setup exchange sentry for spam filtering as well. This has been running for almost 5 years and never had a problem. Is there something I should be aware of?

The server is running Exchange, IMAP, POP and Webmail all fine and functioning normally.

CorpITGuy · Sep 22, 2007, 09:14 AM

Originally Posted by zerostar

Why do you say this? I (never having run exchange before) setup an exchange server for 20-30 users, I have setup exchange sentry for spam filtering as well. This has been running for almost 5 years and never had a problem. Is there something I should be aware of?

The server is running Exchange, IMAP, POP and Webmail all fine and functioning normally.

Maybe it's just me...

I've had spam filtering issues, data corruption problems, Windows server issues, Active Directory nightmares, etc. I guess it's luck of the draw, and I got stuck with all the low cards...

macintologist · Sep 22, 2007, 09:38 AM

Something that bugs me is why doesn't Apple offer push email for their own .Mac customers??

CorpITGuy · Sep 23, 2007, 09:58 AM

Originally Posted by macintologist

Something that bugs me is why doesn't Apple offer push email for their own .Mac customers??

AGREED! As much as I pay for .Mac, I think I should get at least the same level of service as free Yahoo! customers.

As for ActiveSync, I guess it's a business decision, but I think to go without it is a bad decision. For instance, probably 10 or 15 of our employees have purchased smartphones or had them purchased by the company since the iPhone was released. ALL of them are running Windows Mobile. Not a single one is running OS X. It'll take a lot of iPhone sales to consumers to make up for the fact that nearly every company in America is pissing Blackjacks and Treos to their employees.

doctyper · Sep 23, 2007, 12:52 PM

Originally Posted by nonhuman

So after some doing quite a lot of digging (you'd think there'd be geeks talking about this all over the place, but no) it looks as though the iPhone is using P-IMAP to implement push email with Yahoo!. And, for whatever reason, despite the fact that in order to use P-IMAP the mail client on the iPhone must support IMAP IDLE, simply using it with an IMAP server that supports IMAP IDLE (such as my Dreamhost servers) does not provide you with push email as it normally would (like in Thunderbird or Mail.app if you use this plugin). This is sad.

Fortunately, there is a very good chance that I will be moving my hosting from Dreamhost to MediaTemple in the near future (I'll probably at least be getting a MediaTemple account the first week of October) and MediaTemple has said that they'll implement push email for the iPhone if there's enough demand. Hooray!

So, assuming this is true, I should be able to get push email to my iPhone within a month. I don't suppose any other iPhone users out there would be interesting in paying a nominal fee for an email address that would give them push email? It would go to a good cause (keeping me alive and with web hosting).

Do you have a link to where MediaTemple has said this? I'm an (mt) customer and haven't heard word one about it.

nonhuman · Sep 26, 2007, 09:17 AM

I'll see if I can find the link again. It wasn't to an official statement from MediaTemple, but was to a statement one of their customers made after talking to support. He said that he was told they would be willing to add it if enough customers voiced support.

So give them a call and tell them you want it.

I'll almost definitely be signing up with them anyway soon, so I'll definitely be voicing my desire for push email for my iPhone when I talk to them about the possibility of me signing up.