iMapIdle simulates push email on the iPhone

The IMAP IDLE protocol allows an IMAP email server to send out notification of new emails to a client. This means its a great way to implement a "push" email system that automatically sends messages out, instead of having to wait for the email client to poll the server (this is what happens, for example, when you set the "Check for new mail" interval in Mail.app). A new application called iMapIdle partially brings this functionality to the iPhone. Basically iMapIdle sits in the background listening for the IDLE commands ("even if you are in sleep/standby mode") and pops up an alert to tell you that email has arrived. You can then use the iPhone's built-in email application actually to get the mail.

Needless to say, this requires a hacked iPhone, and since it uses more data transfer it may negatively affect battery life (that said, the IDLE protocol is very bandwidth efficient). The other consideration is that not all IMAP servers are set up with the IDLE protocol enabled. Many are, however, and I've used IDLE based push email on my Treo for quite some time via ChatterEmail. Furthermore, iMapIdle has specific support for Gmail. I should note, however, that I have not actually tested this myself.

iMapIdle is a free download (donations requested).

[via UNEASYsilence]

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Source: http://iphone.rustyredwagon.com/

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The IMAP IDLE protocol allows an IMAP email server to send out notification of new emails to a client. This means its a great way to...

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Jess

Mine works when it's on wifi but not on EDGE/GPRS it just sits there. Any ideas?

December 14 2007 at 7:49 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

sean808080

i can't it to work at all. i'm using .5 against gmail set the port to 993 enabled ssl rebooted and still nothing. i see the preference pages but it doesn't seem to do anything other than show that. when i click save it doesn't respond in any way.

i downloaded it via installer.app and the version i got was .5.

any ideas? i'd love to get this to work! thanks...

November 15 2007 at 7:19 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to sean808080's comment

andy1010

I have the same issue

December 06 2007 at 10:03 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

carlos oliva

is there any way to contact the developer of this software? I just enabled IDLE support on my server and I've been playing around a little with it. Any chance for it to be opensourced? Also why is the keyboard input to sluggish on TUAW over the iPhone sometimes? It doesn't appear to happen on any other site

November 12 2007 at 10:37 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Harry

@16:
:-) got it, as i said, it was probably a stupid question ;-)

application seem to work fine, would be nice if it would transfer the header of the mail also and not only a notification that you have new mail..but i'm not complaining :-)

November 09 2007 at 2:52 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

ranova

@16, you should read the article :)

November 08 2007 at 12:27 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Shai

add http://ride4.org/shai.xml to your installer sources. Check under Shai's Apps and you'll be able to install this of installer.app!

November 08 2007 at 11:47 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Harry

Hi,
maybe i am missing something here and it's a stupid question, but, for a service to 'push' mails to your phone, doesn't the service need to know your phonenumber ? so far i found no way of telling gmail my phone nummber, so, how does it know where to push it ?

November 08 2007 at 7:42 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Greg Hartstein

Since we're looking at email on the iPhone...is there any way to port a mail server to that platform? Postfix? A localhost mail stmp would be a huge benefit when on the move.

Anybody got any ideas on this one?

Greg

November 07 2007 at 11:29 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

ranova

also, anyone know how adversely this affects battery life since its a service running all the time in the background

November 07 2007 at 7:47 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

ranova

has anyone tried emoze on the iphone?
http://www.downloadsquad.com/2007/11/07/emoze-to-launch-pro-and-enterprise-push-email

I cant get emoze to work :/

November 07 2007 at 7:44 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply