Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, iPhone
The missing iPhone e-mail feature

Many have said that the iPhone's e-mail client isn't the best feature out there, as it lacks smart folders, multiple message deletion, and the double-pane view. Not to mention the fact that there are multiple bugs that still remain, even with firmware version 1.1.3 (Ryan mentions the fact that the iPhone idles while parsing HTML messages for quite some time). Is iPhone's Mail worth your time, or a pain in the finger?


Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
dan said 3:11PM on 1-19-2008
I am dying for one specific enhancement... When I'm in one account reading mail, I would like a home button that brings me back to the main accounts page, instead of having to navigate all the way back one screen at a time. This seems like an obvious UI flaw, but oddly, I don't hear too many people complain about it...
Reply
dan said 3:13PM on 1-19-2008
I am dying for one specific enhancement... When I'm in one account reading mail, I would like a home button that brings me back to the main accounts page, instead of having to navigate all the way back one screen at a time. This seems like an obvious UI flaw, but oddly, I don't hear too many people complain about it...
Reply
Michel said 3:17PM on 1-19-2008
>I don't hear too many people complain about it...
because it would convenient but I happily go pages by pages fastly. not a big deal.
-
about html idle, yes, the iphone is not a computer with the speed of a big one. it's a shame, surely, but a future iphone will use a faster cpu I think. it's still useable.
you can see mobile safari take some time to compose the final rendering to. specially when you move up and down the page.
Reply
Hecktic said 3:21PM on 1-19-2008
iphone 1.1.3 jail broken!!! head over to iphoneatlas.com or here's the youtube video link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idxxKVM1Cno
not out to public but give it a couple of days
Reply
Mystic said 3:28PM on 1-19-2008
And some people WOULDN'T like this view, including me. Everyone can't have everything.
Reply
William said 4:16PM on 1-19-2008
That's why toggle buttons were invented. You would be able to select list view or dual-pane view.
Bob Boyle said 3:38PM on 1-19-2008
Ever since Google revamped their Webapps, I've been using Gmail through the web browser pretty exclusively. The iPhone is great, but mail.app blows.
Reply
ddebor said 4:03PM on 1-19-2008
One thing I noticed after upgrading to 1.1.3 is that when I use the "Slide to View" feature to go to a text message it takes longer than normal time to load a text.
Anyone else notice this?
Reply
Brendan West said 4:17PM on 1-19-2008
Actually, I've had this delay problem since day 1. I assumed it was because SMS was stored by AT&T server-side.
Either way, it's freaking annoying.
aj_robins said 4:07PM on 1-19-2008
Yeah, iPhone mail is about the poorest-featured mail app out there. Just about every other email app has more features and functionality. No sort options, no threading ability, no searching, etc.. For gmail, you pretty much have to use gmail's new web interface. Even ancient command-line-based email programs (like the ancient "elm" for Unix) has more features.
The only thing, that iPhone mail has going for it, is it's use of different fonts: for example, unlike gmail's new web interface, the iPhone's 2-line preview is useful and readable, whereas the gmail interface doesn't show you much.
Reply
Kory Hearn said 4:16PM on 1-19-2008
I hate the fact that you can't delete multiple messages or mark them read on the iPhone.
I still don't see why they cut the split view from the actual release. Maybe some 3rd party application will eventually fix this issue.
Reply
cmb said 4:17PM on 1-19-2008
I wish you could set it to check messages every minute instead of every ten.
Also Iv'e notice many times I had email and the stupid thing didn't even notify me.
Anyone else have that problem?
Reply
Brendan West said 5:20PM on 1-19-2008
Yeah. Suspiciously I don't get any e-mails all day, then I launch Mail and 25 download and it *bings*, as if nothing were wrong with that.
Carter Neal said 4:22PM on 1-19-2008
It's easy to complain, but I find mail on the iphone to be fast, responsive, and simple to use. We aren't carrying around a complete laptop in our pockets, after all. And while I know the blackberry has some of the features we'd like, it is a more mature platform. One of the nice features of the iphone is that its software can be updated and improved. We'll get some things soon enough, and while I'd love to have multiple deletes and a freak-N copy/cut/paste ability, I'm still pleased with what the device does in its first few months of life.
Reply
eric f. said 4:22PM on 1-19-2008
I used my Treo for so many years, I really miss the searching of contacts in my addressbook by typing in the first few letters. I need this on my iPhone!!
Reply
Nicholas said 4:26PM on 1-19-2008
I wrote about some iphone improvements on my blog. Nothing related with global search or copy and paste (these ones we know apple have to deliver).
http://blog.nonlinear.cc/old/improving-the-iphone-interface/
Reply
fubufighters said 4:36PM on 1-19-2008
I'm guessing this feature was abandoned in favor of the "Edit" button which makes cleaning up your inbox easier (and makes the interface more uniform through SMS & everything).
Reply
Jerrod said 4:45PM on 1-19-2008
I don't find myself wanting a double-pane view, as the n-line preview function serves just as well.
However, as someone with 6 eMail accounts, I desperately need a 'unified' inbox. That, or at least some way to reduce the **6 TAPS** that are required to go from an eMail in one Inbox to another eMail in a different account's Inbox.
Reply
Ron LaPedis said 8:39PM on 1-19-2008
I agree with Jerrod. In addition to a unified Inbox, I would also like a way to 'clone' an account that is already on the iPhone since I don't use Mail.app. I have already made the suggestion to Apple that there be a way to delete and item from the POP server in addition to deleting it from the phone, like my Treo can do.
Nicholas said 4:47PM on 1-19-2008
I wrote about some iphone improvements on my blog. Nothing related with global search or copy and paste (these ones we know apple have to deliver).
http://blog.nonlinear.cc/old/improving-the-iphone-interface/
Reply