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GPush for iPhone versus Google's Gmail push
GPush on iPhone now has a Gmail in-box within the app.
(Credit: Screenshot by Jessica Dolcourt/CNET)In mid-August, the GPush app came into iPhone's App Store, promising to send push notifications of Gmail messages when new mail came in. Just last week, Google offered its own push solution for Gmail messages, one that pushes e-mail down from the server into the native iPhone in-box. Did that spell the end of GPush? Not quite.
First, Google's push service, which is handled by Google Sync, can vibrate the phone and sound an alert chime when it pushes a new message down from the server, but it lacks GPush's alert bubble that helpfully displays the sender and subject.
Second, GPush and Google are neck and neck when it comes to performance, at least as far as our iPhone is concerned. GPush sniffs out the new message faster about half the time, perhaps even more often. The bottom line: Google's push isn't necessarily faster or better.
Although Google's official push option is free and GPush is a premium app (whose price ratcheted up from 99 cents to $1.99), you still pay a price going Google's route. You're allowed to have one e-mail account sync over Microsoft Exchange. If you use Google Sync, you've used your shot. This is poor news for those who also access their work mail from their iPhone over Exchange. For this set, GPush is the better way to go. You can still use a standard Gmail account that pulls e-mail from the server at regular intervals, and use GPush to let you know when a new message trickles in, who sent it, and what it's about.
(Credit:
Screenshot by Jessica Dolcourt/CNET)
An update to GPush adds a Gmail in-box to the application interface and a "View" button to the notification alert. Press that button and GPush can now open your in-box within its application. Since GPush is giving you access to Google's mobile Gmail site for iPhones, you'll be able to do anything with that e-mail that you could do from the Safari browser. In other words, with its proactive notification alert, Gpush has just one-upped Google, using Google's mobile site.
While the new Gmail in-box feature is exactly what we asked for, having Gpush open to the Gmail in-box tab took longer than it should. We hope to see this speed up in a future release.
What do you think about the GPush app versus Google's official Gmail push? Share your thoughts in the comments.
Jessica Dolcourt reviews the latest and greatest smartphone apps, in addition to a healthy dose of Windows software. E-mail Jessica and follow her on Twitter.
WHY, is not known. It could be a licensing issue or perhaps they just don't think you need it. Who knows?
As for the Gpush app, I may have to try that one out. Right now it only shows gmail on the iPhone mail client if I tell it to manually refresh the inbox in the mail app.
I actually use both GPush and Google Sync together. GPush gives the nice notification and pop-up, and Google Sync gets the message to my inbox immediately so I don't have to manually download it. If Apple added pop up notification to mail I'd probably drop GPush.
Unfortunately, GPush (latest version) is only working with ONE of them. I do not get notifications from the other two -- I have entered my credentials multiple times.
This should not be not be so difficult! This is ridiculous that Google doesn't come up with an optimal solution...
Both are great options. I for one, prefer the exchange sync method.
LOL!! I actually have 5 GMail accounts that I actively use. I (only) want to review 3 of those on my iPhone though.
Anyway, since yesterday, I went the Growl (on Win 7 x64) and Prowl route. What a great solution! I even have Google Voice notifications now. And yes, I have two numbers for Google Voice :) One is for personal and the other for work (it was too much address book maintenance to try to use one number).
In the last two hours, while I've been testing, I've received a handful of GPush on my iPhone while I've received over 40 notifications on my iPhone from Prowl. Those numbers alone speak to which solution PC (and Mac) users should be using.
And I too wish I could have multiple Exchange accounts for work and personal. Being able to update calendar and contacts in the cloud is just too valuable to me. But I need it for work too.
I am not very technical and am slowly going mad! I bought a new iphone and have set it up to receive two gmail accounts. Now have a situation in that if I open the email on my iphone, it does not arrive in my outlook on my pc. It does sit safely in Gmail. If I have my outlook open at the time, it may or may not arrive in outlook. It behaves very inconsistently. I have checked all the settings...but it is behaving badly. Any suggestions. Is this anything to do with gmail push. Should I use IMAP instead of POP? .. ironically, my husbands works perfectly - his iphone is an older version... Any advice
if you have the S60 serials mobile phone that you can refer this one to check out how to
setup your S60 to get the Push Mail from your Gmail or Google Apps
http://blog.stanserv.com/2009/09/cloud-sync-gmail-populace-of-push-mail.html
Most carriers have a way to send SMS via email, and if so, you can forward the mail to that SMS address. In the case of att... it's as simple as forwarding to 1112223333@txt.att.net where 1112223333 is your phone number.
While it doesn't open the gmail app once you get a notification, it serves well enough as a simple notification, then you can manually open your mail app and that forces a fetch.
Again, I'd only recommend this if you have an unlimited SMS plan since you'd be paying for any SMS if not on a plan.
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by blairvanhorn
October 2, 2009 11:20 PM PDT
- I don't know if anyone is still reading this thread of comments, but hopefully the author will see it.
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(29 Comments)I sent Tiverias Apps an e-mail on Sunday, Sep. 27 (support@tiveriasapps.com) with my observations on the problem of being dropped from the server and missed notifications, but I still haven't had any reply.
According to their support page, approximately 3% of users were experiencing the same problem ("certain email accounts (roughly 3%) consistently become disconnected from GMail's servers, leading to missed notifications")
My workaround: I switched off the wifi mode on my iPhone. With the wifi mode OFF, I receive all of my message notifications, and I haven't been "dropped" once since. If I switch my wifi mode ON, it's sketchy and I will usually lose my connection to the Gmail servers via Gpush.
I have only tested this with my wifi set-up at home, I usually use a 3G connection when I am elsewhere and have no need for wifi (though it is a nice option as it is usually quicker and uses up less battery life).
I love this application, it's easy and useful as long as no wifi is involved (for me, at least). And they have announced an upcoming update that will include "quiet hours" which is a great option.
But 3% of your clients is still 3% ... 3% who aren't able to use the basic function of the application, rendering pretty useless!