# 3 Years Blackberry - 2 days on iphone. We have a clear winner



## lindmar (Nov 13, 2003)

I've been with Blackberry for 3 years.
I use it extensively for my business. It has been awesome although it lacks a lot of functionality and it's kind of a pain in the butt to do anything except sending a quick fast email..\

I've had my iPhone now for 2 days and I can't believe what I'm seeing. This is truly a blackberry killer. Any way I look at it, this thing blows the blackberry out of the water. I'm just baffled and confused by the pure potential power of this thing. This is the same feeling I had when I got my first mac from MacDoc about 10 years ago. 

It is clear to me now why Rogers has a vested interest to also support Blackberry, because people will leave Blackberry. Of course, they will keep the large corps that have hundreds of employees using them. But for small business owners, the blackberry is a piece of old history as far as I'm concerned.

Email is rock solid and fast, push is even better. Email on here makes emailing on the blackberry seem archaic.

App store.. WOW. 
My iPhone has been unleashed into a little small business machine. This will no doubt increase my productivity unlike blackberry where even calendar or calculator were a pain in the butt to use. This is only the start. Yeah I know hundreds of Apps existed for Blackberry but they all really lacked that Apple/Mac feeling. You know the feeling? It's like shareware for the Windows market...

Like I said, we're only scratching the surface here of the App Store.

Some of the best Apps I've found..
PayPal - Check balances
Shazam - How cool is that - fun and silly
Evernote 
Twitterific
Facebook
Things
Filemagnent

Browsing.
A lot of my blackberry use was for browsing my websites, diagnosing issues on the road, checking things and it really couldn't do that right. I always used up my "unlimited" 25MB data plan.

Browsing on the iphone is a breath of fresh sweet air. It's like a little laptop in my hands.

Typing - Blackberry always seemed better but the more I use the iphone, the easier and better it gets.

Sync - some of the holy grail of apple. This morning I was spending time trying to figure out adding some pop3 accounts via the iphone. I had issues. Then I remembered good old sync. I went into itunes clicked the accounts from mail, clicked sync and I was done.

anyways, thanks for listening to me. Buy an iphone.

Cheers


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## satchmo (May 26, 2005)

It's great hearing the perspective from an actual BB user and not from simply an Apple basher or fanboy.

I think the biggest hurdle for BB owners, and you've alluded to it, is the keyboard.
I know on the Apple iPhone Guided Tour, they mention that once you get proficient at one finger typing, you can eventually try two thumb typing.

Just curious, has anyone mastered the iPhone keyboard with the speed an accuracy that they get from a fixed and keyboard device like a BB?


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## lindmar (Nov 13, 2003)

I should add this is all just my opinion,

Blackberry has been awesome for me. For what I said, email and checking things quickly. But this just takes the cake. I think Blackberry is now playing catch 

I also should add. I still very much dislike Rogers.  
My voicemail also has not been properly set up which is annoying.


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## machael (Apr 27, 2008)

i do the two finger typing and with the intelligent auto-correction i find that i can spit out sms/emails almost as fast as infront of my desktop. The only snags in recognition are when i get to the keys at the edge of the screen (ie: o, p) I usually get the one I don't want. I'm sure I'll learn to compensate eventually


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## Drizzx (Jun 30, 2008)

I have both a BackBerry world phone and an iPod Touch, and while I can type faster on the Touch, I also make a few more mistakes. Granted, I do a lot more typing on my BB so that may be part of the reason.


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## Sybersport (Jun 7, 2005)

Great review.

I was thinking today that I pay ~$85/month (voice+data) and I really only use my BB for e-mails, since the web functionality is pretty weak... so I'm looking forward to getting an iPhone to see what I have been missing.


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## retrocactus (Jun 17, 2003)

Give the iPhone keyboard a week of regular use and you'll get used to it completely. Many BB and Treo users took the same amount of time to get used to their keyboards too (regardless of key configuration).


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## lindmar (Nov 13, 2003)

anyone wanna buy a pearl?


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## Mississauga (Oct 27, 2001)

Thanks for the "contest results" - no surprise.

RIM makes good products - Apple makes amazing products! 

But I hope RIM continues to do well, being Canadian.


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## [email protected] (Sep 24, 2007)

Interesting review... 

and from a consumer/small business owner, makes a lot of sense!

Corporate is an entirely different view (BES> iPhone's Exchange solution) 

But for the small business/consumer, its awesome...makes the commute a lot nicer, lol..

What Apple needs is RIM to release BB Connect for the iPhone, ditch MS Exchange...probably won't happen though


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## Joker Eh (Jan 22, 2008)

I have had my BB that long as well and I can not wait to toss it. I am not worried about the typing because I will get use to it like I did with the BB. 

Good Review.


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## fjnmusic (Oct 29, 2006)

lindmar said:


> I've been with Blackberry for 3 years.
> I use it extensively for my business. It has been awesome although it lacks a lot of functionality and it's kind of a pain in the butt to do anything except sending a quick fast email..\
> 
> I've had my iPhone now for 2 days and I can't believe what I'm seeing. This is truly a blackberry killer. Any way I look at it, this thing blows the blackberry out of the water. I'm just baffled and confused by the pure potential power of this thing. This is the same feeling I had when I got my first mac from MacDoc about 10 years ago.
> ...


Nice testimony. Of course, ironically, by supporting the iPhone over the BlackBerry we're actually helping to kill a Canadian company. But no one innovates like Apple. Others try, but usually way too late. Look at the Zune and the Zune Store. There will still be BlackBerrys around the same way there are still tons of PC's around, even though the Mac is a far superior platform in nearly all respects. People can be stubborn. But with the proliferation of iPods compared to all other MP3 players (Apple is already on to MP4's now and wireless "n" technology), if this iPhone takes off like the iPod did, all other "smart" phones will soon be obsolete.


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## fjnmusic (Oct 29, 2006)

satchmo said:


> It's great hearing the perspective from an actual BB user and not from simply an Apple basher or fanboy.
> 
> I think the biggest hurdle for BB owners, and you've alluded to it, is the keyboard.
> I know on the Apple iPhone Guided Tour, they mention that once you get proficient at one finger typing, you can eventually try two thumb typing.
> ...


