iPod touch Newbie question about email...

[LadyStardust]

Hi all,

This is my first posting on this forum. It's a great site and one that I've been looking at for a while but still not found a definitive answer to a question I have about email on the new (2G) iPod Touch.

My home email comes through a Pipex account to the Mail client on my iMac.

Question
Is it correct that I can't use the iPod Touch to send and receive mail from that account and have it sync up to my Mac at home - whether wirelessly or via the cable?

It seems to me that the only mail account that will do any form of message synchronisation is the MobileMe (*.me.com) account. This is no good to me.

I hope this isn't the case as I want to move to the iPod Touch from my ageing Sony Clie and use it as a PDA. It would be nice to have email on there as well.

Thanks. And apologies if there are a whole pile of threads about this, but I can't see one that specifically says whether this is the case or not.

 

[Guiyon]

Hi all,
Question
Is it correct that I can't use the iPod Touch to send and receive mail from that account and have it sync up to my Mac at home - whether wirelessly or via the cable?

I'm not entirely sure what Pipex is but the iPod Touch/iPhone Mail client will work with any email server that supports Exchange, SMTP, POP or IMAP (and their secure variants, POPS and IMAPS).

I'm assuming that since you will be syncing your mail at home you are using Apple Mail or some other standard mail client so you shouldn't have any issues with the iPod Touch.

 

[LadyStardust]

Thanks for getting back to me.

Pipex is basically an ISP in the UK, so yes, I could use their SMTP and POP3 servers but... if I sync the iPod Touch, say with the cable, will it sync any messages that I've sent on the device with my Mail client on the Mac?

 

[BaldiMac]

Thanks for getting back to me.

Pipex is basically an ISP in the UK, so yes, I could use their SMTP and POP3 servers but... if I sync the iPod Touch, say with the cable, will it sync any messages that I've sent on the device with my Mail client on the Mac?

The iPod touch will not sync messages over the USB cable, only account settings. You would need an email provider that supports IMAP or Exchange to sync messages. Gmail is free and supports IMAP. It can also import messages from your current provider via POP3.

 

[mackmgg]

it cannot sync the sent mail, but it will wireless send mail directly on the touch.

 

[LadyStardust]

Thanks everyone

Just a quick note to say thank you for your replies, much appreciated.

I have got mail working now and just use it for previewing messages really, as there's no point sending a message on the ipod Touch when it's not going to sync to my iMac and appear in the Sent folder there. I like to be in full control!

I am now moving on to Entourage 08 and debating whether it's worth installing that on top of the Mail client in order to get a better and more feature rich calendar. iCal is pretty limited in terms of functionality, compared with the old Palm Desktop software that I still use.

If anyone has any experience of syncing Entourage with the iPod Touch 2G, please let me know.

Thanks again all.

 

[BaldiMac]

Just a quick note to say thank you for your replies, much appreciated.

I have got mail working now and just use it for previewing messages really, as there's no point sending a message on the ipod Touch when it's not going to sync to my iMac and appear in the Sent folder there. I like to be in full control!

I am now moving on to Entourage 08 and debating whether it's worth installing that on top of the Mail client in order to get a better and more feature rich calendar. iCal is pretty limited in terms of functionality, compared with the old Palm Desktop software that I still use.

If anyone has any experience of syncing Entourage with the iPod Touch 2G, please let me know.

Thanks again all.

Just to be clear, it is not a limitation of the iPod Touch that your mail does not sync. It is a limitation of the POP3 protocol. You can get exactly what you want if you use an email provider that supports IMAP.

Like I said before, Gmail is free, supports IMAP, and can retrieve mail from your POP3 account.

 

[LadyStardust]

Clarity

Hi Baldimac

Thanks for repeating that again as I don't think I really sat up and listened properly the first time. I think Pipex, my provider, may have IMAP so I will investigate that straight away. It would make me a very happy bunny if I could get that working.

Cheers!