Google Adds Push Gmail for iPhone and iPod Touch Via Google Sync

[wazza12345]

Also dunno if it's been posted here yet, but it's currently defaulting to show 28 days of mail only. Even if you have "no limit" set..
Had me stumped as to why my unread items didnt match the same number in my gmail account online, but that explains it.



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Hey everyone,

It's currently defaulting to 28 days - I'm looking into this, although I think we need to let the initial rush calm down a little before we do anything too drastic.

For abood's question: the iPhone will first download all the headers and a snippet of the plain text body of all the messages it's interested in at once, then will download each message (attachments and all) one-by-one - unless the size of that whole message (including attachments) is too big, in which case you'll see a link at the bottom of the mail saying it's plain text only, and will download the whole thing when you click it.

Thanks,

Douglas
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From:
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google+Mobile/thread?tid=1d3c55830c120006&hl=en#all

 

[tinfai]

Fetch checks for email at intervals. The phone opens a communications path to the server, requests status, then closes the path.

So fetch is like calling your wife's hospital every 15 minutes to see if she had a baby yet. If the answer is no, you hang up and wait another 15 minutes before you call again.

Push keeps a communications path open. Whenever an email arrives, the server quickly sends a notification down the path. Since cell communication paths are time limited, the phone must send a heartbeat ping to the server every 10-45 minutes to keep the path open. It figures out how often, by starting short and going longer until it stops working, then backs off.

So push is like calling the hospital, but leaving it on speakerphone. If you have a baby, you'll know right away because your line (path) stays open and the nurse (server) can notify you instantly. But the phone call automatically drops every 10-45 minutes if you don't say anything, so you have to say something (ping) just before it drops you each time. The time period varies, so you must figure out the least period by trial and error.

(Push is not about saving battery. It can use much more than fetch, especially if you get emails often. Its primary purpose is getting the email to you right away.)



Not quite. Blackberries have true push, no pings needed. RIM paid over a half billion dollars to buy the patent for it. Saves battery and is what makes them special.

Regards.

Agree with Uabcar! By far the best written and most informative post in this thread.

 

[kdarling]

Nice explanation Kdarling. I always find your posts informative and value add. Thanks...

Agree with Uabcar! By far the best written and most informative post in this thread.

You are both very kind to say so. You are welcome, and thank you!

 

[tinfai]

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[gomigirl]

Push Gmail account could properly display emoji icon in a mail sent from emoji-enable iphone but when I replied to the same mail or create a new mail from the Push account all emoji icons became unreadable characters. However, the same Gmail account setup by IMAP connection are still working for emoji.

Is that true for others as well?

Yes emoji are a separate character set and if you are not in an app that supports this, you just get boxes or mojebake.

However, I have a solution for this.

Emoji Mailer

Website explanation.
It is an app that converts the emoji to graphics to allow them to be sent to PC/Webmails and be seen correctly.

We also have added BBCode so you can use emoji in forums like this and they show up correctly and not as little boxes.

 

[drlunanerd]

Anyone else finding that Google Sync Push email on the iPhone still sucks? it basically doesn't push for me; only seems to update email on the iPhone when I open Mail, which is really missing the point

I'm happy with Calendar and Contact syncing, but may as well turn Push off for email as all it does at present is suck the battery dry.

 

[badlydrawnboy]

Anyone else finding that Google Sync Push email on the iPhone still sucks? it basically doesn't push for me; only seems to update email on the iPhone when I open Mail, which is really missing the point

I'm happy with Calendar and Contact syncing, but may as well turn Push off for email as all it does at present is suck the battery dry.

It pushes new emails just fine for me. However, I have the opposite problem. If I delete emails in Mail.app, they stay in my inbox on the iPhone for quite a while afterwards. They're always out of sync.

 

[techiegirl]

I switched back to exchange. It won't show any emails from my folders.

 

[kdarling]

Google notes that messages should be pushed to users mobile devices within seconds of receipt, although it also informs users that they may experience a slight decrease in battery life for their devices with push e-mail via Google Sync activated.

Google did not say "slight decrease". For some people, it could be slight, but for others, not.

I thought that push was actually no battery drain, or at least a lot less than the periodic fetching that was previously necessary when using gmail on the iPhone.

Only on the Blackberry.

Everyone else does not have true push, but a variation of pull (aka fetch) that keeps the connection open for notifications.

Pinging (short word for long explanation) to keep the connection open is what uses battery. How often it needs to ping, depends on the network path in your particular situation. No one can predict that. You have to test and see which works best.

 

[drlunanerd]

Anyone else finding that Google Sync Push email on the iPhone still sucks? It basically doesn't push for me; only seems to update email on the iPhone when I open Mail, which is really missing the point

I'm happy with Calendar and Contact syncing, but may as well turn Push off for email as all it does at present is suck the battery dry.

It's working OK now. A reboot of the phone seemed to do the trick
Although it still chugs a little too heartily through the battery.

Anyway I have everything syncing nicely betwixt iPhone, Mac and 'Teh Cloud' with no MobileMe in sight