The ones who will have a tougher time are those with longer fingernails. You can't use your nails like a stylus because it senses the heat from your fingers. But daughter took about 30 seconds to figure that out.


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## uPhone (Jun 29, 2008)

lindmar said:


> I've had my iPhone now for 2 days and I can't believe what I'm seeing. This is truly a blackberry killer.


I'm sorry, I have to say this. I know I'll get flamed, being on an iPhone forum, but I have to let the world know. The iPhone is *no where near* a BlackBerry killer, all or one simple reason.

The mail application on the iPhone is abysmmal. Perhaps the *only* thing keeping it "up there" is the fact that yes, it is very pretty; it is nicely animated, looks like a real E-mail, has amazing attatchment support, and can handle special fonts/bold/underline/size etc. It's real HTML. 

But Apple is far away from ever being a RIM killer. I'm sorry, but unless you have a BlackBerry connected to the BIS server, you have no authority in disputing that. 

MobileMe: Yes, I'm aware of MobileMe. While this certainly is a nice utility (yes, I have the free trial - and will not be renewing it), it only supports @me.com accounts. Is that a joke? Why the hell would I want an @me.com account for push E-mail. For push E-mail, I want MY E-mail addresses that I've had for years, that all of my subscriptions are linked to, that all of my friends and family email to. While certainly nice, I wont even discuss the other features of MobileMe because they're just there to distract you from the fact that the iPhone is *NOT a revolutionary mobile mail device.*

I know, there is always the ability of forwarding all of my E-mail accounts to my MobileMe account - but why would I do this? This is such an inconvinience for the end user. 

iPhone fans, meet BlackBerry BIS. BlackBerry BIS, meet iPhone fans:



This is the standard BIS entrance that appears on every carrier's website. Same layout, different logos at the top. Let's say that I just got a new E-mail address. It's not an @me.com account, but I still want push E-mail for it. All I need to do is log into that site, click "add new account", enter my E-mail and password (no IMAP or POP credentials, BlackBerry does it for you. As if the average consumer knows what the hell IMAP or POP is  )

And there, it's done, you've got push E-mail for yet another account. Any account. You can have up to 10 I believe on Rogers. This works for EVERY major E-mail carrier, including Hotmail, Live, AIM, AOL, Yahoo, and everything else.

You might be interested to know that I turned my iPhone on today to wake up to 3 E-mails. I have perfect service and the *[E] * for Edge. Yet when I click my E-mail, what do I get? "This message has not been downloaded from the server." Still, I have this message, 20 minutes later.

Now granted, that's not my push E-mail account, but it is still inconvinient. If Apple wants to compete with RIM, they need to invest millions, if not hundreds of millions, in a "revolutionary" new E-mail server, or, add unlimited Push E-mail to the MobileMe subscription. Then I'll buy it.


*MY Comparisson of Push E-mail between the BlackBerry and the iPhone* 

While this section is maybe arguable, I'll let you know of my experience within the last 3 days. 

BlackBerry PUSH: Send me an E-mail, it's there the second you've sent it. It's litterally there before you can say "BlackBerry"

iPhone PUSH: It seems to travel fast, however, don't quote me on this or anything, but it seems like it depends on a high cell signal in order for it to act like "real" push. Maybe I'm wrong, but if I'm right, the BlackBerry can push on a very limited signal (one bar).

So, there is my essay as to why the iPhone does not KILL the BlackBerry. 

But you may be wondering "why is he here then if he hates the iPhone so much?" Well I definately don't! It's an amazing phone and I love it. I would go so far as to say that it's 10 times better than my BlackBerry(ies) but the push E-mail just doesnt do it for me. It has a way better display, it looks way better, it's a much funner device, and I love it. So don't get me wrong, it is an amazing device and I'm going to keep it. I would never consider any other device without [what I view as] "real" push E-mail compared to a BlackBerry except the iPhone. I definately recommend it, but I just disagree that it's an iPhone killer. While push E-mail might not matter to most of you THAT much, it's certainly RIM's bread and butter, and the reason why they're so hard to compete with.

- FIN -


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## freefalls (Jul 11, 2008)

So, in other words, I cannot use push email the way I use it in blackberries? Oh, that would suck big time. Right now, I use BIS for my work email and gmail accounts. Does anyone know how to get around this? If I cant have push email, I wont be buying an iphone. I thought iphone have push email???


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## uPhone (Jun 29, 2008)

I'm not experienced at all with Microsoft Exchange so I'm not sure if that can somehow be used for Push Email for corporations? Someone else can answer that.

But MobileME is ONLY for the @me.com account that you get. That sucks. I don't want a stupid @me.com account for push. I want MY E-mail addresses to be pushed! That's it, I'm making an online petition: ruinedpushemail.com :lmao:


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## slicecom (Jun 13, 2008)

uPhone said:


> I'm sorry, I have to say this. I know I'll get flamed, being on an iPhone forum, but I have to let the world know. The iPhone is *no where near* a BlackBerry killer, all or one simple reason.
> 
> The mail application on the iPhone is abysmmal. Perhaps the *only* thing keeping it "up there" is the fact that yes, it is very pretty; it is nicely animated, looks like a real E-mail, has amazing attatchment support, and can handle special fonts/bold/underline/size etc. It's real HTML.
> 
> ...


I never did understand the push email hype. Do you REALLY need to get your email the second it's sent? Is a 30 second wait, or heaven forbid, a 15 minute wait REALLY that bad?


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## freefalls (Jul 11, 2008)

slicecom said:


> I never did understand the push email hype. Do you REALLY need to get your email the second it's sent? Is a 30 second wait, or heaven forbid, a 15 minute wait REALLY that bad?


Yes, it is!!!! I own a software development company. If a client emails and says, something wrong with the site, I need to know it immediately and starting acting on it. 

Also, I dont want to constantly check my iphone for new mails. It's like you have to check your phone if someone has called you. I want to know when someone sends me an email or calls me. No checking. Just a ring/beep/vibrate...


