Mail & Hotmail?

[Marinodimare]

I've just learned that Hotmail has included Exchange ActiveSync support. As a Mac user, lover of mail.app and profound POP disliker, I thought that's great news... but I have two questions:

a) how do I know when my account is ready for EAS? I heard that Hotmail are unrolling the new feature over their accounts over a period of time.

b) From the news and advertisement, the EAS support seems to focus mostly (exclusively) on mobile internet devices. Is there any way to use it on my Mac? Or am I still stuck with POP on my computer?

Thanks in advance for all answers & tips!

 

[Grannyville7989]

From this article on WinSuperSite (http://www.winsupersite.com/live/hotmail_eas.asp), which I follow for all my Microsoft related news, the EAS feature for Hotmail became publically available on August 30th.

I don't know how I would go about configuring Mail to be able to recieve Hotmail messages. I too would like to be able to go access my Hotmail inbox through Mail instead of having to go through to the web-based interface.

 

[Marinodimare]

Well, it's possible, but you'll be stuck to POP which means that you won't have access to any folders other than Inbox, and that you'll have to go to the web interface every now and then to clean things up. Even worse, if you work on two computers (as I do), you'll have to go through your inbox twice, marking every mail you've read on the other computer as "read". Let me just say I do NOT like POP -- and I wan't to be able to work more effectively!

The EAS feature did go public on August 30th, but not for all accounts at once. They're rolling it out in steps.

 

[vbtwo31984]

You can't use Exchange ActiveSync on the desktop. It's only supported on mobile devices. Exchange support in Mail does not use ActiveSync and you can only use it to connect to real Exchange servers.

 

[Marinodimare]

So... all the fuss for nothing? Us computer users will for ever be stuck with POP?

 

[AcesHigh87]

Edit: nvm, read your post wrong

 

[MrMoore]

So... all the fuss for nothing? Us computer users will for ever be stuck with POP?

Well, the announcement was for ActiveSync configuration in Hotmail. ActiveSync is designed for mobile devices.

There is a product available to allow connection in Mail.app to a Live/Hotmail account that does folders. It emulates IMAP.

http://fluentfactory.com/mboxmail-for-mac/

I use it to connect to my Hotmail account. The ActiveSync now helps me sync from my iPhone and iPad.