Push e-mail support

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Push e-mail support

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Q: I recently purchased a new iPhone 3G and was wondering how to configure my GMail account for “Push” e-mail services? The AT&T rep told me told that I could get “Push” e-mail with my current GMail account, and I’ve got my account all set up on the iPhone and mail is coming in, but it doesn’t seem to show up automatically when I get a new message. Is there something else I need to do or configure on GMail’s end? Thanks for any help you can provide.

- Sue

A: Unfortunately, the iPhone does not provide “Push” e-mail with GMail. The AT&T rep you were speaking with may have been confusing the iPhone with the RIM Blackberry, which does support push with GMail through RIM’s Blackberry Internet Service (BIS).

The Blackberry and the iPhone both use completely different proprietary “push” technologies for e-mail, so they are not inherently compatible with one another. Whether GMail plans to update their systems to offer this functionality in the future is not certain, but as of today it is simply not available.

If you need “push” functionality with the iPhone, your options are limited to Apple’s MobileMe service, Yahoo, or a Microsoft Exchange server via ActiveSync. All other e-mail systems operate on a “Fetch” basis, and will poll for e-mail on whatever schedule you set, ranging from every 15 minutes to simply polling manually on-demand.

Note that the iPhone Mail app does immediately check for mail whenever you open it, so the only distinction is that non-push accounts will not proactively deliver your mail to the device and notify you of it immediately—you’ll have to wait for the next polling interval.

You can check which accounts are configured for “Push” and which ones support it simply by going into Settings, Fetch New Data on the iPhone. The main screen will allow you to globally set whether push is enabled, and set the polling interval for those accounts that do not support push e-mail:

Tapping on the “Advanced” button will take you to a screen where you can configure each of your accounts individually:

Accounts that support “Push” normally have this enabled by default, but you can change these to either “Fetch” or “Manual” on a per-account basis. Accounts that do not support “Push” will only have the “Fetch” or “Manual” options available for their settings.

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Comments

1

When, if ever, is the Itouch going to come out with the 3G feature?

Posted by Andres Gonzalez on July 19, 2008 at 10:05 AM (PST)

2

i have a fifth generation ipod that i have all my music stored on from my computer that crashed a year ago. while trying to transfer the music to my new mac laptop..it froze and i can no longer find the music folder within the ipod when its hooked up on the laptop. it does however still have all the music on it. none of this music was purchased on itunes. also i have a new itouch and i got some music from a friend but it wont show up as an icon in the screen under my hard drive like my other ipod does, how can i get it to show up there? thank you.

Posted by jessica on July 20, 2008 at 7:34 PM (PST)

3

Will the iPhone 3G allow emails to be received by your PC and iPhone simaltaneously? Will the emails remain on both devices until deleted?

Posted by joe h on July 24, 2008 at 11:29 AM (PST)

4

I can’t seem to find a way to use my iPod Touch (16GB) to store files; just use it as a removable hard drive. Apple’s site says the Touch can’t be used in disk mode, and the only software I’ve seen reference to (can’t remember the name) says it will work on firmware V 1.1.1 - 1.1.4 but my unit is currently 2.0.

What I REALLY want to do is be able to store an html file and associated jpegs in a folder, and then access that file from the built-in Safari browser in the Touch. Am I hoping for the un-doable?

Posted by C Hopper on August 6, 2008 at 2:32 PM (PST)

5

My iphone was working great. I went into the ATT store to purchase one for my husband. While there they offered to charge my battery. Once I got the phone back one of the ATT employee’s itune account was stored onto my phone and I no longer had visual voicemail available. I now get “voicemail Unabailable” “your account may not be configured properly for this feature. How do I fix this? And, how did this happen just charging the phone?

Posted by Brenda DeMent on September 2, 2008 at 1:37 PM (PST)

6

I have an ipod nano 4g and decided i wanted to put some album artwork on the ipod.When it was connected to itunes i went to my songs on my ipod right clicked and clicked get info. i then went to artwork and put in my pictures which are all jpeg images and clicked ok. When i ejected the ipod only some of the artwork appeared and there was just a black screen where the others should have been. any help please?

Posted by elliot on April 4, 2009 at 1:55 PM (PST)

7

I just recently bought a 32GB itouch. When I went to go plug it up onto my computer to charge/open it, it wouldnt. A little box appeared and said, “this version of itunes is not compatible with your device. Please install the updated itunes to resume using.” I just got a new computer and apparently it didnt have the updated itunes on there. I still have the old version. My friend said he would activate my itouch for me at his house and then give it back to me the next day so I can use it. My question is, since my itouch will now be acitvated since my friend has the updated itunes, when I want to start syncing music to my itouch, will it prevent me from doing so even though its already activated and I still have the old version of itunes on my computer? I need this answered asap!

Posted by Amber Hymel on May 13, 2010 at 6:27 AM (PST)

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