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## keebler27 (Jan 5, 2007)

uPhone said:


> I'm sorry, I have to say this. I know I'll get flamed, being on an iPhone forum, but I have to let the world know. The iPhone is *no where near* a BlackBerry killer, all or one simple reason.
> 
> The mail application on the iPhone is abysmmal. Perhaps the *only* thing keeping it "up there" is the fact that yes, it is very pretty; it is nicely animated, looks like a real E-mail, has amazing attatchment support, and can handle special fonts/bold/underline/size etc. It's real HTML.
> 
> ...


thanks for the post. I was just going to ask if the iphone push me stuff uses any email addy and not just me.com addys. i'll wait for that innovation b/c i see that as the killer service for me. I don't even have a bberry b/c i was waiting to see what the iphone could do.


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## machael (Apr 27, 2008)

slicecom said:


> I never did understand the push email hype. Do you REALLY need to get your email the second it's sent? Is a 30 second wait, or heaven forbid, a 15 minute wait REALLY that bad?


for business use, yes. 15 minutes could be the difference between securing a new client or losing them.

if you're just some kid who wants his facebook notifications asap then no.


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## uPhone (Jun 29, 2008)

freefalls said:


> Yes, it is!!!! I own a software development company. If a client emails and says, something wrong with the site, I need to know it immediately and starting acting on it.
> 
> Also, I dont want to constantly check my iphone for new mails. It's like you have to check your phone if someone has called you. I want to know when someone sends me an email or calls me. No checking. Just a ring/beep/vibrate...


Absolutely, you are the target demographic for the BlackBerry. This, my friends, is why push E-mail is so important. While I just want it for personal reasons, this person's business depends on it. And THAT is why the iPhone will never get corporate users to switch over to it (okay, except for Disney ), until they have *REAL Push email.*

I also don't want to have to manually check my phone for E-mails. If I'm going to do this, I might as well get on the computer and check my E-mail and avoid the possible loading times of the EDGE network.


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## htdub (Sep 11, 2007)

I had a blackberry before, on a BIS account, not BES account, like many others, BIS isn't that great.

MobileMe.com does support push email for other email accounts, just add it in preferences. 

Edge sucks, it sucks on every device.


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## uPhone (Jun 29, 2008)

htdub said:


> MobileMe.com does support push email for other email accounts, just add it in preferences.


WHAT? Let me check this out...


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## slicecom (Jun 13, 2008)

freefalls said:


> Yes, it is!!!! I own a software development company. If a client emails and says, something wrong with the site, I need to know it immediately and starting acting on it.
> 
> Also, I dont want to constantly check my iphone for new mails. It's like you have to check your phone if someone has called you. I want to know when someone sends me an email or calls me. No checking. Just a ring/beep/vibrate...


Point taken. I like the idea of push, but it was never a deal breaker for me. If one of my clients has an urgent problem, they'll call me. 

This reminds me of my favorite University Prof who always used to tell us that Email and Voicemail are unacceptable forms of communication. Only face to face or telephone (and I suppose video calls as well) are acceptable.


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## freefalls (Jul 11, 2008)

htdub said:


> I had a blackberry before, on a BIS account, not BES account, like many others, BIS isn't that great.
> 
> MobileMe.com does support push email for other email accounts, just add it in preferences.
> 
> Edge sucks, it sucks on every device.


But that means I have to subscribe to me.com and pay $99 a year? That sucks. I guess that is why BB are still around and will be around for a while. Good for them!!!!


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## uPhone (Jun 29, 2008)

Sorry, htdub, where is preferences on me.com ?


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## btard (Jul 14, 2008)

slicecom said:


> I never did understand the push email hype. Do you REALLY need to get your email the second it's sent? Is a 30 second wait, or heaven forbid, a 15 minute wait REALLY that bad?


If I don't get an instantaneous notice that a server is dead then I am in trouble. Clients will go ape **** and I will lose business. Luckily load balancing an redundancy built in does cover me here but for the most part I do require email to be instantly available when sent to me.


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## uPhone (Jun 29, 2008)

btard said:


> If I don't get an instantaneous notice that a server is dead then I am in trouble. Clients will go ape **** and I will lose business. Luckily load balancing an redundancy built in does cover me here but for the most part I do require email to be instantly available when sent to me.


That being said, are you happy with MobileMe (if you have it)? Probably not...


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## [email protected] (Sep 24, 2007)

slicecom said:


> I never did understand the push email hype. Do you REALLY need to get your email the second it's sent? Is a 30 second wait, or heaven forbid, a 15 minute wait REALLY that bad?


The other big BIG benefits of push vs. Pull (15 min) are: battery life and data usage.

You use data (not much) constantly checking email (on the iPhone, checking Gmail IMAP, about 5k total in/out each time), not a big deal, but depending on your plan could be bad...

Battery life is a MUCH bigger one as well...

I'm waiting/hopping for Gmail to introduce a Yahoo-like Push email service for the iPhone...that would be ideal...

I have no use for a mobile me email address, I might as well forward my email to Yahoo and use their push service for free if I wanted that...


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## btard (Jul 14, 2008)

uPhone said:


> That being said, are you happy with MobileMe (if you have it)? Probably not...


Lol. Still waiting to get my iphone. I could probably subscribe and set some sort of alerting with an RSS app too. I just need someone to make it first :lmao: 

Maybe i will and sell it on the iPhone store 

I have me.com - just ran the update on the macs, waiting for the freakin 3G to be delivered.


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## Andrew Pratt (Feb 16, 2007)

> MobileMe.com does support push email for other email accounts, just add it in preferences.


As far as I know MobileMe allows for you to check another email account but it doesn't poll that account and push emails it finds out like it does for your .Mac account. My work around is to just forward my other accounts to my .Mac account but its NOT as flexible as BIS


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## freefalls (Jul 11, 2008)

Andrew Pratt said:


> As far as I know MobileMe allows for yo uto check another email account but it doesn't poll that account and push emails it finds out like it does for .Mac accounts. My work around is to just forward my other accounts to my .Mac account.


So, to make this a BB, you can subscribe to me.com Forward all your mails to me.com email account. Right? AFter that, emails will become push?


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## uPhone (Jun 29, 2008)

Freefalls, I would imagine that that would take some time still? I mean, there were many times when my BlackBerry would recieve the E-mail before my actual inbox would...


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## lindmar (Nov 13, 2003)

uPhone said:


> But Apple is far away from ever being a RIM killer. I'm sorry, but unless you have a BlackBerry connected to the BIS server, you have no authority in disputing that.


I was on BIS for three+ years.

Just so you know.


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## btard (Jul 14, 2008)

freefalls said:


> So, to make this a BB, you can subscribe to me.com Forward all your mails to me.com email account. Right? AFter that, emails will become push?


See attachment. Would the "Personal Domain" part be of any use?


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## uPhone (Jun 29, 2008)

lindmar said:


> I was on BIS for three+ years.
> 
> Just so you know.


Do you agree that, other than the fact that it looks amazing, the mail part of the iPhone is *much less than revolutionary?*

Edit: by the way, I wasn't directing that comment at you, I would assume that you're on the BIS server!


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## lindmar (Nov 13, 2003)

uPhone said:


> Do you agree that, other than the fact that it looks amazing, the mail part of the iPhone is *much less than revolutionary?*


Well I never said it was revolutionary to begin with BUT.. what I did say was blackberry was really only good for sending and receiving emails FAST for me. Everything else was a poor attempt at helping me with productivity. Like calendar, and calculator. It's more like an expensive alarm clock.

I will say, I can live without it.
And yes, I run an Internet Business so I do require things fast and quick but I mean, because blackberry did nothing or better absolutely nothing to curb spam, all my email was going through gmail anyways, so the iphone can send and recieve my email as fast as I was doing it before.

I have dedicated servers I have to manage, support teams, hosting for a ton of members, coaching clients, etc.. the iPhone will put me light years ahead of the BB in a business sense regardless of how long my email takes to arrive or send.


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## uPhone (Jun 29, 2008)

lindmar said:


> Well I never said it was revolutionary to begin with BUT.. what I did say was blackberry was really only good for sending and receiving emails FAST for me. Everything else was a poor attempt at helping me with productivity. Like calendar, and calculator. It's more like an expensive alarm clock.
> 
> I will say, I can live without it.
> And yes, I run an Internet Business so I do require things fast and quick but I mean, because blackberry did nothing or better absolutely nothing to curb spam, all my email was going through gmail anyways, so the iphone can send and recieve my email as fast as I was doing it before.
> ...


I agree with you, the only good thing about E-mail on the BlackBerry was it's speed, not it's visuals or anything. But I was okay with that.

I just feel really disconnected now without push E-mail. Maybe I will try forwarding my E-mail accounts to Mobile Me. I can't seem to find out how to do this on AOL though.


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## freefalls (Jul 11, 2008)

lindmar said:


> Well I never said it was revolutionary to begin with BUT.. what I did say was blackberry was really only good for sending and receiving emails FAST for me. Everything else was a poor attempt at helping me with productivity. Like calendar, and calculator. It's more like an expensive alarm clock.
> 
> I will say, I can live without it.
> And yes, I run an Internet Business so I do require things fast and quick but I mean, because blackberry did nothing or better absolutely nothing to curb spam, all my email was going through gmail anyways, so the iphone can send and recieve my email as fast as I was doing it before.
> ...


Do you have to check for your email every 5minutes then?


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## Rukus (Aug 10, 2007)

htdub said:


> MobileMe.com does support push email for other email accounts, just add it in preferences.



NO it dosen't support true push for external accounts. you are half right though. It does allow you to have it pull messages from an external pop account into your @me.ca adderess which is then pushed to your phone. The issue is what happens when you need to REPLY to the message... your reply is going to get back to the sender with your me.com address in the from field. This is a problem. My emails need to come from [email protected] not [email protected]. I'm still trying to figure out a work around for this one....


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## uPhone (Jun 29, 2008)

Rukus said:


> NO it dosen't support true push for external accounts. you are half right though. It does allow you to have it pull messages from an external pop account into your @me.ca adderess which is then pushed to your phone. The issue is what happens when you need to REPLY to the message... your reply is going to get back to the sender with your me.com address in the from field. This is a problem. My emails need to come from [email protected] not [email protected]. I'm still trying to figure out a work around for this one....


I agree - I just realized now that it's the same case for forwarding E-mail accounts to the MobileMe account.


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## lindmar (Nov 13, 2003)

Well


Rukus said:


> NO it dosen't support true push for external accounts. you are half right though. It does allow you to have it pull messages from an external pop account into your @me.ca adderess which is then pushed to your phone. The issue is what happens when you need to REPLY to the message... your reply is going to get back to the sender with your me.com address in the from field. This is a problem. My emails need to come from [email protected] not [email protected]. I'm still trying to figure out a work around for this one....


well maybe I'm missing a big picture and will learn to miss my blackberry email?

Why not forward through gmail, reply through the account its received from. Each gmail account can take up to 5 accounts.


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## uPhone (Jun 29, 2008)

lindmar said:


> Well
> 
> well maybe I'm missing a big picture and will learn to miss my blackberry email?
> 
> Why not forward through gmail, reply through the account its received from. Each gmail account can take up to 5 accounts.


Do you mean forward all my E-mail accounts through gMail, and then forward my gMail account to Mobile Me?

By the way, does anyone know how to forward AOL/AIM mail? I can't find it anywhere in the settings on the webmail client.


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## freefalls (Jul 11, 2008)

Rukus said:


> NO it dosen't support true push for external accounts. you are half right though. It does allow you to have it pull messages from an external pop account into your @me.ca adderess which is then pushed to your phone. The issue is what happens when you need to REPLY to the message... your reply is going to get back to the sender with your me.com address in the from field. This is a problem. My emails need to come from [email protected] not [email protected]. I'm still trying to figure out a work around for this one....


Please let us know once you've figured this out. I"m going to hold off on buying one. This is a needed feature for me. Thanks


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## Joker Eh (Jan 22, 2008)

uPhone said:


> I agree with you, the only good thing about E-mail on the BlackBerry was it's speed, not it's visuals or anything. But I was okay with that.
> 
> I just feel really disconnected now without push E-mail. Maybe I will try forwarding my E-mail accounts to Mobile Me. I can't seem to find out how to do this on AOL though.


Now with Exchange Server in iPhone, (I am sorry and I have a BlackBerry and use it for business with Exchange) there is no reason to use BB, my exchange server handles all my email. And if the iPhone is going to be connected to my Exchange Server why do I need my BB?

Here is the only reason and it is the only one. When the battery dies how do I change it quick without sending it in for a couple of weeks so Apple can change it for me.


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## fjnmusic (Oct 29, 2006)

uPhone said:


> I'm sorry, I have to say this. I know I'll get flamed, being on an iPhone forum, but I have to let the world know. The iPhone is *no where near* a BlackBerry killer, all or one simple reason.
> 
> The mail application on the iPhone is abysmmal. Perhaps the *only* thing keeping it "up there" is the fact that yes, it is very pretty; it is nicely animated, looks like a real E-mail, has amazing attatchment support, and can handle special fonts/bold/underline/size etc. It's real HTML.
> 
> ...


Geez, uPhone. Is it safe to say the actual purchase wasn't half as much fun as the anticipation?


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## Rukus (Aug 10, 2007)

lindmar said:


> Well
> 
> well maybe I'm missing a big picture and will learn to miss my blackberry email?
> 
> Why not forward through gmail, reply through the account its received from. Each gmail account can take up to 5 accounts.


No that doesn't change anything. I can see what your thinking though. Ok lets "talk" this out.

My customer sends an email to my company's general inbox which is [email protected].
- I can forward the message to [email protected] which pushes it to my phone. Great receiving the message and reading it is easy.

Now, lets say I need to send this customer a reply. If I simply reply from my phone, my message is going to get back to the customer showing that the reply came from [email protected]. This is a big problem because any follow up replies are ONLY going to come to the phone not my actual company email server. there are many people that have access to the server based emails and they won't be "included" on the rest of this email thread. also this dosen't look very professional.

Also, my current backberry system "sinc's" to my main email account meaning if a message is read, replied to, deleted or moved out of the company inbox to another folder, the blackberry makes this change not only on the device but also on the server. This way I don't have 2 employee's replying to the same message for example. By forwarding to me.com instead of polling the account like the Backberry we are loosing these functions.

Can anyone think of a way to use the iphone mail and still have theses abilities?

I have an idea and I'm wondering if this sounds like it will work to you guys.

What if I was to use the apple mail program at home to poll my imap account on the server and then use the sinc feature of Moble me to keep the messages on the desktop app. and on the phone the same instead of having my imap server forward the messages to a separate @me.com address? Wouldn't this allow the iphone mail to behave exactly the same as the desktop application which does support polling an imap account using folders and all the rest? 
Can anyone think of a reason this won't work or might this be the workaround we were looking for???

Thanks.


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## lindmar (Nov 13, 2003)

uPhone said:


> Do you mean forward all my E-mail accounts through gMail, and then forward my gMail account to Mobile Me?
> 
> By the way, does anyone know how to forward AOL/AIM mail? I can't find it anywhere in the settings on the webmail client.


OK

Can't you have everything pushed through .me and then just choose your reply email when replying?
I just did this and it was instant on the receive and instant on the reply from a different account.

Looks like it still sends the reply from your replies smtp but the receive push is instant.


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## lindmar (Nov 13, 2003)

Rukus said:


> No that doesn't change anything. I can see what your thinking though. Ok lets "talk" this out.
> 
> My customer sends an email to my company's general inbox which is [email protected].
> - I can forward the message to [email protected] which pushes it to my phone. Great receiving the message and reading it is easy.
> ...


when replying, just change the reply email. Double click and choose the right one.
It's simple, I think


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## Joker Eh (Jan 22, 2008)

Rukus said:


> No that doesn't change anything. I can see what your thinking though. Ok lets "talk" this out.
> 
> My customer sends an email to my company's general inbox which is [email protected].
> - I can forward the message to [email protected] which pushes it to my phone. Great receiving the message and reading it is easy.
> ...


Does your company use Exchange?


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## retrocactus (Jun 17, 2003)

Rukus said:


> The issue is what happens when you need to REPLY to the message... your reply is going to get back to the sender with your me.com address in the from field.


If you add the account you want to reply from to the iPhone, you'll be able to choose which account the reply is from...so it won't come from [email protected]. Just click on the From: in the mail reply and you'll get the nice little rolodex thingy with a list of all your email accounts.

I just did it on my iPhone.


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## fjnmusic (Oct 29, 2006)

Rukus said:


> Can anyone think of a way to use the iphone mail and still have theses abilities?


Why not just CC your messages to both accounts?


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## Rukus (Aug 10, 2007)

lindmar said:


> OK
> 
> Can't you have everything pushed through .me and then just choose your reply email when replying?
> I just did this and it was instant on the receive and instant on the reply from a different account.
> ...


Where did you find the option to set the reply from address? Yes if this can be done then yes, that will solve this part of the problem.


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## lindmar (Nov 13, 2003)

Rukus said:


> Where did you find the option to set the reply from address? Yes if this can be done then yes, that will solve this part of the problem.


when you hit reply, double tap the return email address and choose the right one.


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## Rukus (Aug 10, 2007)

fjnmusic said:


> Why not just CC your messages to both accounts?


I can do this even though it's a pain in the a$$. HOWEVER, good luck getting 10 employes to remember to take this extra step every time they send a message...


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## btard (Jul 14, 2008)

uPhone said:


> Do you mean forward all my E-mail accounts through gMail, and then forward my gMail account to Mobile Me?
> 
> By the way, does anyone know how to forward AOL/AIM mail? I can't find it anywhere in the settings on the webmail client.


Because this looks unprofessional sending by [email protected] (on behalf of [email protected]).....


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## Rukus (Aug 10, 2007)

lindmar said:


> when you hit reply, double tap the return email address and choose the right one.


Hmm, the only options seem to be 
[email protected] or 
[email protected]. 

What I'm going for is my domain based email address which in this case would be [email protected].


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## Rukus (Aug 10, 2007)

Joker Eh said:


> Does your company use Exchange?


We currently have Blackberry pearls set up through rogers system. we don't have a hardware blackberry server of any type. it is all done through there basic online system. so that is a BIS system I believe??


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## arfenarf (May 1, 2008)

Sounds like a BIS system. I'm doing the same thing: I use BIS to aggregate Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and my corporate Exchange mail via its OWA interface. I can hand-pick the "from" account as I'm preparing a reply from this inbox on the BlackBerry.

I have never lived in a BES world so cannot compare it, but I sure like the BIS approach. On the whole, the iPhone looks luscious, but I'm holding back on some of these same questions before I leap. I haven't even begun to approach Corporate here to ask how they'd like to implement ActiveSync. I expect a giant raspberry in return.


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## Andrew Pratt (Feb 16, 2007)

Assuming you can setup iPhone's mail app with your other accounts you should be able to reply to any incoming mail by chaning the from field to the other account. I do exactly this on my laptop as all my email gets forwarded to mac.com and if I want to reply from account X I just change the from field.


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## uPhone (Jun 29, 2008)

fjnmusic said:


> Geez, uPhone. Is it safe to say the actual purchase wasn't half as much fun as the anticipation?


Oh no, don't get me wrong, I *love* my iPhone. I waited 10 hours in line (was 8th in line - but the server screw ups caused it to take hours) I think it was well worth it. 

But I just don't understand how Apple can overlook such a major, major thing. MobileMe is an insufficient push service and is not worth the $109, unless you're really into push calender, push photos and push contacts. 

Seriously, who the hell wants an @me.com account? For personal use, okay, it's a nice little domain name and it's easy to remember. But no business person wants to respond to their clients with "@me.com". 

A simple fix on the ME.COM website will give Apple the chance to actually *compete* with Research In Motion, rather than trying to emulate them though a joke of a push service. Just allow us to add our personal and business (i.e. non me.com) accounts and you'll have something, Apple.

Currently, as it stands, RIM is the world leader in business devices and I don't expect this to change.

The fact that we are all sitting here, trying to collectively come up with "workarounds" and "bypassing" is enough proof that Apple is not ready for the business world and high demand for 'real' push E-mail.


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## fjnmusic (Oct 29, 2006)

uPhone said:


> Oh no, don't get me wrong, I *love* my iPhone. I waited 10 hours in line (was 8th in line - but the server screw ups caused it to take hours) I think it was well worth it.
> 
> But I just don't understand how Apple can overlook such a major, major thing. MobileMe is an insufficient push service and is not worth the $109, unless you're really into push calender, push photos and push contacts.
> 
> ...


Not exactly, young grasshopper. Just wait a week for a software update. As Shell Busey says, it's just that easy!


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## uPhone (Jun 29, 2008)

fjnmusic said:


> Not exactly, young grasshopper. Just wait a week for a software update. As Shell Busey says, it's just that easy!


I hope so...  

Ok /end rant on push E-mail. :lmao:


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## htdub (Sep 11, 2007)

My previous post was incorrect, MobileMe can only push emails to the iPhone from a .mac/.me email.

The web interface can poll external POP accounts, but those emails aren't pushed out. They just sit in the web interface.

Some workarounds are here.




> I have 2 accounts on my phone now...IMAP and mobile me.
> 
> If you create an email on the mobile me account you can double click the FROM address and select the IMAP from address instead.


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## freefalls (Jul 11, 2008)

uPhone said:


> Oh no, don't get me wrong, I *love* my iPhone. I waited 10 hours in line (was 8th in line - but the server screw ups caused it to take hours) I think it was well worth it.
> 
> But I just don't understand how Apple can overlook such a major, major thing. MobileMe is an insufficient push service and is not worth the $109, unless you're really into push calender, push photos and push contacts.
> 
> ...


What is the best workaround? I want to mimic push email on my BB


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## Joker Eh (Jan 22, 2008)

uPhone said:


> Oh no, don't get me wrong, I *love* my iPhone. I waited 10 hours in line (was 8th in line - but the server screw ups caused it to take hours) I think it was well worth it.
> 
> But I just don't understand how Apple can overlook such a major, major thing. MobileMe is an insufficient push service and is not worth the $109, unless you're really into push calender, push photos and push contacts.
> 
> ...


For me they did that with *Exchange*. Remember that was one of the major annoucements. That is the key for me and I would say most business. This for me is what kills RIM.


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## uPhone (Jun 29, 2008)

Is Exchange available for "normal" cell phone users? I've never used it before, and I don't really understand it to be honest.


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## used to be jwoodget (Aug 22, 2002)

Exchange is mostly used in a company setting. I would expect a majority of Blackberry's are actually connected via Exchange and Blackberry Enterprise Server. Only "personal" Blackberry's use the BIS approach. Steve Jobs made a big deal about the convoluted way that most enterprise Blackberry's receive their pushed email (referring, obliquely, to the outages that have occurred in Waterloo) since all Blackberry emails need to flow through the RIM servers for verification (this provides a significant security advantage since Blackberry's have to be authenticated by the server before being sent an email).

It was the Exchange enterprise market that Apple was going after. The personal Blackberry route is linked to me.com and is more of a kludge for business users.

Setting up an Exchange server yourself is not really an option but Roger's, for example, does host Exchange servers: 

Rogers.com - Rogers Hosted Email


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## uPhone (Jun 29, 2008)

Thanks for the info!

Let's hope that Apple adds multiple email support for MobileMe. I'm going to E-mail them and see what's what.


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## Rukus (Aug 10, 2007)

Well I feel a little bit silly here, as several of us should actually. We've collectively overlooked the obvious here.... at least in regards to those of us that are unhappy with the way mobileme and imap servers outside of the me.com domain don't play nice together.

If your in the situation that you have an imap mail server that you want to configure to work with your shiny new iphone 3G so that it works the same as your desktop mail app. does or your blackberry does, well here is the answer.

We've been sitting here trying to figure out a workaround to make the mobleme push feature work for us the way it works for someone using the mobileme.com address as their primary address and well the short answer is.... it won't. so were out of luck right??? wrong.

If you already have an imap mail server there is NO reason to use mobleme AT ALL for your email on the iphone. if this is the case (as it is for me) you are simply going to add your server information to the iphone mail app. The mail app itself will check your imap server automatically at the interval you've chosen and if there is new messages, it will add them automatically. In short Mobileme has NOTHING to do with your email at all.

Why mobileme is still nice to have is for it's other functions like push calendars and contacts. For example if I add an new appointment to an employee's schedule for later that same day, I don't have to worry about them not getting it because they haven't sunk there phone to their desktop yet.

Here is the link on how this works. page 8 I believe
http://images.apple.com/ca/iphone/enterprise/docs/iPhone_Enterprise.pdf


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## used to be jwoodget (Aug 22, 2002)

Rukus, we're talking about active "push" not the traditional IMAP or POP email "pull" where the device polls the mail server at certain intervals (or manually). When a new email arrives at the server, it is "pushed" out to the device without waiting to be polled. There are various proprietary methods for achieving this. MobileMe provides some sort of automatic push but only for emails received at that server.


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## Rukus (Aug 10, 2007)

used to be jwoodget said:


> Rukus, we're talking about active "push" not the traditional IMAP or POP email "pull" where the device polls the mail server at certain intervals (or manually). When a new email arrives at the server, it is "pushed" out to the device without waiting to be polled. There are various proprietary methods for achieving this. MobileMe provides some sort of automatic push but only for emails received at that server.


Yes, you are totally correct, however I get the impression from several posts in this thread that several people are/were unaware that this other method was even an option. And for all but the most time critical of applications a 5 minute poll time is not going to be an issue. A small downside is a bit less battery life from your phone having to hook up to the server to check for messages. Yes, true push is a better system but I just wanted to make it clear that forwarding all your messages to mobileme is NOT the only option available to get your mail on the iphone.


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## Sybersport (Jun 7, 2005)

There has to be a business out there already (other than RIMs solution) that will push your e-mail directly to your phone if you forward it to their address...

No? If not, then someone should start one ASAP, for this reason alone. Maybe it's too complex?


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## Rukus (Aug 10, 2007)

Sybersport said:


> There has to be a business out there already (other than RIMs solution) that will push your e-mail directly to your phone if you forward it to their address...
> 
> No? If not, then someone should start one ASAP, for this reason alone. Maybe it's too complex?


Yes it is out there already, this is what mobileme push email does.


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## uPhone (Jun 29, 2008)

Sybersport said:


> There has to be a business out there already (other than RIMs solution) that will push your e-mail directly to your phone if you forward it to their address...
> 
> No? If not, then someone should start one ASAP, for this reason alone. Maybe it's too complex?


If you mean a 3rd party Push service, I doubt it. 

This is because MobileMe is Apple's solution (albeit a bad solution) to Push Email. It's one of their main attempts at getting BlackBerry users to switch over. Allowing the App Store to sell some type of third party Push service would be like admitting that they cannot accomodate our personal/business E-mails being pushed. So I can't see them doing this. 

Hopefully they'll just allow us to add accounts. It seems so simple, just a minor change to their MobileMe service will be enough to convince BB users to switch over.


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## lindmar (Nov 13, 2003)

Here is a new really great long review of the iphone.

The Second Coming: Ars goes in-depth with the iPhone 3G: Page 8

They believe for business owners coming from blackberry will be disappointed.

One thing I realized from the review I'll miss is Email Search. Didn't know you couldnt search through emails on the iphone. Hopefully that can be resolved in software update.


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## Joker Eh (Jan 22, 2008)

lindmar said:


> Here is a new really great long review of the iphone.
> 
> The Second Coming: Ars goes in-depth with the iPhone 3G: Page 8
> 
> ...


I would like to know what they mean by "Exchange support is pretty weak". What is weak? They make a statement then do not give details.

Edit:
I have been reading reviews on other sites regarding Exchange and there has been no problems. So I would like to know what they think weak is?


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## Script Kiddie (Jan 30, 2003)

Joker Eh said:


> I would like to know what they mean by "Exchange support is pretty weak". What is weak? They make a statement then do not give details.
> 
> Edit:
> I have been reading reviews on other sites regarding Exchange and there has been no problems. So I would like to know what they think weak is?



Well, for starters Apple has 6 IT policies. With BlackBerry: over 400.


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## machael (Apr 27, 2008)

somewhat of a workaround: Iphone 2.0: Set Up Push Email, Contacts, and Calendar on Your iPhone for Free

i personally haven't tried this as i don't give a rats about push email, i'm just posting it incase others want to go this route.


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## uPhone (Jun 29, 2008)

machael said:


> somewhat of a workaround: Iphone 2.0: Set Up Push Email, Contacts, and Calendar on Your iPhone for Free
> 
> i personally haven't tried this as i don't give a rats about push email, i'm just posting it incase others want to go this route.


This looks great. I'll try it out and let you know if it solves my problems. Thanks!


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## lindmar (Nov 13, 2003)

machael said:


> somewhat of a workaround: Iphone 2.0: Set Up Push Email, Contacts, and Calendar on Your iPhone for Free
> 
> i personally haven't tried this as i don't give a rats about push email, i'm just posting it incase others want to go this route.


I just tried it.
It is still very fast. You can autoforward from gmail to the exchange.
If you hit reply from the exchange, it will reply from your mail2web account, you can change the account and the outgoing account and that is what it will send from.

It's funky since you still need to have the outgoing account there.

Not the solution we need yet.

EDIT

Actually it might be. You can add all the accounts to mail2web to check those as well.
Testing now. Nahh.. it still makes you reply from mail2web.com


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## uPhone (Jun 29, 2008)

lindmar said:


> I just tried it.
> It is still very fast. You can autoforward from gmail to the exchange.
> If you hit reply from the exchange, it will reply from your mail2web account, you can change the account and the outgoing account and that is what it will send from.
> 
> ...


Before I even try it, what do you mean by it makes you reply from mail2web.com?

As in your replies will come from [email protected] ?


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## Script Kiddie (Jan 30, 2003)

Wondering if in 2 months we will see:

"3 years on BlackBerry, 2 months on iPhone - now I'm sick of workarounds"?


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## uPhone (Jun 29, 2008)

How do you add E-mail accounts to this mail2web thing? Or am I going to have to forward all of my accounts to that address? (Hopefully not, some of my E-mail accounts forbid forwarding - but work with push)

Either way, thanks for posting this! It does exactly what MobileMe does (except the push calender,contacts,pictures etc which I personally dont really care about) for free! 

If this Mail2Web thing will allow me to just type in my email addresses and passwords, then F* MobileMe!


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## uPhone (Jun 29, 2008)

Edit: You use the E-mail Aggregation system. Unfortunately it doesnt seem to accept my AIM or Yahoo accounts:



> Note, all replies made via your Exchange account to any email delivered to your Exchange account will be addressed as coming ‘from’ your Exchange account, not the address the email was originally sent to.
> 
> We strongly recommend that if your other email provider provides email forwarding that you enable that feature instead of using this feature, as it is intended to be used with more restrictive email providers that do not support the email forwarding feature. This service is not intended for use with business or other mission critical email accounts.
> 
> All email, including email delivered by way of the email aggregation feature described


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## machael (Apr 27, 2008)

yahoo supports push directly


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## lindmar (Nov 13, 2003)

Script Kiddie said:


> Wondering if in 2 months we will see:
> 
> "3 years on BlackBerry, 2 months on iPhone - now I'm sick of workarounds"?


For me, nah. Email comes quick enough. Just tap into edge or 3g and its fast enough.


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## psxp (May 23, 2006)

machael said:


> yahoo supports push directly


works well


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## uPhone (Jun 29, 2008)

psxp said:


> works well


Actually I found it to be kind of slow. Is it 'real' push? It took about 5 minutes to be delivered.


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## Elric (Jul 30, 2005)

I forward my gmail to mm and turned off the @me SMTP server. Emails get pushed. I read in Me then delete when done from gmail.


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## psxp (May 23, 2006)

uPhone said:


> Actually I found it to be kind of slow. Is it 'real' push? It took about 5 minutes to be delivered.


I think its real push. I just emailed myself a couple pics from one yahoo account to another yahoo account and then my phone indicated a new email. took about 2mins.


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## PoliceDog (May 1, 2008)

Sybersport said:


> There has to be a business out there already (other than RIMs solution) that will push your e-mail directly to your phone if you forward it to their address...
> 
> No? If not, then someone should start one ASAP, for this reason alone. Maybe it's too complex?


Is this something you might be referring to?

FastMail: fast, professional email with web, SMTP, POP & IMAP access

I used this when I had my Treo-650 and it worked very well. In fact, reading threads like this about "workarounds" reminds me a lot of the Treo forums (fori?) I used to belong to.  

FWIW: I am a gadget-freak to a level that most people here couldn't even imagine (my wife can't). I paid $1,500. to have one of the first STAR-Tac's in the country (I never said I was a _smart_ gadget-freak  ) I had a standing order with my CDN supplier for two of the new iPhones when it was first announced by Apple in the US media.

My son is picking up his 16gb iPhone today; I have decided to wait for a while and stick with my BlackBerry (I can always play with his iPhone).

As other 'business-oriented' members have stated, I _do_ need my "instant" email - it could save my clients several thousand dollars on a media proposal. I have no use for Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, etc., etc.


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## btard (Jul 14, 2008)

^ I guarantee apple will introduce this in the next few major software upgrades. until then it's dead in the water because it's not offering scalability to the self employed, small to medium businesses who would be able to use the iPhone as a viable communication device yet cannot afford MS Exchange server.

nuevasync.com <- has anyone looked at that?


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## nigglesworth (Jul 23, 2008)

*Two major downfalls for me*

There are two major downfalls that are holding me back. The push issue has been well discussed so I will not dwell further. 

My main concern is the cost limitations of using iphone for e-mail while roaming in the US. I travel to the US quite a bit and am able to use my BB for pennies a day. For my last trip of over a week, I paid a total of $6 for data roaming. My understanding is that data costs to do the same in the US on an iphone would be very expensive. Wireless does nothing for me as I need to be in constant contact while on-site. I have a pre-paid phone I use while traveling, but I do not want to add a second data plan as well.

As a mac head in all other departments, I was looking forward to having a device that would work flawlessly with my current set-up... but at present, I can not justify the purchase if I can not use it while traveling.

I would love to hear others opinion on this.


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## btard (Jul 14, 2008)

nigglesworth said:


> There are two major downfalls that are holding me back. The push issue has been well discussed so I will not dwell further.
> 
> My main concern is the cost limitations of using iphone for e-mail while roaming in the US. I travel to the US quite a bit and am able to use my BB for pennies a day. For my last trip of over a week, I paid a total of $6 for data roaming. My understanding is that data costs to do the same in the US on an iphone would be very expensive. Wireless does nothing for me as I need to be in constant contact while on-site. I have a pre-paid phone I use while traveling, but I do not want to add a second data plan as well.
> 
> ...


I would also like some estimates on roaming costs in Europe and the States with my Canadian plan, anyone have any idea how much it would cost to roam and use by $30 worth of 6GB (i.e. unlimited data) outside of the United States of Canadia?


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## PoliceDog (May 1, 2008)

nigglesworth said:


> "...My main concern is the cost limitations of using iphone for e-mail while roaming in the US. I travel to the US quite a bit.....


I forgot about that aspect. I also travel to the U.S. on a regular basis (once or twice a month) and I never even think about roaming data costs when I use my BB.


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## psxp (May 23, 2006)

PoliceDog said:


> I forgot about that aspect. I also travel to the U.S. on a regular basis (once or twice a month) and I never even think about roaming data costs when I use my BB.


A couple yrs ago data roaming was actually not charged by Rogers. I remember using my phone in Chicago to look up my banks phone number when I thought I lost my CR Card. When I checked my bill there were no roaming charges. I think the roaming charges came into effect in 2007?
(I search on Howards Forums would reveal when) 

My personal opinion is the BB device is for the business user. The iPhone is consumer. Both have tried to gain momentum in each others markets.


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